A visit to Arezzo

The day after seeing Montepulciano and Orvieto, it was Arezzo’s turn for a visit from the Wilson clan (and other hangers on).

To be honest, Tania and I didn’t really see that much of the town but we (including Jo) found this really great restaurant called “Buca di San Francesco” – across the street from San Francesco’s church.

The restaurant is decorated with all these religious depictions – it used to be part of the church complex.

The reason we’d chosen this restaurant is because they had this special steak that is famous to Arezzo which we’d wanted to try.

The owner, Mario, welcomed us in and advised that he had the steak but that....“it’s just a steak”. He then proceeded to put together a degustation menu for us:

 

A small serve of bread and tomato soup

A pasta plate of pici pasta (typical to the region) cooked and fried in breadcrumbs with some chestnut-pasta ravioli with a sweet, chestnut filling.

A Tuscan tasting plate (of meats from the region)

A dessert of Vin Santo and Cantucci biscuits

...all washed down with a Tuscan red (of course)

Mario - the owner

Enjoying that plate of Tuscan tastes

The best thing about this restaurant was the fact that the floor of the restaurant is the old Etruscan road.

The old Etruscan road

How cool is that ??

After a day’s touring Arezzo, it was back to the villa to chill for a bit:

Dinner that night was a big serving of risotto with Tuscan sausages and fennel.