Sunset Dinner in Tuscany

Midweek in our Tuscan villa stay in Certaldo, we took a day off from tower climbing for some local sightseeing….

…and ended the day with a visit to another local restaurant recommended by our travel agent: Le Grotte in Fiano, just a few miles from the villa.

The small restaurant featured beautiful views of the Tuscan hillsides, so we opted for the outdoor seating, joined only by a German couple on vacation with their dachshund.

It was a lovely evening…that lingered in true Italian fashion.

I wasn’t nearly as hungry from driving around as I had been climbing towers the previous two days, so I ordered a wood oven pizza donned with a white local cheese, olives, zucchini, and mushrooms. Geoff got adventurous, ordering gnocchi with pesce (fish) and the famous Florentine steak, Bistecca alla fiorentina.

In these small, family-run restaurants, the meal is made to order from the fresh ingredients available, so a wait is to be expected, even welcomed. We settled in to a slow sunset and reflected on our visit thus far: the spectacle of Rome, the vast treasure of Florence to be revisited tomorrow, and the unexpected jewels found in our off-the-beaten, just-follow-the-map discovery of surrounding Tuscany.

After an hour or so, my pizza arrived. Sometime later, Geoff’s gnocchi. And somewhere in our conversation, a man casually walked past us and began to light a fire in the outdoor grill. He also lit some outdoor lamps, and we barely gave a passing thought to any connection between the grill and our dinner. Meanwhile, daylight began to fade into early evening.

Between the gnocchi and my pizza and several glasses of water, we were happily satiated and sedated, drinking in the quiet beauty of dining in the sunset on a Tuscan hillside. Then the man walked right past our table with an enormous side of beef on a plate, proceeding directly to the grill of chestnut embers. We jokingly wondered aloud if that could be Geoff’s steak! Couldn’t be! But, indeed it was.

It could have easily been 45 minutes later, but by now we were lost in la dolce vita and time no longer had any relevance. It was, however, dusk when the man presented Geoff with a T-bone that could have easily fed our entire family of five. Our mouths dropped open before we remembered to say grazie to the man who stood proudly over his culinary achievement.

No longer hungry, we ate for the sheer relish of it. I can’t imagine a tastier, more perfectly seasoned cut of steak. The seasonings (drizzled with olive oil and topped with rosemary) were unlike American/western beef, but the flavor of the beef was not masked. Rather, it was intensified.

Dusk descended into a starlit sky, and more locals drifted in for the more typical Italian ritual of late evening dining. For us, the night was already full, as were our stomachs. We had spent four of the loveliest, most leisurely hours around a quiet outdoor table for two that we had ever known. The food was incredible. In one of the most perfect places on earth. At sunset. La dolce vita.

Secondi Piatto - "Second Course"

Chiribiri, gnocchi, and tiramisu!

The next Tuscan dining highlight came in nearby San Gimignano- a medieval town famous for its many towers. Only fourteen of the original sixty remain, but their imposing presence recalls a turbulent time of rivaling families. To get this photo, we climbed the largest of the fourteen towers - Torre Grossa. It was quite a climb and quite a view!

After climbing the 200 ft. tower, we were ready for dinner. But the tiny Trattoria (restaurant) Chiribiri we had read about was full; reservations were not available until eight.

We decided to wait (we were starting to get used to it by now). Once we were seated, with little more than elbow room between tables (so unlike our personalized open air dining at Il Castello!), we became reenergized with the buzz of happy diners. Here I enjoyed by first gnocchi-- potato dumplings in a tomato sauce—and I have been hooked ever since.

Geoff complimented the minestrone soup---it is Italian, after all---and ordered the grilled pork. I tried the beef in Chianti wine. A dish much like a pot roast with vegetables, but not being a red wine drinker, I felt like the wine overpowered the dish, rather than enhance it. Not bad, but not my favorite either. But wait, there’s more!

My appetite usually limits me to one or two dishes, but climbing those towers, waiting an extra hour for dinner, and perhaps the wonderful Tuscan scenery, all inspired me to order a famous Italian dessert: tiramisu. And it was fantastic! The best I have ever had…anywhere in Italy, anywhere ever! Yum!

Tasting Tuscany - Primo Piatto

Every recollection of our trip to Italy in 2006 is inevitably linked from scenery and place to the food experienced and savored there. Keeping breakfasts to simple espresso with pastry combos like the locals and patronizing the occasional deli for lunches ensured generous gelato sampling and remarkable dinner cuisine.

Our "first course" in Tuscan dining...

Primo Piatto – Certaldo Alto

By far, the best overall eating experiences were in the Tuscany region, particularly in the Certaldo/Fiano region. Having a kitchen in our villa apartment at Il Pozzo coupled with a visit to the modern supermarket in nearby Poggibonsi meant the food budget could be stretched for more dinners out—and each was deliciously long and memorable!

Our first night in Certaldo, we drove to the medieval part of town, called Certaldo Alto. As we waited for the hotel’s restaurant Il Castello to open for dinner, we wandered about the ancient stone bricked city that once housed the governor, but was now home to art and relics of the past.

When it finally appeared that the restaurant was open, our host greeted us warmly—all in Italian! He didn’t speak a word of English. His first customers for the evening, we practiced the spattering of Italian we had learned -- and mostly pointed to the items we identified in the menu.

As we sat outside in a covered terrace, we relished the purely Tuscan moment we had anticipated: an authentic Tuscan meal with a non-English speaker. Our host poured bottled water into our water glasses, and we began our first of many Tuscan dinner rituals: waiting!

I took the opportunity to order a famous Tuscan soup called Ribolitta (mostly made of leftover bread and vegetables, white beans, and olive oil; Geoff ordered a White bean soup. Our host, observing our inexperience, leaned over a drizzled olive oil over my ribolitta and motioned toward the bread loaf. We had already discovered that the saltless, sourdough Tuscan bread did not appeal as an appetizer; but it made a great partner to the hearty soups.

My ribolitta would definitely qualify as a comfort food, especially in the cooler months. It was a meal in itself. But dinner was not over.

Rosemary made its first grand appearance on my grilled meats: chicken leg, pork loin, steak, and sausage. These were accompanied by an order of deep fried vegetables: mostly artichokes. Geoff played it safe with a steak, but was pleasantly surprised by the Tuscan seasonings that enhanced the beef so well.

This would be the first of several dining moments in Tuscany that we still yearn to repeat.