Belvedere Resort ai Colli

We were on a two day DBB package. On the first evening, my husband and I chose the soup starter only to be told by the chef he had only one soup portion left at 7.30pm. We then told him that we weren’t really attracted by any of the three main dishes - chicken, cold pork or a mixed salad. Aware of the a la carte menu we had studied in our room, we enquired whether there was anything else he could cook for us. ‘Of course - I am a chef. I can cook anything’, he angrily replied. Then he added ‘I don’t like your face’ to me. Feeling this a trifle personal, we were dumbstruck. Our fellow diners thought it highly amusing especially when he said again: ‘I don’t like your face’, as if we hadn’t fully understood him the first theme. Then he retreated to the kitchen shouting a final ‘I don’t like your face’. Ironically, when he finally simmered down and came up with a couple of meals, they were very good. He never explained what the fuss had been all about, making the atmosphere tense until we left two days later.

The Belvedere resort ( not sure why a resort as it was simply a restaurant with rooms) has a sort of faded elegance, although it was a little more faded than you might like. Rooms are reasonable although let down by poor air conditioning which meant they were very warm at night. Old towels and small cheap sachets of shower gel etc do give a cheap overall appearance - much of the rest of the hotel is very dated including the bathrooms. The evening meal was on a very limited menu but the food was very good and the waitress did everything she could to make the evenings good. The main issue was with a bottle of wine - after a glass each the wine turned cloudy then smelt vinegary and tasted acidic. At various points both the owner and the chef were both very argumentative about this when clearly there was an issue even when we did not consume it. The approach to customer service was a poor one and we felt let down on what was on the whole a nice stay, especially as the same staff were very helpful at other occasions.

Stylish comfortable rooms. Whisper-quiet air-conditioning which was excellent. Very good food in a bright , airy restaurant.. Extremely helpful and friendly staff (all part of the owners' family we think). Galzignano is pleasant enough, if rather dull, but an excellent base to travel to Padua/Padova from. .