Shopping at Downtown Disney, a dinner at Tutto Italia and fun at Epcot

Even though we had been back at the resort early the day before we had watched TV until around midnight and decided to sleep in today. When we finally got up we decided to have an early lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s again instead of breakfast. So shortly before 11am we arrived at Downtown Disney and spent some time browsing the art shop and the Christmas store. By 11.15 we went over to Wolfgang Puck’s Express.

We both ordered a Diet Coke and Tom had the Rotisserie BBQ Beef - slices of house roasted Niman Ranch rotisserie beef, sautéed mushrooms, carmelized onions and Wolfgang's signature BBQ sauce, topped with mozzarella, rolled in warm, all natural garlic focaccia bread. Served with a side of sour cream slaw and it was so good! I had the Four Cheese Pesto Pizza- creamy goat cheese, mozzarella, fontina and Parmesan with Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic-basil pesto sauce and sun dried tomatoes, which was to die for. Needless to say that we both cleaned our plates. I had my staple dessert, the Crème Bruleé, while Tom had the All Natural Frozen Vanilla Yoghurt with a fresh strawberry topping. Very light and refreshing! After we had our finished our lunch we went back to Basin and checked out all the soaps they offered before we went over to have a peek into Ghirardelli’s and sample their chocolate. Next stop was the World of Disney, where we did some shopping and Tom did some more hat modelling. We then went over to Publix to stock up on drinks, tortilla chips and salsa before we got back to the resort. Since it was such a nice afternoon and the mousekeeper was just making up our room we walked around the grounds of Port Orleans Riverside for a while and had a drink at the Riverside Mill before we went back to our room to have a short break. We had a dinner reservation at Tutto Italia at 6pm and since we were early we decided to park at the Yacht Club, explore their shop and the one at the Beach Club and enjoy the atmosphere at those two resorts before heading over to Epcot for our dinner reservation.

On the way over to the Beach Club we checked out a few of the Hidden Mickeys and then slowly walked towards the International Gateway and into World Showcase.

We checked out the little patisserie in France and since it had started raining we quickly walked over to Italy and entered the restaurant. I had not even taken my poncho off before checking in and we were greeted with a very friendly, “We have already been waiting for you!”, and a friendly smile. There were quite a lot of people waiting for tables but we were seated immediately. Our server introduced himself shortly after we were shown to our table for two, right by the window.

He was young and very helpful and we later found out that he loved Vienna and had studied there for some time. We ordered Diet Cokes and started studying the menus. It only took a minute until our server returned with the drinks and the breadbasket, olive oil, bowl of pickled vegetables and Basil infused ricotta.

There were several kinds of bread and they were a wonderful start to our meal. We decided against a starter and ordered our main courses. Tom had the Tagliolini con Granchio, Pomodorini Alle Erbe - tagliolini pasta topped with crabmeat, sweet tomato and garlic, which were just so good. I had read a lot about the Penne Caprese with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil, so I ordered these. Once I had tried them I knew I had made the right decision. They were just wonderful! Fragrent cushed tomatoes and soft mozzarella cheese, starting to melt into the Penne Pasta. Heaven on Earth.

We then decided to have a cappuccino and an espresso with our desserts. Tom decided on having the Bugie/Chiacchere - Signature anise and Sambuca-flavored crisp pastry with chocolate or apricot sauces. It was fun watching his face when they set the HUGE plate in front of him. But in the end he really enjoyed this dessert. I had the Mocha Tiramisu - mascarpone cheese, espresso coffee, savoiardi biscuits and chocolate. Very soft and creamy with a wonderful taste of coffee. Since it was still raining outside we didn’t hurry to finish our dinner and took our time cleaning our plates.

When we left it had about stopped raining and there were a lot of people walking around World Showcase. We decided to watch the entertainment for a while, before we slowly walked over towards Germany.

I took pictures of some articles they had borrowed from Austria and had a look at the Hummel Figurines. We then went over to China where Tom tried on some hats and we had such a good laugh. We rode the Maelstrom, skipped the movie at the end and had a look around the Norway shop before we made our way over to Mexico.

Another boatride later we decided that we could share a Fiesta Margarita. It wasn’t as good as the one we had had the year before and some of it went in the bin. We left Epcot through the International Gateway and walked over to the Yacht Club.

On the way there the rain started again and we walked through the store once again and checked out more Hidden Mickeys. Since it didn’t look like the rain was going to stop any time soon we just put on our ponchos and went over to our car. On the way back to the resort we had to pass through some HUGE puddles, they were actually like small lakes and our car turned into a “motorboat”.

Before we headed to our room Tom stopped at the entrance to Port Orleans Riverside so I could run to the foodcourt to pick up another Magic Cookie Bar for breakfast the next day. We got back to the room by 10pm, Froggie was out again and we had an early night, because we wanted to be at the Hollywood Studios for rope drop the next day.