Here is a report on our last lunch on our Tuscan sojourn. It was eaten in Lucca, a town we had no plans to visit pretty much till we went there. We’d thought our last full day in Tuscany would be spent in either Montepulciano or Montalcino, or both. But in the morning we decided against driving to towns whose principal attractions include wine and drove north instead. We weren’t sure what we would make of Lucca and so had no firm plans. We figured if it wasn’t our favourite, we would cut and run to some other small town nearby. As it happens, we loved Lucca and stayed there the entire day. Which meant we needed to figure out a spot for lunch. 5-10 minutes of googling led me to Osteria Cantine Bernardini. The reviews I read indicated an easy going place that serves updated takes on Tuscan classics and we decided to give it a go. And I’m very glad we did: this was hands-down our best meal in Tuscany and among our best meals of the trip as a whole. Continue reading →

In my report yesterday on our lunch in Volterra, I made reference to a fancy meal we ate accidentally in San Gimignano the next day. Here now is a report on that meal. Let me begin by explaining what I mean by an accidentally eaten meal. It was a scorcher of a day in Tuscany and we figured we’d spend a good chunk of the afternoon in the pool at the agriturismo we were staying at outside San Gimignano. And so we decided not to go too far on this day. As we’d not seen very much of San Gimignano on our first outing we decided to spend a little more time there and then head to the town of Certaldo, also not very far from us but in the other direction. We figured we’d spend the morning in San Gimignano and then head to Certaldo for lunch. And then we spent so much time ambling around San Gimignano that it made more sense to eat there. But where? The sun was high in the sky and it was hot. The owner of the agriturismo had recommended one spot but it did not have air conditioning and the outdoor tables were in the sun. “You can come back in 30 minutes”, the manager said, “the sun will move across the street”. With that in our back pocket we ambled some more and then found ourselves outside another place the agriturismo had recommended. They had air conditioning and available tables and so we went in and sat down. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

Okay,  back to Italy. So far, I have chronicled our meals in the first three cities we visited: Naples, Rome and Florence. From Florence we headed to the small towns of Tuscany. We rented a car from the airport and drove it to an agriturismo just outside San Gimignano, where we spent five nights (I highly recommend the very reasonably-priced Podere Le Grotte). From there we visited a different Tuscan town every day. We’d have a light breakfast in, head out for the day and then come back in the early evening and eat dinner in (cooked by me with ingredients we bought while out). Unsurprisingly, San Gimignano was our port of call on our first day. We did the short drive pretty much right after dropping our bags off, with our eyes first on a late lunch. Not that I’d done so very much research for the places we ate at in the big cities, but I’d really done no research for the Tuscan towns. Our selection process on this first visit to San Gimignano (we went back one more time) was therefore based on three factors: 1) was it close to where we entered the town? 2) was the kitchen open; 2) was the interior air-conditioned? At the intersection of positive answers to all these questions was a place named Magnino, and it was there we ate. And a good meal it was too. Continue reading →