Excellent antipasti to be had at Bologna (pulverised peppers, chlorinated Caprese, floral salmon carpaccio, fruity beef carpaccio, prosciutto with pallid figs and sunny dandelion petals, cod foo yong...and oysters which I can actually savour squirmlessly before swallowing) plus the best espresso I've had since France. Spaghetti vongole fortified by ardent sting of fresh and dried chillies, broth bracing and robust.

J's indigestion is obviously due to his insufficient Kalamata/Gaeta (?...dark purple, tender and emaciated variety) olive intake. But he insists on maligning the asparagus.

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We are too late to catch Effi Briest without rushing our repast, so G and I resign ourselves to grazing languorously for three hours on crab cakes, yakitori, quarter-dozen oysters, lamb shank (braised duck-adobo) and the colourful cavalcade of confections (passionfruit pavlova and lime souffle are first-rate, although that's probably because they were the only things I could properly relish at that stage of satiety). All at half price.