Welcome

to

Gianluigi Casse’s page.

 

 

I was born in a small village (seriously small, about 400 people) in the Italian alps: Salbertrand, 80Km from Turin.

You can have a look to the location with the following links:

http://www.comune.salbertrand.to.it/

 

It is close (a few Km) to the main skiing resorts where the Winter Olympics 2006 will be hold (is that good or bad?), in the Susa valley (Val di Susa). Its main attraction is the Natural Park that bares its name, the Parco Naturale del Gran Bosco di Salbertrand.

In one of my previous lives, I worked in the Natural Park as a ranger for several years. The pictures below witness me involved in some activity in the park: they are taken from the N. 1/2 (1991) issue of the magazine Oasis (OASIS -SERGIO MUSUMECI EDITORE SERGIO MUSUMECI EDITORE - 11020 Quart (AO) - L.tà Amerique, 99).

The picture shown in this page of the magazine portraits a colleague and myself (I am the one to the left) preparing a trap for capturing a capriolo, and this other one shows us patrolling around (I am riding the horse in front).

Incidentally, that kind of traps was completely ineffective. We had better success with large fenced rings and nets for capturing (and moving to other parks in the north of Italy) caprioli, camosci and cervi.

 

Here a few links to have an idea of the natural and cultural (ehm) environment:

 

http://www.cmavs.it/

http://www.cmavs.it/granbosco.asp

http://www.valduira.com/

http://www.piemondo.it/torinoevalli/valsusa.htm

http://www.parks.it/parco.gran.bosco.salbertrand/index.html

http://www.montagnedoc.it/new/index.php

http://www.altavallesusa.it

 

 

 Restaurants and travel

 In this section I write short comments about accommodations and restaurants in some places I have visited. I think that in principle it is worth to mention only venues that I would recommend, but I make a few exception for places I think it is worth to warn people off.

ROME


Renato e Luisa - Via dei Barbieri 25 tel. 06-6869660 (closed on monday) City centre, good and not too expensive: try the various starters.
I Butteri Piazza Regina Margherita n. 28-31 tel. 06-8548130 Good for only one thing: Fiorentina steak (very good)
Ristorante - pizzeria Zi Gaetana - Via Cola di Rienzo 263 tel. 06-3212342 A decent restaurant-pizzeria
Sardinian restaurant (weird name can't remember) Via dei Serpenti 8-9 tel. 06-4884713-4743617 (closed on Sunday) Good tradiational food
In Trastevere (very characteristic area of Rome): these places look like tourist traps, but they are not too expensive and serve decent traditional food: Fraschetta, Via S. Francesco a Ripa 134; Taverna Trilussa Via Politeama 21 tel. 06-5811064; Montecarlo, P.zza Mastai 1, tel. 06 5819870.
City centre, very good value for money, trditional Roman rest. Da Gino - Vicolo Rosini 4 - 06-6873434 (no domenica)
Il Podista Via Tiburtina 244 (Piazzale del Verano) tel. 06-44700967, grotty Ristorante-Pizzeria, autentic roman pizza (thin and crispy, which I prefer to the thicker Napoli's pizza, though this last one is meant to be more "original"), non-expensive. Recommended the ''Cicoria and salsiccia (green vegetables and sausage)''
Very good autentic roman pizza in Remo - Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice but I don't have phone number: they don't take booking though.
Pizzeria da Simonetta, cheerless decor and football-maniac, but the fries (baccala', suppli', fiori di zucca) and the pizza are very good.

Chinese restaurants in Italy are usually incredibly cheap but infected, to be carefully avoided. For eastern food the Thai option is much better. I tried the Isola Puket, Via di Villa Chigi, 91 (06 86212664) and was good.

Pierluigi, P.zza de' Ricci 154, tel.06 6861302, central, not cheap but good.
Antonio al Pantheon V. dei Pastini 12,tel. 06.67.90.798, very central, near pantheon, it's
not expensive and quite good.
Fiore di zucca, central, Via Donizetti 16, 06/84242417
Brillo parlante, via della Fontanella 12 Phone: 06.3243334 (central wine bar, not cheap but wide selection).

Pizzeria Montecarlo. Vicolo Savelli 12, Rome, Italy · 06-68-61-877. It is next to the more famous "da Baffetto", where you have to cue  for a long time before you can sit! The service in this one is sloppy, but the pizza is fine.

Naumachie, via Celimontana (near Colosseo, good for a couple of pasta dishes and Chateaubriand steak (to be eaten rare).

Those 2 restaurants are next each other, in central Rome: Myosotis, Vicolo della Vaccarella 3/5 (RM) Tel. 06/686554; Maccheroni, Piazza delle coppelle, 44 06 68307895. They are a bit pretentious and not the cheapest, but food is ok.

Ethiopian-Eritrean food was a pleasant surprise to me when I first tried a few years ago. A good restaurant is the Sahara, 43, Viale Ippocrate – tel 0644242583/0644242063.

Where not to go in Rome: Il convivio Troiani Extremely expensive Restaurant, horrible food, deceiving wine list proposed by the thoroughly incompetent owner. Highly disappointing, outrageously expensive. Give it a miss!

 

 

Tuscany and Liguria

Arezzo

Vineria Ciao, via Garibaldi 16/A (Piazza S. Agostino), Tel. 0575 1822174. Closed on Monday. Despite the trivial name, more adequate to a fgast-food place than a traditional Trattoria, this is really a good and cheap, no-frills but solid food place. Recommended, just out of the usual tourist trail of this beautiful town.

 

Genova

Trattoria Antica Osteria di Vico Palla - Vico Palla, 15 Genova (town centre) Tel: 010-2466575, close on Moday. I tried this place last in 2005 and found really good genovese food (especially the fish and pasta).

I also found a website for it: http://www.vicopalla.it/

 

Barcelona

El Gran Café Calle Avinyò, 9 . Tel. 933 187 986 It's elegant but cosy, it wasn't expensive when last tried, in the old town.
Set portes At the end of Carrer d.Isabel Salvador Espriu, 73 932 247 213
Los Caracoles Calle Escudellers, 14 933 023 185 traditional catalan, very touristy, it's got chicken skewers on the street.

Can Punyetes C. Maria' Cubi', 189, 932009159 (metro Fontana), good traditional catalan.

The Basque is the most valued Spanish cuisine, and Taktika Berri, in C. Valencia 169, Tel. 934534759 is an excellent Basque restaurant.

There are many and generally good tapas bar and a very good one, with a vast selection is the Cerveceria Catalana, Mallorca 236, 932160368 (metro Diagonal).

Among the vary many and attractive fish restaurants in the Port Olimpic, I was invited in the last one on the left side, the Cangrejo Loco and was very good.

 

Valencia


 

Restaurant Canovas Pl. Cánovas del Castillo, 10 46003 VALENCIA (VALENCIA), Tel: +34(0)963 331 159 , excellent tapas
Barbacoa del Carmen Pl. Carmen, 6 46003 VALENCIA (VALENCIA) Tel: +34(0)963 922 448

 

Orkney islands


 

The Creel - St. Margaret's hope, 01856 832322 It's probably the most known restaurant in the Orkney's, and certainly the price accounts for it. I keep not understanding why, when a restaurant stands in the poshy side, it feels obliged to provide the customers with small portions, though served in enormous dishes. This restaurant goes even further on this route: the food has not only to be little, but possibly tasteless. It certainly failed to impress me (a part from the bill).
The Sands hotel - I found this restaurant better (and cheaper), just a few miles further north, in Burray, KW17 2SS, Tel: 01856 731298