Verandah, Villa D'Este, Italy (Night 2)

Given the wonderful dining experience we had enjoyed the previous night, we couldn't go past Verandah restaurant for our final night at Villa D'Este. After some Veuve Cliquot enjoyed watching the sun go down over the lake, we moved inside to the restaurant.

A different amuse bouche was served tonight – raw octopus with pickled vegetables. A little lighter than the steak tartare of the night before.

Those stuffed zucchini flowers had been so good we needed another taste so ordered those to start along with the Villa D'Este tasting plate.

I hadn't had enough of a taste of the veal carpaccio Sean ordered the night before so decided on that for my second course. The veal was not raw but just quite rare and served simply with finely shaved parmesan and a sprinkling of edible garden flowers.

For main course I'm stunned to write that I didn't have the lobster. In my experience, one of the dishes Italians do best is simple grilled fish with salad. There was tuna on the menu served in just this way so that's what I ordered. The tuna was melt in your mouth tender and I particularly loved the octopus skewer which literally fell off the lemongrass stalk it was presented on.

The bottle of red wine to accompany our meal was expertly selected by our sommelier.

Knowing that the more casual restaurant served up the biscotti I preferred, I asked for that instead of the fancy pasty based plate of dessert morsels. I'm sure the staff thought I was mad, but nonetheless, my request was granted.

We dined on 21 September 2011