Osteria Maniscalco

The food was adequate but a very restricted menu. Service was good given that there was a carnival going on. For a litle place it was overtaken by the festival goers downstairs but they coped

This restaurant/bar is nicely situated just outside the gate at the south end of town (the one near the Hotel Roma for anyone staying there and we chanced upon it one rainy evening when we did not want to spend too much time wandering about. Despite displaying a limited restaurant menu outside it looks like a bar from the entrance (which is what the first room is , but down two or three steps beyond the bar is a small eating area (where we sat with a few attractive wooden tables and brick wall giving a cosy ambience, and stairs leading up to what I imagine is the main restaurant area. Turn left leads to a very nice terrace overlooking the canal and moat, but this was empty on our first visit as it was raining. The menu was fairly limited for main courses, but it did have a list of cicchetti (essentially tapas style snacks so as the diner at the table next to us had an attractive array of these spread over the table we decided to do the same. The cicchetti are very reasonably priced – from 1.50 to 3 euro each, with a plate of mixed hams at 9 euro. Small, of course (what do you expect for a couple of euro? , but we had ten different dishes between us which, with some wine, was quite sufficient and made a very enjoyable way to spend the evening. To be honest I’ve had better tapas, but they were all nice and the total bill was very reasonable. There is a good atmosphere, with jazz playing softly in the background. There is a piano in the bar so I suspect that they do have live jazz music periodically. We enjoyed it enough to give it another go, this time on a warm sunny evening when we sat on the terrace (this time well patronised of course and it was very pleasant overlooking the moat, drinking wine and eating a few plates of cicchetti, followed by a few more. If you want a change from a traditional sit down meal or pizza then this offers a very nice option – or even a couple of beers on the terrace before moving on is good. The staff were very friendly, and will translate (or attempt to translate! the dishes as they do not have a menu in English. There was no cover charge for cicchetti, although there may be for main course dining.

L'ambiente suggestivo, anche i cicchetti non male, tornerò sicuramente a cena.

Personale molto buono, molto gentile, a partire dal proprietario.

Locale particolare, giovanile, con discreta carta vini, cena estiva in giardino con cicchetti(antipasti) e minestre. Prezzo nella media.