Al Dente Diary 🇮🇹

July 3rd 2026

Today we took a day trip to San Zeno di Montagna and it was beautiful!

We had a bougie bus drive us to the San Zeno di Montagna Village that overlooks Lake Garda and we all hung out there for a bit admiring the amazing views.

We also had a tasting of local cheeses and cured meats at the butcher shop there, Salumeria Lenotti, before heading up the mountain! The butcher gave us a tour of his shop and explained the aging process of all the different cured meats… then we got to see the preservation process in action downstairs—dozens and dozens of these cured meats were string-tied in their casings and strategically hung to ensure even moisture loss and density.

I will remind you what I had to remind myself when I was standing under all of these things—I am an adult and not a middle school boy.

Yes, it did briefly ruin the magic for me to be under so many… phallic… preserved meats.

There is a vegetarian in our group who had to step out for a minute to compose herself—she was not as excited about this experience as I was.

After I took down multiple portions of the meats and cheeses and purchased some salami to cartel back to the states we took a chairlift and a basket lift to the top of Monte Baldo, it was incredible!

If you don’t know what the hell a basket lift is, it’s like a chairlift but scarier because you stand the whole time in a cage of doom, then you have to step out of it backwards and just pray you don’t fall on your face in front of everyone.

Other than the getting on and getting off process with those crazy machines, it was actually a very beautiful and euphoric experience! We saw so many cows! And it was wayy easier than climbing up that damn mountain oh my god.

We had the option to stay at the first restaurant closer to the chairlift to hangout and eat or hike further up to the top of the mountain—I knew I was going to be staying at the restaurant four steps into the hike there. My lack of athleticism and the crazy incline had me feeling as out of place as the vegetarian in the butcher shop. I’m definitely more of a *sit comfortably and enjoy the view* person.

A bunch of us had a really nice lunch enjoying the view and laughing about how cold it was. I was freezing! Everyone else seemed to enjoy the brisk wind but I was very grateful to have brought my wrap (so thank you mom!) and sip on my warm espresso.

We (Sophia and I) stopped halfway down at the other restaurant to look at more cows, drink some water and catch up with the other members in the group we were close to. We went with the chairlift/basket lift way down as opposed to the hiking losers so we were energized and enthusiastic the whole time.

It was such a cool, beautiful and unique experience! I can’t believe I got on those lifts without breaking any bones or losing any teeth—as I’m sure you can see from my facial expressions in some of the photos. 🙂

After our bus ride back home, Sophia and I met up again for dinner and made plans to go to Venice for the weekend!

San Zeno di Montagna was so gorgeous, I definitely cried once or twice over how phenomenal everything is. We saw wind surfers take off and land, we ate amazing food and drank wonderful coffee, the air was so fresh, everything was so vast and green, and we saw such beautiful landscapes and scenic views. It was amazing, truly just euphorically beautiful.

Venice is next! Arrivederci ❤️