Piancastagnaio and el Amiata and a meal at Saxa Cuntaria

Last Saturday I decided to pay a visit to my friend Marco and to go to one of the regions in Tuscany I hadn�t visited yet, i.e. Piancastagnaio.

Piancastagnaio is located at 800 meters high and it dominates the Valdorcia, the Rocca di Radicofani and the old Via Francigena, which used to join Rome with France. Piancastagnaio, as all the towns which appeared near the Francigena, is a town with an interesting historical, cultural and artistic patrimony. The town has a boundary wall and it still preserves its medieval buildings, its noble palaces and its narrow roads, which wind among small squares and viewpoints that look out on three regions: Umbria, Lazio and Abruzzo.

The town is also famous in Italy for its mercury mines and for a statue at the entrance of the wall, which is a reminder of the fact that the whole town lived on mining.

For ski lovers, the pistes are just a few kilometers away as the station of Mount Amiata (the highest peak in Tuscany) is just a few minutes� away by car.

Marco, native of that town, resolved that to fight off the cold this season he had to eat well and he decided to take me out to the best restaurant in town.

The restaurant is called Saxa Cuntaria and it is certainly one of the restaurants where I have better eaten in the whole of Tuscany. The place is small, it�s got just a few tables, and it�s really intimate. The owner is a peculiar character who personally waits the tables and assists all customers.

As it was my first time at the restaurant I left Marco order my food and so we both ate the same, which I highly recommend, of course:

Starter: zuppa di farro alle castagne
Main course: taglaita con Lardo di Colonatta.


Both dishes are delicious; I specially recommend the main course which is a Chianina steak cooked in lard with a side order of superb black baked beans.

The restaurant has one of the best wine cellars I have ever tasted in Tuscany; it also offers many noble wines from other regions in Italy. For a change, Marco and I drank an excellent Sicilian wine.

The restaurant is a bit expensive, 45 euros per person, but the food and the wines are worthy it.

So, dear friends, as everything we recommend in this Blog, this place is also one of the sanctuaries of good Tuscan food. If you visit La Valdorcia or Mount Amiata, you can�t miss it!

I�m attaching a few pictures, as usual. On this opportunity, I�m including one of Marco, to whom I am dedicating the article.

Regards,

Giovanni.