Dine in an Italian Cave

Italy

D o you know what gluttony feels like? Like real true gluttony. I’m not talking about the “I just had my third slice of pizza and might get heartburn later” gluttony. I am talking about “waking up at 3am wishing you could just throw up or poo” gluttony. “Can your stomach actually explode?” gluttony. “Why the heck did I eat that much” gluttony. “Is this where I die?” gluttony. “If I had to go young, we all knew it would be on food” gluttony. “At least I died in an Italian cave” gluttony.

To be completely honest, I would never trade that one experience for anything in this entire world.

"....waking up at 3am wishing you could just throw up or poo"

Grotta palazzese - the Italian cave restaurant

This is the story of the time I almost died of that gluttony:

I had been given the opportunity to visit Italy and I knew I was going to make the most of it. I spent hours researching, planning, and daydreaming over online photos. One day, while I was on Pinterest, I ran across this photo of an Italian cave restaurant. I knew I had to try to go.

Mind you, this was 2017 before the hotel portion even opened. When you googled “Italian cave restaurant”, you did not get a thousand posts pointing strait to the place. So once I actually found the restaurant name and location, I booked it. I had to. It didn’t matter it was like 6 hours out of the way. It checked every box for me:

Italy
Coastal
Cave
Food

Nothing could stop me from the Grotta Palazzese.

Price

To this day it remains the most expensive meal I have ever eaten at about 230 euros per person before drinks. If your budget looks anything like mine, you would be in the same boat. But how often will you eat 6 courses in one sitting in an Italian cave overlooking the Mediterranean Sea? At least, for the sake of my digestive system, I hope only once in my lifetime.

Photo courtesy of the Grotta Palazzese

The food

We literally gorged ourselves on the following 6 courses:

< Let me caveat here: I LOVE food but I am not a chef by any means. So enjoy my non-chef and non-Italian descriptions here >

Raw Seafood Yeaaaa, I am not a seafood person but I did eat raw seafood because it was placed in front of me on a fancy plate. I'm not about to waste food. I actually really enjoyed everything except the raw porcupine prawn - so slimy! To this day, it grosses me out. Can someone tell me if you are supposed to chew that or just eat it like an oyster??

Scallops Entree The next course was an entree that had scallops, potatoes, and spinach. It was very enjoyable even though this was not completely foreign to my palate. Some would consider this a full meal in itself.

Sea Urchin Pasta This was completely new to me! Am I the only one foreign to sea urchin? I honestly did not know that you could eat those spiny things. This pasta was incredibly delicious though and I would have been happy with just this plate.

Carbonara Is there anything not great about a carbonara in Italy?

Salmon By the time I got the 5th course.....I was starting to feel it set in. I mean we are like 2 hours into eating at this point. This is a marathon, not some 5k. I should've paced myself better.

Chocolate Mousse I received a chocolate mousse dessert that was very good. Honestly though, after 2 pasta dishes and 3 other courses, this really wasn't needed.

Well worth it

You guys, I am not exaggerating when I say I learned the true definition of gluttony that day. However, it was an experience of a lifetime. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend!

Let me know in the comments if you would eat here! Are you a foodie or does the views do you in? Also, is there some secret that my undignified self should know about eating raw prawn?

As always, Happy Travelling

Read about another near death travel experience here