A good morning at Da Vittorio: we tasted the Cerea special breakfast, an ode to deliciousness

Breakfast begins almost as a theatre performance. We sit at the round table in the restaurant, a perfect tablecloth: on top, the mise en place is essential yet elegant. Suspense. We wait a few minutes: there's no buffet, there are no dishes already made, there's no menu to order from. They only ask us what hot drink we'd like. Then you wonder what will happen. Suddenly a door opens and in line, six waiters come in quickly, a sort of high-speed train of delicacies because each one holds a tray full of delicious food, in many serving dishes. These are placed on the table, explained, and it all lasts under a minute during which you're almost overwhelmed by the flood of delicacies that has materialised all of a sudden. It was a swift change of scene and, indeed, theatrical: first the table was empty and then, suddenly, it's covered with all sorts of delicacies – good that it's very large!

This is the perfect good morning, the kind anyone would like to enjoy after staying in such an excellent place. It's Buongiorno Da Vittorio, the special breakfast designed by the Cerea family for the guests of their inn, Cantalupa, in a lovely room lined with wood, next to the dining room of Da Vittorio.

Six waiters, with six trays, we said. Each one with "a theme", which can vary depending on season, products and ideas from the kitchen. To get an idea, however, there is all this:

First Tray: espresso coffee or tea, as ordered, and then water and pressed citrus fruits.
Second Tray: bread (savoury pastry, twisted bread and toasted ciabatta), mini pastries (chocolate, jam, cream, empty), biscuits (piemontese, avis, viennese), toasted bread, corn flakes and muesli.
Third Tray: yogurt (vanilla, lemon), fruit creams (banana and rum, orange and passion fruit, violets and red fruits, custard, gianduia), juices (passion fruit, pineapple, red fruits), jams, butter.
Fourth Tray: cheese (in our case goat and cow strachitunt, taleggio, branzi), charcuterie (prosciutto, cooked ham and salami), eggs (poached and fried with pancetta and croutons), fish carpaccios (salmon marinated with herbs with sour cream, red tuna and seabass, but if you want you can also have oysters – and of course champagne)
Fifth Tray: fresh fruit (grapes, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) and cooked fruit (pears with cinnamon).
Sixth Tray: pound cake (lemon/chocolate), three fabulous cakes.

A triumph. An ode to joy and abundance. Our best breakfast ever, plus we didn't even have to wait for the waiter; in other words, you enjoy the meal in relax, with the only difficulty of having to choose in which order to taste everything... Everything is of the highest quality, of course. The raw fish is excellent, and so are all the cakes, the cheese, and even the pineapple.

Buongiorno Da Vittorio is served upon request (otherwise there's still a rich breakfast) from 7.30 to 10.30 and is only available for the guests at La Dimora, the ten-bedroom inn of the Cerea's. It's managed directly by the kitchen at Da Vittorio and its pastry staff, while the setting is run by Rossella Cerea. She explains: «To us, the morning meal is the most important of the day. So we asked ourselves: if we were on holiday, what kind of breakfast would we like to have? And we made it, in the best possible way. It was an obsession of Chicco's, and not only of him: offering something memorable, an unmatched experience». Of course, there are versions suitable for every lifestyle and food allergy.

The price of Buongiorno Da Vittorio is 70 euros. And it's worth every cent.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso