Every family has its traditions,
every kitchen has its recipes.

It all began in 1950/51. The Trattoria building was the first house built in the neighborhood north of Via Mameli: back then, there were only fields around it.

Over time it changed management and changed names: first the Osteria da Ugo, then the Osteria da Marco. That's how it worked: the establishment took the name of whoever ran it.

In 1971 it was the turn of my grandmother Rosa Righetti (Rosetta to everyone) and my grandfather Enrico Cipriani (Rico to everyone).

Rosetta and Rico came from a family accustomed to working the land and cooking. His family ran a trattoria in the hills fifteen minutes from Verona, with their own farmland. Rico and Rosetta had grown up there: cultivating, cooking, welcoming with enthusiasm and warmth.

When the time came to pass the hillside trattoria to the next generation, they decided the establishment was too large for them and their three young daughters.

That's how they took over the osteria da Marco and carried it forward as they knew how. The establishment became the Osteria da Rico and gradually, as houses replaced the fields, it became the neighborhood's point of reference.

From 1971 to 1979 my mother Bruna had divided her time between two kitchens: the osteria on Via Mameli with her parents, and the Trattoria in the hills, where she had grown up and learned the trade.

When in 1979 Rosetta and Rico decided to stop, the proposal was direct: "Do you want to continue?"

Mamma Bruna and papà Renzo said YES.

From there everything changed. The bocce courts disappeared. Card games and wine at the counter gave way to set tables, fresh pasta made by hand every morning, traditional Veronese dishes.

The Osteria became a Trattoria. And the Trattoria took my mother's name: Dalla Bruna. It wasn't just a change of sign. It was her way of saying: here we cook as I learned, with products I select with love, with the hospitality I learned from my mother.

I grew up in this trattoria. First living there and then working.

I was four and a half when my mother and father took it over. When I came home from school I would sit at a table, they would put a plate of pasta in front of me and I would stay there.

When there was Pearà – the traditional Veronese sauce that accompanies boiled meats – I would take bread and drown it in it. I can't explain it. I only know that for me that flavor is still the taste of home today.

At thirteen I decided I wanted to be a cook. Hospitality school, summers working in other restaurants to learn. But I already knew where I would return.

In 1995 I started working here with my mother, every day side by side. It wasn't just work: it was her hands teaching me to roll out the dough, her voice telling me when the Pearà was ready, her eyes checking if I had truly understood.

The recipes weren't written down. They were watched, repeated, made your own. And so, day after day, everything that was hers became mine too.

In 2003 I married Chiara, who has been the soul of the dining room ever since.

In 2007 we took over management of the Trattoria. Since then we have worked every day to improve – the kitchen, the service, the experience – without losing what this Trattoria has always been.

Fifty-five years. Three generations. One soul.

From Rosetta and Rico, who in 1971 opened an osteria where there were still fields. To Bruna, who gave it her name and her cooking. To Chiara and me, who today carry it forward with the same passion as then.

Trattoria Dalla Bruna is a piece of Veronese history. A story that is still ongoing.

Every time you sit at our table, you become part of it. And we continue to do what Bruna has always done: welcome with care, cook with enthusiasm, pass on what we have received.

— Davide Bighelli