After a lovely morning of trying Croce di Mezzo's tasty wines, we headed into nearby Montalcino to get a brief taste of the town and grab some lunch.
Montalcino is a pretty little hilltop town. (Look at the last post for a view of the whole place.) We rather liked this cathedral, and were sort of surprised to read that Lonely Planet describes it as "an ugly 19th-century neoclassical travesty." Maybe we all just like neoclassical travesties?
Walking down the main drag, we spotted a good-sounding restaurant from our Lonely Planet and decided to drop in and investigate.
Osteria di Porta al Cassero was full of Italian families enjoying a late Saturday lunch. We placed our order and then sat back, only to have our very generous crostini misti plate arrive almost instantaneously!
It's a measure of both how hungry we were and how good it looked that we forgot to take a picture until we had started to demolish the plate...
This was a really generous crostini plate, for only 3.50 euro - there were five kinds of crostini represented! One was toscani (chicken liver pate), one porcini mushroom, one a onion jam, one tomato sauce, and one fresh tomato. All quite good, we thought.
After that, we only ordered one course. Keef was feeling a bit cold, so he went for the "zuppa di pane", or bread soup - actually a thick vegetable soup served over Tuscan bread.
Jodi and Husbear were feeling more pasta-ey, so Jodi ordered the Maccheroni al Sugo (which was a long, thick ribbon pasta, not elbow macaroni, and which we only photographed blurrily), and Husbear got the Pinci co' le briciole, pici pasta with bread crumbs. True cucina povera, or cooking of the poor. Both of their pastas were fresh, homemade, and absolutely stellar.
And I got tongue. It was on the menu, and this seemed like the place to finally give it a try. I thought it was really tasty - it reminded me of the bollito sandwich at Nerbone, which is a fatty boiled beef cut. Though this was topped with a delicious basil, parsley, and caper sauce. Husbear pointed out that I'd probably eat anything topped with capers, and he's right.
It was a little surprising that the tongue came with its own contorni, or vegetable sides - I've gotten used to this not being the case in Italian restaurants.
We were completely stuffed at this point, so we asked for one (1) tiramisu to split. The waiter looked at us strangely, but he did bring it, and it was just as good as the rest of the meal.
I think the four of us would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone finding themselves in Montalcino near mealtime. They did solid Tuscan food, with an even more local emphasis. I'd really like to try their tripe.
Lunch finished, we walked the rest of the way down the main road to the Fortezza, or fortress. Gotta love a fortress with a wine bar in it...
Just on the other side of the fortress was a small garden with beautiful views back towards town. It looked like it would have been a great place to sit with a picnic lunch and a bottle of local wine.
Unfortunately, it was really time for us to be going if we wanted to see anywhere else before heading back to Florence. We retrieved the car and drove towards Montepulciano.
We did have to stop a few times to admire the Crete Senese, or Sienese hills - covered with wildflowers this time of year. The grape vines were just starting to bud, as well.
Just makes you want to roll down the hill, doesn't it? We didn't, since we had places to be.
Here, specifically.
That town on top of the hill is Montepulciano. Wine people likely recognize the name, because of the town's famous Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The town does have a lot of un-wine-related beauty, though.
Like a Fiat CinqueCento convention! (yeah, probably not every day. But hey, how awesome is that?)
This is a car that invites crazed loyalty. Sort of like the Volkswagen Beetle. They're much too cute not to love.
Montepulciano is a very Tuscan town, with evidence of the Medici everywhere. Once you learn to recognize their family crest, with the six balls, it's amazing how often it turns up. (Here, it's in the top of that well you see between the buildings.)
And you have to love the shades of brown. Jodi and Keef were so excited to see all of the wall treatments visible in the town.
Of course, there are enoteche all over town selling the local wines. They're really tempting!
On the other side of Piazza Grande, we found an overlook that allowed spectacular views across the lower part of town and the valley below. What a wonderful place!
While we were in town, we knew we had to go visit a cantine - a place where we could learn a bit more about the local wines and hopefully even taste a few.
The first one we looked at was rather uninviting... and smelled sort of strongly like weed, which was a little odd, given that it didn't appear too laid-back!
We recrossed Piazza Grande and walked through an open door into Cantine Contucci. There was nobody in sight, and we walked in. I was in the back and turned around to find a crotchety-looking older man staring at me, and asked him if we could enter. He waved us on, looking perurbed...
When we finished our exploration, I tried to ask him a few questions in Italian, and he lit up. He talked with Husbear about learning Italian cooking, stroked the back of my head (sort of creepily, I thought), and expounded to us about Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Apparently, it got its name by being the favored wine of the Medici.
We bought a bottle of his wine. By this time, it was getting late in the afternoon - so, back to the car, back to the Florence airport, back to the house...
Jodi and Keef had what I hope was a relaxing last night in town before having to catch their flight to Paris in the morning. They had an overnight in Paris before flying back to Houston... and I hope that went well!
Next posts - seder, and then on to Nana's visit! And I'm trying to talk husbear into a cookin' post, but we shall see.
