Piccolino Restaurant, Bristol

Piccolino is an Italian restaurant on Broad Weir in Bristol's Cabot Circus shopping area. We arrived there about 5pm one Saturday afternoon, which was certainly a quiet time. There were five of us, and while final preparations were made to our table our coats were taken and all put together on one hanger. We were given an identifying plastic disc for their retrieval.

Our table was a round one by a floor-to-ceiling window; there were several tables just outside on the pavement but they weren't being used as there had been several heavy showers of rain during the day. The tables are black with a marble effect and are laid in a functional and stylish way with linen napkins, but there are no floral decorations. Chairs are comfortable with green padded seats and backrests. At the back of the restaurant the food is prepared in an open kitchen; unfortunately I was sitting with my back to it so I missed out on the preparation. There is a further dining area upstairs as well as a private function room.

Menus for starters, main courses and wine are presented on a single laminated A3 size sheet. Various choices of bread are priced between £3.50 and £4.50. Antipasti, or starters, range from olives at £3.35 to carpaccio at £8.85; there are a couple of vegetarian choices as well as mussels and squid. We all agreed that we would forego starters and content ourselves with a main course.

A waitress soon came to take our drinks order. I ordered a pineapple juice that actually tasted more like mixed tropical juice, but it was pleasant enough. The other four decided to share a bottle of wine and chose the Sicilian Grecanico Roccamora for £14.25. This was a dry white wine which everyone approved of.

Main courses start with either mozzarella or Caesar salad. The Al Forno (oven-baked) section includes fish, chicken, duck and pasta dishes ranging in price from £9 to £17.55. Chargrill and pan choices start with a burger for £9 and go all the way up to skewered king prawns, scallops and swordfish for £16.25. Two steaks are offered: a 10-oz rib-eye at £17.75 or an 8-oz fillet steak at £20.50. Two of our party chose from the pizza section. One went for the rustica (£10) which has roast Mediterranean vegetables and goat's cheese with rocket, basil pesto and parmesan toppings. The other chose pollo parmigiano (£10): chargrilled chicken, buffalo mozzarella, vine-ripened tomatoes, torn basil and shaved parmesan are the toppings. Another two ordered fresh pasta, which is made with organic durum wheat and free-range eggs. The choices were fusilli with smoked salmon, peas, asparagus, spinach leaves and lemon and herb mascarpone (£11) and penne all'arrabiata with spicy sausage, roasted red peppers and tomato sauce (£9.50). I picked a zucca risotto with roast pumpkin, Italian smoked bacon and gorgonzola cheese (£10). My son had originally asked for a salsiccia risotto with Italian sausage, braised fennel and tarragon (£10), but the waitress apologised that this was no longer available as they had been extremely busy at lunch time. Side dishes of various vegetables, chips, mash, salad and so on are priced between £3.10 and £3.50. We didn't feel the need to order any of these.

While we were waiting for our food serrated knives were brought for those having pizza, and all the extra cutlery was removed as we had not ordered starters. It was about fifteen minutes before our main courses were served. Freshly grated parmesan was offered, but my younger son was the only one who decided to have some on his penne pasta. This had plenty of tomato sauce, but the spicy sausage seemed quite hard to spot amongst the pasta. The pizzas were large with thin bases; toppings looked very generous. My risotto came with two small, crisp rashers of bacon crossed on top. It didn't look like the most exciting dish, but it certainly wasn't lacking on flavour. I love the bite of gorgonzola cheese, and the pumpkin was a more subtle flavour that complemented this well. The rice was cooked to a firm consistency that is perfect for a risotto. The male members of the group polished off every bit of their pizzas and pasta, but my younger son's girlfriend and I were both beaten before reaching the end of our pasta and risotto dishes. We all agreed that the food was excellent.

Desserts are rather on the pricey side, but I can't comment on the quality as we did not sample them. Ice creams and sorbets are all £5.15. Other choices include tiramisu, panna cotta, fig and pear tart or chocolate fudge pudding; the most expensive one is vanilla cheesecake with citrus blueberries at £6.45. You could share six chocolate truffles for £3.35 as a cheaper alternative if you didn't have room for a full dessert.

There is a disabled toilet on the ground floor, but the main toilets are on the upper floor. The ladies was very clean and well appointed. Hand cream was supplied alongside the liquid soap dispensers.

Our bill came to just over £72, to which we added a tip. A service charge of ten per cent is added automatically for groups of six or more people. The service was very good – polite and efficient – although nobody came to ask if everything was to our satisfaction while we were eating.

Piccolino is certainly superior to the usual Italian chain restaurants, but also of course more expensive. Its location is a very central one, and we walked there from the harbourside in about fifteen minutes. There is no shortage of restaurants to choose from in the Cabot Circus area, but if you like good Italian food Piccolino is definitely worth a visit.

Opening hours are from 11.30am until 11.30pm Monday to Saturday, and 11.30am until 10.30pm on Sunday.

Broad Weir

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BZ

Tel. 0117 929 3255

www.piccolinorestaurants.co.uk

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Having recently visited Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, I was interested to see how its counterpart in Bristol compared. I expected that perhaps it would be a grander affair, and I was right. Whereas Portsmouth concentrates mainly on local history and art, Bristol, whilst giving prominence to local artists and exhibits, has world-class displays in its galleries.

The museum is housed in an imposing three-storey Edwardian building; the stairs are not steep and there is a lift to certain areas on the upper floors, but you do have to call an attendant to operate the lift. How easy it is to do this I do not know. However, if you are at all interested in Ancient Egypt you are in for a treat, as there is a new display on the ground floor. This is where we started our visit.

The Egyptian exhibits here are based on the themes of life, death and the afterlife. Everything is behind glass, unsurprisingly considering the age of these artefacts. Even after more than twenty years of living in Egypt, I can still marvel at tiny amulets that look almost as if they were made yesterday, the mummy of a woman, or examples of hieroglyphics and other writing on a fragment of papyrus or a piece of stone. Touch screens placed low enough for children who can read allow visitors to access information on the individual items in each case. As well as the themes of life and death, attention is drawn to the way the Egyptians worked with different materials such as wood (as in the case for the mummy) and stone.

Moving further down this gallery, there are some fine examples of Assyrian reliefs. These are finely executed, but personally they didn't thrill me in quite the way that the Egyptian exhibits did.

At the top of the stairs leading to second floor is a gypsy caravan; turning left, we found ourselves in the Oriental gallery where Chinese dragons are to be seen wherever you look. There is even a tee-shirt from Tammy Girl decorated with a dragon. It was interesting that although this gallery was one of the quieter ones, there were two children sitting drawing whilst their parents looked around. Emerging from the dragon room, you find yourself admiring one of the best collections of Chinese glass outside Asia.

From Oriental art you proceed to British art. The first gallery is devoted to a collection of beautiful silver artefacts amid paintings of Bristol as it was over two hundred years ago. Realising that we did not have time to see everything in one visit, we passed fairly quickly through this room; I really must go back one day to admire the silver. We made a beeline for the more modern exhibits such as the paintings of the St Ives group. Barbara Hepworth is represented here by a painting rather than a sculpture, alongside Ben Nicholson in Gallery 5. I was also particularly interested to find Bristol-born Richard Long's Delabole Slate Circle, acquired from Tate Modern in 1997. Long was a great influence of mine in my students days, as was Tom Phillips, one of whose paintings I was delighted to find here.

If you are not a fan of modern art, you might prefer the work of the Pre-Raphaelites in Gallery 6 where both Millais and Burne-Jones are represented amongst others. There are a few examples of Impressionist paintings in the European room, notably by Renoir, Sisley and Lucien Pissaro. Beyond the French gallery is a display of pottery and ceramics, but this was another room that I had to leave for a future visit.

Going back down to the first floor we were greeted by a fibreglass replica of a dinosaur as well as a huge dinosaur leg skeleton. This area was obviously one of the most popular ones for children, so we decided to leave them to it as they greatly outnumbered us.

The display of minerals was one we spent more time on. Although there are exquisite pieces from all over the world, perhaps my favourite was a slice of Blue John from Derbyshire. It's true that this mineral holds a special place in my heart because I spent some wonderful holidays in the Peak District during my childhood, but I loved the colours in this example, which ranged from orange through to purple. My son prefered the pyrophyllite with its fascinating geometrical forms.

Minerals were followed by fossils, including some that were unearthed during the building of the Great Western Railway. Then came the wildlife area, but we decided to give it a miss as it looked to be swarming with children and must be one of the most popular sections of the museum. Many of the exhibits there focus on rare, endangered or extinct species of wildlife. British wildlife can be seen on the ground floor.

Descending the staircase to the ground floor once again, we walked past the shop without taking a look, as I don't usually buy souvenirs from museums. We noticed an enclosed area for temporary exhibitions where paintings were waiting to be hung. There is a cafe in an open area on the ground floor which seemed to be frequented mostly by families with young children who probably needed a break from all the excitement of dinosaurs and gorillas. Organic and fair trade food and drinks are served here. The cafe, as well as the toilets, are due for refurbishment during the course of 2008.

As we were leaving I suddenly noticed a huge biplane suspended from the lofty ceiling above the entrance hall – despite its size, neither of us had looked up and spotted it on our way in.

Certain areas of the museum are great attractions for children, and there were plenty around on the grey Saturday afternoon when we visited. There is even a play area called Small World for the under-fives on the ground floor. The museum would be an excellent choice for a family outing, whether your children are into dinosaurs, wild animals or mummies. As for adults, I'm sure everyone will find a display here that fascinates them. Since it's free, there is nothing to lose by paying a visit.

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Queen's Road

Bristol

BS8 1RL

Tel. 0117 922 4749

www.bristol.gov.uk/museums

Open Daily, 10am-5pm (hours may change in 2009)

Lifts to some floors; space to leave buggies in front hall; baby-change; toilets' wheelchairs; highchairs available in cafe.

Car parks are situated five minutes' walk from the museum in either West End or Trenchard Street. On foot, the museum is ten minutes from the city centre and twenty-five minutes from Bristol Temple Meads railway station.

Contemporary Arts in Bristol

My second visit to Bristol was on a decidedly damp Saturday afternoon, so we were looking for places to spend some time inside. Having walked down the steep slope of Park Street and not being in any hurry to go back up, I suggested that the Arnolfini arts centre might not be too much further to walk. Situated on Bristol's Harbourside, it is easily reached by walking along the quayside from The Centre. From the south you can get there by crossing the swing bridge on Prince Street. Admission is free, so it is definitely worth a visit if you are interested in the arts.

The Arnolfini has no permanent collection of artworks, so exhibitions change from time to time. At the time of my visit there was a display described as an 'interactive shopping experience' entitled 'Far West'. Although not exactly my cup of tea, there was a degree of variety and an opportunity for visitors to participate in certain sections of the show – a particularly good idea during the school holidays. On the ground floor, for example, visitors could create paper fruits from templates; these could then be purchased or exchanged for a real piece of fruit. The paper fruits were exhibited in a stall similar to the way they would be in a market. In the same gallery, a number of unfinished paintings by artist Lui Ding are on sale at a price of £100 each; the idea was to complete the painting at home in whatever way you wished. Most of them featured trees or parts of a landscape. I'm afraid we didn't buy one, but it's a fascinating concept.

One of the busiest and apparently most popular areas of the exhibition was Yoko Ono's 'Mend Piece – for Merry England' on the first floor. Donations of unwanted or broken crockery are handed in by visitors, who are then invited to create a new item or miniature work of art from the fragments that are available. A gift is offered in exchange, although I'm afraid I don't know what this would be. The creations made by visitors are put on display and are worth taking a close look at: there are the purely abstract pieces amidst attempts at creating fish, faces, bodies, all sorts. In the same gallery, we admired Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe's 'Skin of Light', a neon depiction of AnnLee, a character originally created by Japanese Manga illustrators.

The Arnolfini spans three floors and has a series of small but well-lit galleries whose walls are normally painted white. (Some of them are currently covered in a garish blue wallpaper featuring over-sized bunches of flowers as part of the 'Far West' display.) The ground floor also houses a shop offering a good selection of art books (including exhibition catalogues), greetings cards and postcards, as well as a selection of artists' prints and limited editions. The shop is open until 6pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, until 8pm Thursday to Sunday. There is a cafe bar which we did not visit; on fine days you can sit outside and have lunch (salad and pasta) or a drink and something light to eat, but it wasn't the weather for that on the occasion I was there. Fairtrade tea, coffee and hot chocolate are served along with organic produce. The cafe is open from 10am until 11pm Tuesday to Saturday, and until 10.30pm on Sundays.

On the top floor of the Arnolfini you will find a reading room with back catalogues and a wide selection of art magazines as well as books. We even noticed a copy of the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' DVD which you could watch on a computer, so if it's pouring down and your children are on holiday, you could kill a little time here.

On Saturday 16th August 2008, the Saturday following my visit, the periodic 'Mash Up', a family-friendly event with workshops, activities and storytelling was due to take place. I'm not sure how often this 'Mash Up' occurs, but details can be found on Arnolfini's website.

Exhibition tours take place every Saturday at 2pm, and are led by an artist. Booking is not necessary; you just turn up at the information desk.

Events at Arnolfini are by no means confined to the visual arts. There is a theatre/cinema on the premises, and details of film showings and theatrical performances can be found at Arnolfini's website. The Bristol Poetry Festival is an annual event taking place in September with readings by contemporary poets such as Simon Armitage, and a poetry slam between Liverpool and Bristol. This type of event, however, is not always free; check the Arnolfini website for ticket prices.

The upper floors of the Arnolfini can be reached by either stairs or a lift, and there seemed to be quite a few people wheeling buggies around on the top floor. Toilets are available on the top floor as well as adjacent to the cafe on the ground floor, where there are also baby-changing facilities.

Considered as one of Europe's leading centres for the contemporary arts, the Arnolfini is worthy of a visit by anyone interested in visual art, film, poetry, or dance. It is, however, closed on Mondays, except for Bank Holidays. You can sign up at Arnolfini's website for their newsletter to be sent to you by either email or post; since events and displays are only temporary, this will enable you to plan a visit to suit your particular interests.

Arnolfini

16 Narrow Quay

Bristol

BS1 4QA

www.arnolfini.org.uk

Tel. 0117 9172300/01

Email: boxoffice@arnolfini.org.uk