In October 2021, John “Dr. B” Badolato and his family made a meaningful pilgrimage to Southern Italy. The team dentist for the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks capped a tour of the bottom of the boot with a visit to Badolato, the town his grandparents left when they immigrated to the United States and their family’s namesake. “We started in Rome and went all the way through Sicily over the span of two weeks,” Badolato says. “There aren’t enough words to describe how amazing it was.” He shares highlights from a once-in-a-lifetime voyage.
Badolato
The Medieval village Badolato’s family hails from, on Calabria’s Ionian Coast, has a population of just over 3,000. Townspeople welcomed the American Badolatos into their home. “They prepared lunch and dinner for us,” he says of the spread of fresh pasta and wine. “In Badolato, the cellars are very special places, as that is where people store their food. But they also had meals there, which is something Badolato started in Medieval times.”
La Locanda
We all have driving forces. For the the Badolatos on their Italian tour, it was “the search for the perfect pizza.” They found it in the small town of Cosenza, Italy, where the pizzaiolos at La Locanda didn’t speak English. “Google Translate was not working great,” Badolato says. He and his wife and kids enjoyed a traditional margherita pizza and one with ’nduja, a spicy, spreadable pork sausage made with Calabria’s world-famous chiles.
Otto Geleng
“That was probably our third favorite meal of the trip,” Badolato says of the dishes at the Michelin-starred restaurant at Grand Hotel Timeo in Taormina, Sicily – illustrating the overall excellence of their vacation dining. “We had the chef’s tasting menu at Otto Geleng,” he says. “While it was all incredible, the white truffle risotto was off the hook. It was surreal to sit on the Sicilian cliffs and overlook the gorgeous Ionian Sea as we dined.”
