people-watching in Pizza Volante
We have beautiful, cloudy, sunny, breezy weather as usual in Baguio City.
I’m happy to be out walking in bright, cheery weather on sidewalks and across streets with thousands of smiling youths in school uniforms, college students in the most fashionable casual clothes that they can afford, including every style of blue jeans, flip-flops, sneakers and ballet-type slippers.
Many middle-aged women carry umbrellas to ward off direct sunlight. Throngs of women going from their downtown workplaces to lunch, old women going shopping carrying umbrellas and tote bags, brown-haired ‘boat people’ asking for money, twenty-something and thirty-something mothers escorting their kids, some carrying open umbrellas to shade…
I’ve never seen parents pushing baby strollers. And I’ve only seen four evidently pregnant mothers this month on the city’s streets.
I’m seated near a window in Pizza Volante at sidewalk level, taking my first bites of a 6″ chicken-and-mozzarella pizza (P94). I’m looking outside at people streaming past in both directions. I see across the street Rural Bank of Baguio, a stern bagman entering an armored money van, I see the bottom stairs leading up to Baguio Cathedral, I see Solibao Restaurant, Ionic Cafe and a propane tank delivery truck.
I see tourists in vans, a Pizza Volante delivery scooter rider, dozens of tall, white Toyota Tamaraw taxis, a “sterilized ice” delivery truck, sweethearts strolling…
I see pines blowing behind Saint Louis Hall, banana trees waving beside the cathedral steps, clouds scudding across the Wedgewood blue sky…
I see a little guy carrying upright a 15′ red fiberglass ladder, mothers carrying tiny tots, a family carrying graduation ceremony programs, perhaps going to a celebratory lunch…
Pizza Volante is a really nice café on Session Road which offers more than pizza. The first floor and second have huge ‘picture windows,’ ceiling fans, neat decor, wood furnishings, pleasant mood music, friendly, competent wait staff, good cooks and delicious food.
My pizza crust is handmade and very tasty, 100% mozzarella is used, and the chicken is very moist and seasoned deliciously. What more could I want? A brownie, I suppose. Just kidding. The desert menu lacks them, but it offers banana splits with chocolate syrup, fresh apple pie, peach pie, ‘capezolli treat’ and more. Dominic and I had lunch here previously, on the second floor, and enjoyed it. I’ll certainly come back. †