Vogogna

Me outside Vecchio Borgo Restaurant in Vogogna Italy

Vogogna, Italy is a small Italian town in the very north of Italy. If you go north, east or west you will hit Switzerland. It is just south of Domodossola, Italy, which was the last stop of our train before Switzerland. We had to take a regional train south to get to Vogogna, because our Intercity train did not stop in Vogogna. The town has less than 2000 inhabitants. Be forewarned, the train station is unmanned. We got off of the train and took our time looking around and looked up and Rosita and I were the only ones in the train station. It was quite refreshing after being in train stations in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan during the last week.

Me walking from the train station in Vogogna Italy

Thus began my favorite part of our 2 weeks in Italy. It was the smallest and the most enjoyable. We started our Quarter mile walk to our hotel. When we were looking for places to stay in Italy, Rosita told me to find a small town, with very few tourists. I found it. Most of the people we ran into did not speak English. We managed to communicate with people in restaurants and shops. All were friendly but the only person who had a working knowledge of English was our hotel owner, Nicole. We did not see another tourist the 3 days we were there. There was one other couple in our hotel but we never saw them.

Entrance to Palazzo del Gabelliere

The hotel, Palazzo del Gabelliere, only has 5 rooms. It is a 600 year mansion that was built to collect taxes on the road from Switzerland to Italy. Nicole, the owner bought the building a few years ago and has fully restored the building. It has an old circular stairway that is original and covers all 4 floors, She installed a more modern stairway and we looked at the old one but used the more modern one. There is no elevator. When I showed Rosita pictures of this hotel, She said “Stop looking, I have to stay in this hotel and this is my small town”.

Entrance to Vecchio Borgo

My favorite Italian Restaurant, I guess all restaurants in Italy are Italian Restaurants, was about a 2 minute walk from the hotel. Ristorante del Vecchio Borgo was fantastic. We had dinner there 2 times and lunch once and every meal was great. The first night Nicole wrote out a suggested menu and we ordered her suggestions. The other 2 times we did not get exactly what we ordered but it was pretty close and we enjoyed it tremendously.

The Visconti castle

We explored the grounds of an old castle, The Visconti castle, that was built in 1344. It was closed while we were there but we had a great time walking around and exploring the grounds.

Alley way in Vogogna Italy

We had lunch one day at Roxy Bar Pizzeria. It was one of the best pizzas I have ever had. No one seemed to speak any English so I gathered my very limited Italian and tried to order one pizza to share. When the waitress left, I said to Rosita, ” I think I ordered 2 pizzas” and sure enough two pizzas arrived. Another interesting part of the visit to this Pizzeria was the restroom. There was a porcelain looking device with a hole in it and it was flush with the floor. At the time I was very glad I was male and only had to do number 1.

Eating Breakfast at Pasticceria Caffetteria Valentino

Nicole had a cappuccino machine in the lobby of the hotel and had these great tasting packaged croissants and we had breakfast there twice. One morning we went to a local bakery, Pasticceria Caffetteria Valentino, and the pastries there were great. We ate them outside with some good coffee, while gazing at the Alps.

On our Balcony at Palazzo del Gabelliere

One day we went to a little shop and bought some, Grappa, bread, salami and some cheese for a picnic in the room for dinner one night. The girl in the shop had a very limited amount of English. I have a very limited use of Italian language but we were managing to get by and sort of find what we were looking for. The girl knew that we were from the US and were tourists. At one point she looked at us and said “Why Vogogna?” I took it from this statement that they don’t see many tourists, but for us it was the best tourist destination in Italy.

View from our Balcony at Palazzo del Gabelliere

So if you want to get away from the “Obnoxious American Tourists and the selfie stick pushers” and get away and relax and find some fantastic Italian food, this is the perfect spot.

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