[Mar. 2026] For lunch that day, we had a reservation at Trattoria Posallo, a restaurant on the outskirts of Colico, a town at the northern end of Lake Como in northern Italy.
As usual, my husband found the restaurant online.
We had assumed it was located within the town of Colico, but it was actually on the outskirts, quite a climb up a hill.
The environment was so lovely that we parked the car and took a short walk.
Even though it was the latter half of March, the scenery still felt like early spring.
The moss wasn’t a mossy green, but a vibrant green that caught our eye.
The view of Lake Como in the distance, with snow-capped mountains in the background, was truly refreshing.
The old stone houses added a wonderful character.
This restaurant, surrounded by such nature, seemed to be quite popular, and was already crowded.
Upon being seated, the waitress took our drink order, so we ordered water and half a litre of red wine.
There was no choice of wine.
The waitress then explained the food verbally.
There was no written menu.
We had been asked about pizzoccheri, a pasta unique to this region, when we made our reservation the day before, and had ordered a plate.
Perhaps it’s homemade, which is why advance reservations are necessary.
This pizzoccheri was a dish my husband was looking forward to.
It’s a flat buckwheat pasta with a sauce containing cheese and other ingredients, which I find too heavy and not to my liking.
So, I ordered venison stew with cheese polenta.
The venison had absolutely no gamey smell, was very tender, and delicious.
However, it tasted somewhat different from the venison I often ate in England.
The polenta wasn’t as yellow as I’m used to seeing; apparently, this is because the cheese used varies from place to place.
To backtrack a bit, the antipasto was basically a platter of ham and salami, and we were asked, “Would you like cheese too?” and “How about pickled vegetables?”
A little while after we started eating, the lady came from the kitchen with a plate of pizzoccheri and walked around the table asking, “Would you like seconds?”
We were also asked if we wanted seconds of polenta.
It felt like we were invited to a relative’s house.
My husband, who thought the initial portion of pizzoccheri wasn’t enough, happily asked for seconds.
The table was already full.
My husband, who went to the restroom, said there was another room, so it seems to have been a fairly large restaurant.
Incidentally, the toilet was Turkish style.
The above, plus dessert (I had strawberries and gelato, my husband had tiramisu) and coffee, came to an incredible €55.50.
Looking at the details, the half-litre of wine was only €4!
It was a pretty solid and delicious wine.
This is definitely a place we’ll be returning to.
