Exploring World Showcase at Epcot: Part 6 Italy/Via Napoli Restaurant Review

Our next stop on our Journey around World Showcase is Italy.  We didn't stop in the America Pavillion because we had reservations for dinner in Italy.  

(Neptune's Fountain)

The Italian Pavilion has no attractions --but they do have food.

Via Napoli was our destination --and I guess this could just as easily have been a restaurant review since our time in Italy was all about Pizza.

                  

An Italian waiter took our order and suggested items we may like with an authentic accent.  As I mentioned before one of the little details that makes Epcot so cool is the cast members from the actual countries.  The pizza was excellent.  My wife and I got a Carciofi Pizza --which was a white pizza with artichoke, fontina, mozzarella and truffle oil.  It was absolutely incredible.     To drink with it I went a little outside the box and got a Bellini --which I heard about from Lou Mongello  on WDW Radio Live Restaurant review. That podcast by Lou is below (of you don't listen to WDW Radio you should be).    Lou was right it was great!

http://www.wdwradio.com/2013/04/wdw-radio-320-live-review-of-via-napoli-in-epcot-disney-trivia-contest-apr-14-2013/

             

The Italy Pavilion features elements from all over Italy including a re-creation of Mark's Campanile Bell Tower (which is also a prominent feature at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

            

Here are a couple pictures of the some of the entertainment that marches its way through the Italy pavilion during the day.  The Flag waving act called Sbandieratori Di Sansepolcro features hand painted flags and costumes.  This reflects a tradition that is over 500 years old and can be seen throughout the day at the pavilion.

I wish we could have spent even more time in Italy.  I could probably eat in Italy at least three days in a row.  Tutto Italia's menu also looks excellent and we may need to get back to go there next time.

For the Flower and Garden Festival a Lady and The Tramp topiary greets those in Italy.

 
The Pavilion also features several small stores that carry Italian Merchanside such as soaps, Venetian masks, chocolates and Italian wines and much more.   We didn't even see the shops because we had our eyes on something from our vacation bucket list.    We wanted to  make a brief stop at the Wine Cellar that was added last year.    I'll feature this in a separate blog.  We sat outside and had a glass of Italian wine since the kids were tired from walking half way around the world.    If we didn't have more countries to try and see and the kids were at home I could have seen us relaxing in Italy for awhile inside the wine bar.

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Exploring World Showcase at Epcot: Part 3 France

Up next on our tour around the World Showcase is France.

Visiting France is one of the reasons we decided to start in Canada instead of the Mexico side of World Showcase.    France was definitely at the top of our list --because we have a whole history with the Eiffel Tower  (even though we have never been to the real one).   One of our first romantic dinners that me and my wife had was in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Las Vegas and every time we would see an Eiffel Tower while somewhere we would think of it as a sign. 

I proposed to my wife it was on her birthday after a dinner at the Bellagio, when I took her up to the the top of the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower and proposed  --so we were excited to see the French Pavilion and visit another version of it.

Here is the approach view to France when you leave England.



There is the Tower in the Background. 

Since our visit happened during the Flower and Garden Festival  there were several character topiaries including Cinderella

I love the look of these signs which are also a main feature in the Las Vegas version of Paris.

 Here is my stepdaughter posing with the Beast and Belle

The Beast

 

France features numerous shops that carry French goods and many Eiffel Tower items.   We really needed at least 2 days for Epcot,  but since we were doing 4 parks in 4 days,  with my step daughter's Cheer competition at the end of the trip we didn't have that extra time -so we really had to pick and choose which things we really got to immerse ourselves in.    My wife took the kids shopping and then to get some pastries at Les Halles Boulangeris Patisserie.

My mission was to try the Chocolate Ice Cream Martini that I had seen online on a Disney blog awhile back.  This can be found at the  L'Artisan des Glaces artisan ice cream and sorbet shop.

Mission accomplished and boy was it good even as it melted in the sun.

We skipped out on the "Impression de France film -as we were trying to see as many countries as possible before our dinner reservations and had mistakenly wasted about an hour of time in Universe of Energy (I'll save my thoughts on that for a different blog).    I've seen the "Impression de France" before and it is a quality film that takes you on a scenic journey of France that shows you cool images from all over the country.   My wife didn't seem interested with our time crunch and the kids in tow --but I will take her there next time (I'm just afraid that once she does see it she will be booking our trip to the actual Eiffel Tower.)

There was another place we definitely would have stopped and spent some time at without the kids --which was the Les Vins de France Wine Shop and Tasting Room --where you could sample Champagne and buy French Wines.

I'm already making my list of things to do the next time in the France Pavilion.   We would love to dine at Chefs de France or the upscale Monsieur Paul.

To sum it up we loved our brief trip to France in World Showcase.  I can't wait to go back and spend even more time in France on our next trip.     I'll discuss some of my ideas for how to make France even better in my series of blogs called Ultimate Epcot if money was no object (which so far I've discussed Canada).




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