A Birthday in Padua

 Today is the last day of our Morocco and Italy trip and probably our last trip to Europe. It's a sad thought but as we have travelled extensively for the past 41 years we can be extremely grateful for all the incredible experiences we have had in that time.

We have been collecting Buon Ricordo plates for many years, from a programme where if you order the house speciality you get a souvenir plate as a 'good memory'. We only have one more space on our walls so when I saw that there was a Buon Ricordo restaurant in Padova,  I decided that that would be my birthday treat.

Ristorante Osteria Antico Brolo is a family run establishment situated just across the road from the Padova Opera House. Antico Brolo means old garden or orchard and this restaurant is an oasis in the city, surrounded by lots of greenery. We were shown to a table in the first room, a glass walled room showing the many plants and flowers to advantage.

The Buon Ricordo dish was a tortelli pasta filled with salted cod (baccalà) on a bed of pureed beans and topped with crispy pork cheek and onions that had been soaked in milk before crisping. For primi Kel had a local pasta called bigoli served with a white meat ragù. Both were fabulous.

For secondi I had eggplant parmigiana and Kel had a pork fillet with asparagus. There was no room left for dolce and even the waiter was sad about that!

We enjoyed a bottle of DOCG Prosecco, and the frozen wine cooler on which it lay  interested us. It was elegant, simple and very effective.

A lovely lunch, a new plate to complete our wall and a happy birthday were all accomplished at Ristorante Osteria Antico Brolo.

Walking back to the tram stop I saw wooden bow ties in a window. They were resting on lumps of cork so I guess they were cork ties.

And one last shot of beautiful Padova. Tomorrow we travel to Venice Mestre (on the mainland) and on to Marco Polo airport before our 7.15 pm flight via Helsinki and Hong Kong.