2019 Our Hop over to Udine, Italy

We discovered that Audre's suitcase had been stolen when we went to retrieve it from the luggage compartment of the Flixbus when it arrived in Ljubljana. We asked the police in Ljubljana for a copy of their report and they said “no” in a forceful (Soviet kind of way); they said that they could not give it to us because the incident did not occur in Slovenia. They said it couldn’t have occurred in Slovenia because Ljubljana was the first stop in  Slovenia and the luggage compartment had not been opened since Italy. When we protested that all we wanted was the report of their interview with us, they said “it was the rule;” whatever they wrote about the interview with us was only for their internal purposes. As far as they were concerned, the incident occurred outside of Slovenia and that was that. 

We needed an official police report to submit for insurance and to make a claim against Flixbus. We decided we had to go to Udine, Italy to report the theft of Audre's suitcase. So off we went in our Slovenian rental car to Italy. We arrived on Saturday morning and went straight to the Questura di Udine, Ufficio Prevenzione Generale e Soccorso Pubblico, Ufficio Denunce, Udine, Ital, tel. 0432 413715 www.poliziadistato.it. We were the last people to get to see the policeman to make our "denounce" of Flixbus. The policeman was professional, friendly and complete. When we left the police station we had an official, typed, report of the theft. To make a VERY long story short, with the police report, Audre's extensive records and perseverance, we got payments from our homeowners' insurance, from American Express insurance, from Allianz our travel insurance and we got a settlement from Flixbus, all totaling $13,676.61!  By far, the most difficult to obtain was the settlement from Flixbus. That took over a year because we went through arbitration. But it was worth it.

We stayed in Udine for the weekend and had a nice time. We had one blowout lunch at La Taverna (di Piero e Matilde Zanini) at piazza Castello 2, Colloredo di Monte Albano (UD), Udine, Italy, https://www.ristorantelataverna.it/en/. It was a one Michelin Star restaurant and we spent €118.

Ramakin of Friuli cheese fondue with green asparagus, an egg yolk and black spring truffles

Piero Zanini took good care of us and we had a wonderful lunch in the rustic room with all of the families out for Sunday lunch. The room was the castle’s garden and someone has a thing for owls—they were everywhere. We shared everything as usual. We were brought an amuse of tiny cones of tuna and smoked pork. It was tasty but the cone was mushy—made too early in the day. We were brought four kinds of bread and delicious bread sticks that were very long. We had glasses of a white wine that Piero recommended. Then we ordered a Ramakin of Friuli cheese fondue with green asparagus, an egg yolk and black spring truffles (shown above). The truffles were outstanding and the dish was delicious. For our main, we had the Garganelli with shellfish from Istria, green and white asparagus, Natisone saffron bisque. It was a very good dish but we couldn’t taste the saffron (as usual). Our dish was Grilled white Travagnacco asparagus, almond cheese, minted creamed peas with a lemon zest. We enjoyed this dish very much. Before the dessert we ordered arrived, we were brought the pre dessert of a chocolate cream with granola and a cherry. Audre liked it because she likes chocolate. For dessert we had the Iced strawberry soufflé with yogurt and lime ice cream, coffee cookie crumble and balsamic vinegar jelly (€14). This was a little disappointing only because we like our soufflés hot. Then were we brought four après dessert: a ginger and mandarin jelly, caramelized pineapple, a white chocolate and a chocolate macaroon. A most delicious and enjoyable lunch. We spent (€118) and were very happy we went.