Before we moved to Italy, it was not uncommon for us to land at Rome’s airport, get our rental car, make a beeline for southern Tuscany, and weave our way up the mountain roads of Monte Amiata – all for a lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in all of Italy.
Little Piancastagnaio is a medieval hill town on the shoulders of the mountain, rich in history and food traditions. Amiata is famous for mushrooms, cinghiale (wild boar), and particularly chestnuts – in fact it’s an IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) zone for the latter. These are key elements in the cuisine of the region – as we’ll soon see.
At the top of Piancastagnaio’s hill sits the 13th-century Rocca Aldobrandesca, named for the powerful family that controlled much of the land around Monte Amiata at the time. This fortress commands a 360-degree view of the countryside – the looming mountains in one direction, the vast Val d’Orcia in the other. Today the Rocca is free to enter, and visitors can climb to the top of its tower. The quiet, narrow cobbled streets of the village below wind up and down the hillside like a maze – it’s easy to get lost, but just as easy to find oneself again.
A ten-minute drive to the north is another small town, Abbadia San Salvatore. The abbey here used to control the fortress in Piancastagnaio until they were forced to surrender it to the Aldobrandeschi. The main attraction here is its ancient abbey church – a fresco-filled sanctuary and a mysterious subterranean crypt. A museum next door provides a bit of historical context to the abbey and the town; it includes a monastic shop, selling foodstuffs and other goods produced by the monks. The site is a waypoint for religious pilgrims on the Via Francigena, the fabled pilgrimage trail that stretches from France at the English Channel all the way to Rome.
San Salvatore is also home to the laboratorio liquorificio of Aurelio Visconti, to which we occasionally make our own pilgrimage of sorts. The distilling masters here create all manner of interesting concoctions, from herbal digestive liqueurs to fortified wine infusions to various sauces– like pears marinated in grappa, or mosto cotto, a marinade cooked with the remnants of wine-making.
Back to Piancastagnaio: for our recent overnight there, we chose the Convento San Bartolomeo, a converted 13th-century convent. In the early 1800s, the Ricci-Barbini family restored this monastic property; their descendants still own and operate it to this day. Sharp-eyed guests will notice a particular decorative motif – dozens of hedgehogs adorn the rooms and hallways. This comes from the Ricci family name, as “riccio” means hedgehog.
Stepping through the big wooden doors into the cloister feels like a step back several centuries in time. Up a flight of ancient stone steps and into a long, frescoed corridor, a series of doors lead to spotless rooms – presumably updated considerably from when the friars of the monastery lodged here. A tiny, almost secret door at one end of the hallway leads up a short, narrow stairway to their nicest room: this is the honeymoon suite, equipped with a jacuzzi tub and a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine to get a visiting couple started on a lovely evening.
Downstairs, a little cantina offers guests a picturesque spot for an aperitivo. From here a set of steep stairs delves down into a cellar cave, which maintains a steady year-round temperature for the many wine bottles stored there. Outside, a few chairs and tables line the cloisters, and one passageway leads out into a beautiful garden.
From the convent, it’s just a short walk to one of our favorite restaurants in the country, Ristorante Anna. Situated on a little side street outside of the medieval borgo, Ristorante Anna has been run by the same family for over 60 years, well-known and highly regarded by generations of locals. The owners are fans of American jazz and blues; a steady flow of music from their record collection plays in the background. A large mural inside depicts the family matriarch as a young woman: sùhe casually sips a glass of wine and watches as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and B.B. King play in a garden.
The place is warm, friendly, lively – full of local families enjoying a nice night out. The mustachioed, bespectacled patriarch, Pino, chats amiably with each table, describing what dishes are available. There are some standards: hand-made pastas, like pici (a hand-rolled noodle typical to southern Tuscany) with ragù di cinghiale, or a large tortelloni seasoned with lemon ricotta and artichoke cream. Meat plates are offered according to the season and the market, like their peposo (a peppery beef stew) or maialino arrosto, baby pork with a deliciously crispy skin. Our favorite dessert is a crema catalana in flames to the table. But in our opinion, the star dish comes at the beginning of the meal: Anna’s signature chestnut and porcini mushroom soup. This is generously ladled from a big copper tureen – Pino carries it around the room, refilling the bowls of the hungrier diners. This is the dish for which we used to drive with such determination after a flight. Everything is relaxed, fun, and delicious – again and again we’re astounded at the consistent quality of the food, produced in such generous quantities and over the course of so many years.
This town, lodging, and restaurant are excellent examples of the kind of fantastic and memorable experience visitors can find, if they know where to look.
About the authors: Zeneba & Matt moved from the U.S. to Italy in 2019, where they live and work as performing musicians. They are also authors of four award winning travel guidebooks, and as Little Roads Europe they craft itineraries for travelers who want to visit small towns and enjoy authentic experiences in Italy and Ireland. www.littleroadseurope.com
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