Wednesday, March 31, 2010

RESTAURANT UPDATE (ITALY): Dying to know the two local restaurants in Chianti? Villa S.Andrea put us on the trail of the following two local haunts - was the bigger adventure finding them or dining at them? Not sure as you certainly wind your way around the beautiful hills in this area of Tuscany and at night you can be lost for hours trust me! The first is the only seafood restaurant in the area, La Trattoria del Pesce,, which is within a very modest roadside building. We try to order in the local language (without any real knowledge) or a combination of waving of hands - without success here so our gorgeous young waiter ended up presenting us with a huge poster picturing all the local produce (like the ones in biology classes) from which we could make a selection. Large generations of local families arrived around 9.30pm with toddlers in tow so the noise level was high, the atmosphere buzzing and fun. The second restaurant, La Fattoria, sits high on a hill with a rustic courtyard. Once again our Italian wasn't great but the resulting choice of amazing Tuscan beef and lamb (la miglirore carne del nostro chef)- served without anything but the meat on a wooden chopping board arrangement - was divine. A bottle of local Chianti and it was heaven on a stick. (www.ristorantelafattoria-chianti.com).