Am I on the Tiber or the Willamette?

Where am I? I might be in Portland or I might be in Rome. Hmmm. What I do know is that dinner tonight was at Piazza Italia in Portland, but it could just as easily been in Rome. This lively and very busy Italian eatery in the Pearl District is a wonderful find. As you can see from the photo the restaurant is adorned with Italian soccer jerseys. Even better I was able to practice a bit of Italian as all the staff speaks Italian. What fun, I say!

The food was great, very authentic. We shared an antipasti plater for our first course. It included a nice variety of salumi, olives, and provolone cheese. For Frank's main course, he ordered the Linguini Squiarcerella. The excellent sauce contained pancetta, eggs, onions, Parmesan, cream, and pepper - great flavors. For my main course' I continued my fascination with meat, especially meat that we don't see on menus in Tampa or St. Petersburg. Tonight I had Pappardelle con Cinghiale, or wild boar, prepared like a bolognese sauce. I didn't ask where they got the wild boar, but I am thrilled they did. It was great! We both cleaned our plates.

We enjoyed a couple glasses of Italian Barbera wine, while we were waiting on our table and with our meal. Carol and Sarah, reservations are strongly recommended.