Il Castello

On Saturday night, I went to a restaurant called Il Castello for an evening of eating, singing and dancing. It wasn’t until I noticed the huge queue of cars all driving in the same direction that I realised we were a group of 40 all heading for the same restaurant about 30 minutes away from home. The whole way Lina tried to explain who was who, for example: insert name is so-and-so’s cousin’s mother-in-law. After a couple of explanations I gave up on trying to follow and instead gazed at the amazing moonrise, if such a thing exists. There was a full moon on Saturday night, and the view over the countryside was stunning.

When we arrived at this place at first I was disappointed because I realised it wasn’t “a castle”. Instead the restaurant was called “the castle” and therefore themed in this manner. But it turned out to be cooler than expected with lots of different castle-shaped buildings, outdoor areas, gazebos, and gardens complete with willow trees, fountains and armour statues.

Me and the armour statue in front of the castle below

One part of the castle: the Lancelot Room

The inside was themed just as thoroughly, with a Count as the head waiter dressed head to toe in costume, windows looking out onto the gardens and other castles, a twenty-metre long banquet table for us and a karaoke screen at the front of the restaurant.

After yelling at me for taking a photo of  him, the Count invited
me to get a photo on his terms 

In a group of over 40 people it can take a long time to get organised, but we eventually sorted ourselves out and could finally commence the feast. To start with there were plates of orzo (barley), tuna and corn salad, stuffed and fried pumpkin flowers, delicious cauliflower salad with lots of chilli and lemon, and some sort of mini puff pastry thing with spinach in it.

The table is so long I couldn't take fit it all in the photo

These were followed by my favourite stuffed olives I have written, and molten pieces of mozzarella wrapped in pancetta.

The stuffed olives

Inside of stuffed olives

 However, the main reason for going to the Castello is for the unlimited metre long pizzas that continue to arrive until you have eaten as much as you can possibly stand. Rather than being one flavour, each pizza consisted of several flavours, including: anchovy; prosciutto crudo; mushrooms; meatball, black olive, and grilled red capsicum; and just grilled red capsicum and black olives. All of the which were smothered in cheese.

The ginormous pizza

This gesture means buono

To accompany our feast, there was also a continual flow of jugs of the delicious, frizzante Pignoletto wine, and a few bottles of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

Throughout the evening everyone joined in on the karaoke, whether they were dancing or singing along. There were songs in italiano, inglese, romano, and napolitano, which gave me a good opportunity to remind Gino why I refuse to learn napolitano. Google it. When you see the written language, you too will feel my pain. It is like listening to a blur of words all twisted and mushed together.

By midnight we had to leave the restaurant, so after a quick caffè at the bar, we all drove back together. Instead of going home, however, Gino drove us to a darkish spot along the lungomare so we could walk down to the beach and try to spot some shooting stars. Here, around August 10 is the Night of San Lorenzo, and there are supposed to be tonnes of shooting stars. Unfortunately, it was not our lucky night, probably because it was a full moon, so we gave up and headed home for a well-deserved rest.

Instead of continuing on to Sunday’s antics, I will write smaller blogs more often now, as they’re much easier to follow (for those quite short of time), and also much less time-consuming for me. I hope this is helpful!