We are on our way back to Missouri today, slowly but surely. We made an overnight stop in the small town of Knoxville, Illinois.
It only has a population of around 3200, but we found the BEST pizza place ever. It’s called Alfano’s Pizzeria.
Alfano’s is pretty much what you would expect of a small, hometown pizza place. It wasn’t fancy, but the people were very friendly.
We ordered a large Hawaiian pizza, and since that was one of the “specialty” pizzas, we got FREE cheesy bread sticks with marinara sauce. The bread sticks were made on a large pizza pan, so it was like we had two large pizzas. Both the cheesey bread sticks and the pizza were delicious!
We were almost finished, and our waitress asked if we would like a scoop of FREE ice cream! Yep! Free ice cream! Of course, we said yes, and we both got chocolate.
However, the BEST part of our supper was the … wait for it … the BILL! For a large, three topping pizza and large cheesey bread sticks and 2 scoops of ice cream plus drinks, the bill was $23.30. We couldn’t believe it. Needless to say, we have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night.
If you are ever on I 74 in Illinois, close to Knoxville, and are hungry, stop by Alfano’s Pizzeria. Your wallet will thank you.
After we ate, we drove around town for a little bit. Knoxville was settled in 1831. There are many buildings and homes from that time period still standing in the town (many on the Historic Register). You can even take a self guided walking tour of the downtown area and see 60 historic buildings.
We couldn’t do that because it was Sunday evening and everything was closed. If you’re there during the week, just stop by the Visitor’s Center to get a map of the historic buildings.
I snapped some pictures as we drove around.
An Episcopal Church.
The building on the left is now the City Hall. I’m not sure what the building on the right was or is now.
I would have loved to go inside this log cabin. I did, however, peek through the windows.
Knoxville, Illinois, seemed like a great little town. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to explore it further.
So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”
Betty