We visited Volterra on our third day in Tuscany and here is an account of the lunch we ate there. You may be wondering where the report on lunch on our second day is (we ate at Magnino in San Gimignano on the first day). Well, we visited Siena on the second day. It was a lovely day but punctuated by heavy bursts of rain. And so we ended up eating panini on the run at an informal museum cafe counter in the Piazza del Duomo. Our Siena outing was to influence our Volterra outing as well. Rain was once again in the forecast but after a prolonged drama with finding parking lots with spaces we contrived to leave our rain jackets in the car. We discovered we’d done so only after the steep ascent to the town proper. And so when it came time to think of lunch, we decided to find a place within very close reach of the Etruscan Museum, which was to be our major port of call, culture-wise. I had done no research into the Volterra dining scene and so we picked a place with covered outdoor seating: Il Giardinetto. Lunch was nothing special but it was also not bad at all.

That Il Giardinetto, and the other restaurants in its vicinity, are aimed entirely at tourists can be easily discerned from two things: 1) its proximity to the Museo della Tortura (a little-known law stipulates that every town in Tuscany must have a Museo della Tortura; and 2) the menu that is translated into not just English but also French, Spanish and German. And there’s also the fact that the menu covers all the major Italian culinary bases. Accordingly, we didn’t have our hopes up. But as it happens the food was perfectly serviceable, even if it was, as the kids would say, quite mid relative to every other restaurant meal we’d had in Italy thus far.

What did we eat? They set down some bread on the table as part of the coperto (cover charge) but we got some bruschetta with olive oil and garlic anyway. From the antipasti section we also got the eggplant parmesan. This was actually quite tasty—and we preferred it to a far more fancy version we had the next day at a restaurant we accidentally ate at in San Gimignano (more on this later). Three pastas to follow: gnocchi alla Sorrentina, pappardelle al cinghiale (we sampled the region’s famous wild boar sauce at almost every opportunity), and fettucine alla crema di tartufo. All were acceptable and all would have been more than acceptable in most parts of the US. We also got a grilled thinly-sliced pork chop and sauteed spinach, both of which were quite tasty.

It had been quite sunny through most of our meal but at the end the threatened wet weather showed up. So, rather than take a chance on dessert, we paid and made a dash for the Etruscan Museum where we successfully managed to wait out the rain.

For a look at the menu and what we ate, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down to see how much it cost and to see what’s coming next.

With soft drinks and water the total came to just about 67 euros. Which is quite reasonable for what we ate. I’m sure we could have eaten much better in Volterra, perhaps even within reach of the Etruscan Museum, but I have to say it’s quite relaxing for a food idiot like me to let go and not over-plan restaurant outings for a change while on vacation. And speaking of the Etruscan Museum, I don’t mean to give the sense that it’s only good for waiting out the rain. The collection is quite impressive—even if it’s mostly the Museum of Etruscan Funerary Urns—and there are lovely views of the city and surrounding areas from very the top floor.

Okay, my next Tuscan restaurant report will be of that accidental lunch the next day in San Gimignano. I might even try to get that out tomorrow.