For dinner, we ended up at Angiolino’s brother-in-law Simone Padoan’s super hip pizzeria I Tigli in San Bonifacio (Verona), where the new wave of Italian pizza finds one of its epicenters.

The pizzas (which don’t resemble Neapolitan pizza) are served family-style in wedges. This was the most “classic”: mozzarella and tomato sauce.

Raw bream with puntarelle (Roman chicory) and pomegranate seeds.

Raw shrimp with artichoke and blood orange.

Battuta (steak tartare).

We drank this wonderful skin-contact Don Chisciotte 2007 Fiano, a wine I had read a lot about but had never had the chance to taste.

We’re headed out know to a busy day of tasting in Valpolicella and then dinner with Italy’s top wine blogger Mr. Franco Ziliani. Stay tuned… Gotta run!