It’s around 1 p.m. on a weekday and I’m staring at a half chicken I’m not sure I ordered. Or maybe I did?

My Italian is mediocre and my brain is hazy. This is my first time at a restaurant post-pregnancy, and the first glass of sparkling wine I’ve had in a little over nine months.

My husband and I are out for lunch, celebrating our anniversary, and I feel giddy to be out in the world but also disoriented without a newborn attached to me.

I didn’t mean to order half a chicken. But it looks divine and I notice almost everyone is eating the same thing.

We’re at Le Quattro Stagione in Longare, a restaurant we wouldn’t have considered going to if much else had been open on a Wednesday afternoon. But I’m beginning to think of this as serendipity.

Before heading to the restaurant, we walked around a nearby lake, leading to worries that we’d look underdressed in our sweaty workout clothes compared to the Italians, who in Vicenza almost always look chic and pulled together, even at the grocery store or on the hiking trail.

But Le Quattro Stagione is packed with a mix of construction workers, families with young kids, and yes, some very nicely dressed older couples.

“Red, white or sparkling?” the waitress asks when we sit down.

We opt for sparkling to start, because of the anniversary. But red or white is the expectation here as part of the set menu.

Both are set unceremoniously in unmarked bottles on the tables around us. One of my favorite things about living in Italy is that you can take any type of container to the market and fill it up to serve at home or in your restaurant for weeks.

Le Quattro Stagione is also one of the few places I’ve been in Vicenza where no one on the waitstaff speaks English. It’s kind of refreshing.

The server realizes our Italian is far from fluent and flashes a look that says, “oh God, help us all,” but in a cheery way.

After understanding about half of what the waitress says, we wing it, and I get a creamy pasta while my husband gets a ragu. Next, it’s the half chicken.

I know the word for chicken, so I’m not sure where the confusion occurred. Either way, it’s delicious. The skin is crispy, the meat tender and juicy. The best part, though, is the baked potatoes. Extremely oily, extremely soft, extremely flavorful.

Next to us, the construction workers are downing a bottle of red. An older man with another man in his 20s or 30s, both in business attire, are sipping from both a red and white. I smile at how normal it is in Italy to enjoy some wine and head back to the office.

Main dishes devoured, we move on to a classic tiramisu, followed by espresso. The bill? A three-course meal with wine and coffee cost us 35 euros. It would have been 30 without dessert.

Follow-up visits

We loved the restaurant so much we brought my mom a few days later. This time, we thought we were ready for the full Italian language experience. We were not.

Somehow, we each ended up with two full orders of different pasta. I think based on a question I did not ask correctly, the waitress thought we wanted to try everything. We were such an anomaly that the chef came out to ask how it was going. Great, and we’ll take some boxes, please.

Several months after those visits, in early February, our Italian was much better. We did as the crowd was doing, pouring our wine from the bottles already on the table. We understood the menu and the waitress seemed relieved.

For the first course, the options were risotto with pumpkin, carbonara, pasta with tomato sauce or pasta with ragu. For the second, rabbit, a skewer of mixed grilled meat or mixed boiled meat.

I opted for the risotto, creamy but light with large chunks of pumpkin and perfect for a chilly winter day. My husband got the carbonara, which was plainly satisfying.

My skewer of mixed meat had a simple seasoning and a lot of char, which I love. I could identify chicken, beef and a sausage with fennel and other spices. There were two unidentified meats — maybe lamb?

Honestly, I was most excited about those potatoes and a surprisingly flavorful, buttery side of bitter greens. My husband raved about his rabbit, though I didn’t have a bite.

I felt lucky to have snagged a spot amid the people clad in construction gear. The restaurant was packed and a line of guests stood at the door, waiting for a table. A sign at the door even announces that “tables are reserved for workers.”

While you can dine at Le Quattro Stagione on weekends, a weekday lunch is the better time to go to get a real sense of the place.

Le Quattro Stagione isn’t fancy. The pasta is fine if not particularly distinguishable from others in Vicenza, while the meat courses are very good.

What you come here for is the atmosphere, a lunch that is very Italian and very filling for a low price, and the feeling that you are part of a community, even if you understand only half of what’s going on. I can’t wait to become a regular.

Le Quattro Stagione

Address: Via Roma 37, Longare, Italy

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 a.m.-11:30 p.m.

Price: Coffee for 1.50 euros and full meals from 10-15 euros

Information: www.facebook.com/lequattrostagioniristorante/