From the Certosa to Erbaluce: A Day in Pavia

If the Naviglio were navigable as it was until about sixty years ago, we could have reached Pavia by boat too. As we approach the city that around the 1600s was called Papia and was the capital of the Lombard kingdom, we imagine a romantic route that perhaps in a little while will really be possible: after setting off from the Darsena in Milan, our boat would go down along the Naviglio Pavese crossing the tranquil Po valley landscape, and once it arrived in the city it would do a circuit on the Ticino river, passing under the spectacular Ponte Coperto. While waiting to return here by water, we are very glad to visit Pavia having arrived by car, on a very sunny autumn day. Anyone who has been there knows it: Pavia is very pretty, in fact even Francesco Petrarca thought so.

In a letter addressed to Giovanni Boccaccio, the poet of the Canzoniere speaks enthusiastically of the city, recounting that it raises its many towers to the sky and enjoys the double view of the Alps and the Apennines, as well as being gladdened by the placid waters of the Ticino. Petrarch also speaks of the great castle of Galeazzo, and of the marble bridge over the Ticino. The famous Ponte Coperto fascinated us greatly, and we discovered that although it was built on the same foundations, it is not the same bridge that Petrarch knew. In fact, the 14th-century bridge, itself built on the ruins of an ancient Roman bridge, was then enlarged and modified several times over the course of history, until it was severely damaged during the Second World War and finally demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

The bridge we admire today, which connects the city to the characteristic Borgo Ticino, where there is also the bronze statue of a washerwoman recalling the evocative Vicolo Lavandai in Milan, was inaugurated in 1951. Walking along the broad avenues laid out on the line of the ancient walls that surrounded Pavia, and venturing into the characteristic little streets, we breathed the air of a city on a human scale and full of history and culture, also as an important university centre.

Besides visiting some of the most important churches, including the Basilica of San Michele, where Frederick Barbarossa was crowned, or the Duomo, an imposing religious building whose dome is the third largest in Italy, we also wanted to make a detour just outside the city, to admire the Certosa di Pavia, a monument of infinite artistic and historical richness, built at the wish of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who symbolically laid the first stone of the works in 1396. If our day, kissed by the October sun, gave us many lovely surprises on the artistic front, it was the light of this season, that sun which in a late-summer surge illuminates everything, bringing out the warm side of things, that led us to the Ristorante Erbaluce, a venue named after the famous wine, itself so called precisely because of the amber colour and warm reflections the grapes take on in autumn.

On entering, we are pleasantly struck by the warmth of the artistic decorations on the walls, as well as by the friendliness of those who welcome us: the owner Antonia, her husband the sommelier Guglielmo, and also Daniela, Ludmilla and Francesca, whom we meet later. As soon as we start studying the menu, we discover with great pleasure that the owner is from Basilicata, as is one of us: so we begin with starters from the best tradition of Basilicata, including a pot of pulses and chicory with a slice of Matera bread. We also taste the favata, a cream of cardoons and broad beans, before moving on to the first courses, inspired by tradition: lasagne of burnt wheat with spinach, pine nuts and taleggio, and ravioli of stockfish and borage with a Sardinian pecorino sauce.

In choosing the main courses, we are also guided by an ethical choice: 'With us there is no swordfish, no tuna, no prawns. To fish a kilo of prawns, three hundred kilos of other fish are killed, including seahorses', Antonia explains. We can rest easy: we chose a boneless fish soup, with cuttlefish, squid and flying squid. Our friends have a nice sliced Piedmontese beef with a potato cake. To bring out the flavours of these delicacies with wine too, we rely on Guglielmo's expertise, and he suggests, besides the Erbaluce, several other Piedmontese wines, such as Derthona and Timorasso. Some of us opt for the craft beers, of which the venue offers a wide choice.

Our day out among friends, which must be repeated soon, ends on a sweet note: some choose the mixed-fruit strudel, while the rest of the group tastes the meringue with cream, raspberries and vanilla ice cream, whose secret Antonia confides to us: she had learned to make it so well thanks to one of her idols, an important chef...

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Erbaluce Via Rusconi, 22 27100 Pavia (PV) 0382/530507 Closed on Mondays