Mike,
Have a good trip. Visiting producers in Trentino-Alto Adige is pretty straightforward--they are quite welcoming to visitors and a phone call to establish whether they accept visitors and set up an appointment is all it takes. A good number also have someone on staff who speaks English, if that is a concern.
As for dining, below are some places I enjoyed on trips to the region in 2006 and 2007. All of these places are fairly casual, but I wouldn't miss a visit to Casa del Vino della Vallagarina on a trip to the region--my two experiences there were stunning.
Casa del Vino della Vallagarina, Piazza San Vincenzo 1, Isera, Tel 0464.486057
-this is both a restaurant with a daily lunch menu as well as a tasting bar/wine shop; they have a set course with an antipasto, primo and secondo; this is the second time that we have eaten here and the experience has been consistently stunning, the quality of the ingredients (which you can actually taste distinctly within the dish) and the craft and artistry of the preparation are at a very high level, quite frankly, I put this place at a similar level to the French Laundry in Yountville, California—a level which I do not often have the opportunity to dine at, in addition to the superb cuisine and wonderful outdoor seating on a beautiful sunny day, they offer you the ability to taste a series of local wines as you pass through your courses, a great opportunity to learn more about the local wines of the Vallagarina, it is a great place for a lunch when you are looking to splurge, lunch for two for us with a whole bunch of small wine samples along the way cost 84 euro, well worth it for the experience—and if you find any wines you particularly like, they also have a retail shop attached so you can take it home with you
Pizzeria Ristorante Centrale (Casa Pederzolli Haus), Via S. Marcelo 9, 38062 Arco,
http://bedandpizza.com/-wonderful little pizzeria, cute service with flatware tucked inside a little ‘bed’ of their own, wonderful quality pizzas, my companion had a pizza with grilled eggplant, herb butter, and substituted buffalo mozzarella for the regular mozzarella—that pizza redefined for me what pizza is capable of, it was unbelievably delicious, they also have a very decently-priced short but good wine list, lovely place
Amadé, Vicolo Cà dè Bezzi 8, Bolzano, Tel. 0471-971278
-great place for lunch with outdoor covered patio seating, great salads and pasta dishes—very good sauces and pasta quality, very fresh ingredients, everyone else seemed to be eating pizza—which looked delicious, but we weren’t in the mood at the time, next time I think I’d have to try it, friendly efficient service and good prices, a really enjoyable place for lunch
I never got a chance to dine there, but would've liked to have tried the restaurant at
Camere Da Gianni, via S. Marcello 21, 38062 Chiarano di Arco, Tel. +39/(0)464/516464-516238,
http://www.dagianni.it/And there was a cozy little place right off the main plaza in Neumarkt/Egna: the food was either very good or only so-so, but the wines by the glass were amazing and worth spending a few hours there. Sorry, don't recall the name.
