When we landed in Levanto, little did we know that this town is the home to the pizzeria- LA PICEA whose pizza had won the European Pizza Champions Hamburg and the second place in the World Pizza Championship in Parma 😍
As soon as we got to know, me and Amit (my SO) rushed to this place on our bicycles. But since got to know about this pizzeria very late in the day, we could not make any reservations. When we reached, it was a little over 7 and visitors had started queuing up in front of the restaurant in the small alley.
There were no chairs so we stood and stood and stood for a whole 2 hrs. After all how could we have left ,without eating the best pizza of Europe!😲 By the time our turn came, it was 9 PM.We ordered the pizza 'Gola' that won the 2016 European Pizza championship, and another one. It took the good looking Italian chef just 20 minutes to get them to our plates.
The melt in the mouth Burrata, the crunchy pine nuts , the musky aromatic truffle , the delicious ham, and the cherry tomatoes! Truly the best pizza we ever had 😍 We were just oohing and aahing about the textures and flavours that little did we remember that we are in an unknown place with low phone batteries and a long ride back to the airbnb via our bicycles, realizing we finished our pizzas quickly.
With Google Maps in one hand and manoeuvring the cycle in the other , we started riding back super fast. It was pitch dark , our cycles did not have flashlights, and it was getting scary. It was an unknown town, unknown folks, anything could have happened, anything,and then it did.
My cycles chain got dislodged and I couldn't ride anymore. We tried fixing it, but with limited skill and lack of light , we couldn't. Since there was no way to call a cab or maybe we didn't think of one then, we got on foot & started walking in the pitch darkness. One of our phones battery was dying super fast...& dead (Bad Apple)😜
We were stranded in the night on the road, in an unknown city, with 1 phone barely getting a signal. when I almost gave up. The only semblance of light on the road was of the barely shone stars,and the few vehicles passing by.The GPS was showing another 20 minutes of walk left😫
Both of us were secretly worried about the phone dying and had almost submitted to our fate, when suddenly a stranger stopped a pickup-truck in front of us😱He gestured , went ahead and directly picked up our cycles and started shoving them in the pickup truck.
We just realized what happened,a stranger to our rescue. He politely asked us about where we were headed and told us he could drop us.
With much exhaustion and little anxiousness we got into the strangers car, all the way hoping this is not the last time we were seeing each other,or anyone else... I began fervently praying 😱
When i realized we were near our airbnb, some hope was back and instead of the scare hormones that had doubled up in the 10 minute long car journey, intense gratitude filled up for this strange gentleman.
Our knight with the shining armour (his truck), had indeed rescued us and brought us back safely without us even asking for his help 💖
Faith in humanity restored.
We thanked this gentleman furiously and he left wishing us well. 💖 But wait!!
As soon we were about to enter the building , a black animal with shiny eyes was waiting ... looked like it was waiting for us. I thought it was another bad omen before Amit shoos the meowing black cat and enters the building pushing me in too..😂
References: http://www.pizzerialapicea.info/
To read more about my experiences and recommendations, head here.
