When I was a young traveler in Italy, a quick piece of pizza to go or a sandwich of prosciutto and cheese and a soft drink was all I needed for fuel between dashes from museum to museum. Sadly, I completely ignored one of the things that make Italy the treasure it is: the food and wine of an area.
Later, when I reached a “certain age”, I realized what I had missed during those years, and for years I’ve been correcting my error. Now, rather than rush around, I tend to go to one or two places and explore them slowly, happily eating and drinking as I go.
Brenda and I, near the end of a year-long stay in Italy, are in one of our favorite places in Italy — the area around Montepulciano in central Tuscany. Each day is an adventure and during our walks and drives in the countryside, we have found some delightful restaurants.
One can hardly go wrong here for food and one does not have to go to the famous restaurants mentioned in guidebooks to get a great meal. It is quite possible to eat very well without, as the Italians say, “paying an eye from your head”. We prefer to wander about the towns and villages to discover interesting restaurants off the main, heavily touristed squares.
Tuscan cooks have a rare touch with food. It comes from respecting the intrinsic quality of the food and not overloading it with rich sauces that change its taste. Though there are some wonderful creative touches, “quality food presented simply” seems to be the rule.
For that reason, restaurants also tend to serve the courses separately so that the vegetable course, for instance, usually comes after the main course, not with it. I like this because it makes one experience the taste of the vegetables on their own and, of course, it’s very Italian.
If you want excellent traditional Italian food with creative touches, try Borgobuio Ristorante in the Centro Storico (historical center) of Montepulciano. It is family-run as so many of the best restaurants in Tuscany are. If there is the time between customers, the owner Pier will serenade the diners with snippets of Italian ballads from the 50s as he tours the tables advising on wine.
His wife, Elda, cooks. Recently, we had two courses with vegetables, desserts, bread, mineral water, and a bottle of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Brenda had a perfectly cooked risotto with pieces of pears followed by Faraone (guinea fowl) with cooked plums; I had a raviolo (one large one instead of many ravioli) filled with spinach and ricotta followed by a duck breast that was rich and tasty. For the vegetable course, we had cipollini agrodolce (small onions) cooked with apple, cloves, and juniper berries and a plate of small potatoes roasted in their skins and halved, seasoned with rosemary.
The desserts were superb followed by limoncello, grappa, and two coffees. It was a wonderful meal in a well-designed and attractive restaurant.
Within sight of Montepulciano is another small hilltown called Montefollonico. There we found La Botte Piena, a small but excellent restaurant that seats no more than 20 people. There we had a prosciutto and melon antipasto followed by “pici” (local pasta), one with meat sauce and another with garlic sauce, two vegetables, a half-liter of the house wine, bread, a bottle of mineral water, two coffees and an amaro.
There is an excellent restaurant that is south of Montepulciano on the road to Acquapendente. We had asked at a coffee bar in nearby Proceno a question that one hears often among Italians: “dove si Mangia bene qui vicino?” (Where does one eat well around here?) The answer: La Dogana in Centeno, one of the smallest villages we’ve seen.
It is family-run; the father cooks the various meats over a wood fire while the rest of the family cooks and serves the other dishes. Among the dishes we’ve eaten, there were a risotto d’ortica (nettles) and a selection of different meats grilled over the wood fire. There was a wonderful homey sense of being among friends. A recent meal included two courses plus a vegetable apiece, bread, a half-liter of house wine, a large bottle of mineral water, two desserts, two coffees, and one amaro.
Northwest of Montepulciano is the Abbazia (Abbey) di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, a gem of an active monastery founded that has frescoes by Luca Signorelli and Sodoma. On the same property is the restaurant La Torre with seating both inside and outside. The menu is also traditional and contains such things as “pici”, as well as such treats as Piccione (pigeon), Faraone (guinea fowl), and cinghiale in umido (wild boar stew).
The house red wine comes from the Abbey vineyard and is very good. A recent meal there included an antipasto of melon and prosciutto, ravioli with a meat sauce, pasta with a sauce of wild boar, Bitola (chard) and deep-fried artichoke hearts for vegetables, a bottle of house wine from the Abbey, two desserts, two coffees, and one amaro.
On one of the most beautiful roads in central Tuscany, south of Montepulciano near Chianciano Terme is the country restaurant, Oasi La Force. Nearby is the estate called La Force, the home for many years of the Marchese Antonio Origo and his wife, author Marchesa Iris Origo. Their estate is open only on Wednesday afternoons from 3 pm to 6 pm for tours of the garden.
During WWII the Origo family and estate workers hid Allied soldiers and pilots as well as providing a home for over 60 children from war-torn towns and cities. Though well out into the countryside, the restaurant is very popular. It’s traditional also and has a range of kinds of pasta and grilled meats.
One of our dishes there one day included slices of grilled Chianina beef on a bed of rucola and pecorino cheese. A recent meal included a half-liter of the house wine, a bottle of mineral water, bread, two first courses, two second, two vegetables, desserts, two coffees, and two Amari.
On wines and digestive: though you will surely try many of the varieties of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the Brunello wines from the Montalcino area, the variety of house wines are quite good since the restaurant owners obviously don’t want to give the customers a poor wine.
We often order the “vino Rosso/Bianco Della casa” and they are well worth it. After lunch or dinner try one of the various “digestive” or “Amari”. These are liqueurs that aid in digestion. Some are: grappa, limoncello, Montenegro, Averna, Ramazzotti, and Jagermeister. A small glass of any of these calms the stomach. They work and you will feel like an Italian while sipping them.
