Italian @ Bosco, Nagano

I almost forgot about our final meal in Nagano before we headed back to Tokyo. After having a great time on our recent Nagano trip, it was time for home. We had an hour before our shinkansen (bullet train) ride, and we had a quick lunch at La Travola nel Bosco, an Italian restaurant located a block away from Nagano train station. It was pretty easy to find, but it is on the second floor in a building with no elevators, so we had to leave the pram downstairs and lug our baggage (15 month old toddler included!) upstairs and then back down after our lunch and rush for our shinkansen (it seems like we're always rushing for planes/trains/buses whenever we're on holiday).

Bosco is quite a nice restaurant, with a classy atmosphere and good service. Prices were quite reasonable, and the food was delicious. Bosco offers a lunch special for couples: a choice of pasta, pizza, two desserts and two drinks, as well as focaccia and salad - all for 3000yen. Since we could only have a quick lunch, the three of us shared the couples' lunch special, which proved to be plenty enough. We liked everything, and the only thing we wished for was more time to savour the food and atmosphere.

The Duck Salad and Frittata was delicious and surprisingly quite substantial (two plates were served); and the Focaccia was fresh and very more-ish:

We enjoyed the Pizza Capricciosa which had Italian sausage and arugula; and the Fettucine Carbonara was rich and creamy:

Dessert was Zuccotta, an ice-cream/cake dessert; and Panna Cotta: