Our villas have fully equipped kitchens where you can prepare delicious Tuscan dishes. We would like to share with you our favourite places for shopping, where you can buy the best local products.
Where to buy food staying at Villa Torricella
Tavarnuzze is a small village, but has very good shops where you can buy your food.
Fresh fruit and vegetables
The best green grocer of the whole area is surely Agostino, on the main square of the village. Agostino wakes up in very early in the morning to be one of the first greengrocers arriving at the wholesale market and buy fresh products for his clients. Local fresh vegetables can be found in his shop, together with the best fruit of the season. His wife Roberta will try to explain her recipes in Italian, as she is always very glad to share the secrets of her kitchen with her clients. We hope you can understand!! You might have to wait in line before you are attended, but that is the sign of the popularity of Agostino and Roberta!
Our butcher from three generations
A few steps from Agostino you will find Fabio’s place, an historical butcher’s shop. Fabio inherited the shop from his father Luigi, who ran it together with Aldo, son of the founder Ugo. Signor Ugo and our grandmother were neighbors and good friends: they both loved the Italian opera and used to listen to Verdi and Puccini’s music from as very old radio. So four generations have been working to prepare the best meat for us. This is the place where you have to be if you are planning a barbecue in the courtyard of Villa Torricella: you will find here the best meat and particularly the best spare ribs and salsiccia, sausage, of Tavarnuzze!!
Try different kinds of Tuscan bread
Tuscan bread is unsalted: you will realize that at the moment you arrive. We have many different kinds of bread, but in our opinion the best one is the ‘panaccio’ (ugly bread) that you can buy at the local Coop. The Coop in Tavarnuzze is a small supermarket where you generally find only local people (and us too). Here they sell white panaccio, brown panaccio and a special wholewheat panaccio, small but delicious! Try also the ‘pane grani antichi’ made with flour produced from ancient kinds of wheat, and don’t forget the schiacciata, the low, salted bread with oil on top, so typically Tuscan, especially if filled with prosciutto, salame or finocchiona!
Where to buy food staying in Poggio a Vento
Poggio a Vento is on top of the hill, but although you are staying in the middle of nature and history, you can find very good shops close by, in Sambuca and Tavarnelle: small shops, where local people go to.
Bread at Gigi and Beppe’s place in Sambuca
Early in the morning you will find Il Forno, the bakery near the roman bridge crossing the Pesa stream in Sambuca, very crowded with clients who buy their fresh loaf of bread, or the schiacciata, low bread with oil and salt on top, or a slice of the famous torta della nonna, for the kids who are going to school. Gigi and Beppe, the owners, have learned all the secrets of baking bread from their uncle Dante and from a pastry chef called Emilio; they are glad to attend their local clients and our guests everyday!
Meet Massimo Francini’s meat in Sambuca
In the small village of Sambuca, a few steps from the bakery, you can buy your meat at Massimo Francini’s butcher shop: Massimo, who inherited the art of butchery from his father and grandfather, recently decided to offer a taste of his delicious products to all those who everyday have lunch close to their work in Sambuca. So at Massimo’s place, located behind the shop, who will find people working in the offices and factories of this area and maybe a few tourists, too. Everybody enjoys Massimo’s hamburger, tartare and delicious steak prepared in front of you!
A family of greengrocers in Sambuca and Tavarnelle
Sambuca also has a small but very good green grocery and the owner is related to Andrea Braschi, owner of the much larger shop in Tavarnelle, Ortofrutta. Located on the main square, Andrea’s shop has an incredible variety of fresh local fruit and vegetables, and his products on show offer a delightful variety of colours and smells, and tastes!!
The best bistecca ever!!!
In Tavarnelle, try the best bistecca of the region, visiting the butcher’s shop of Morando Morandi, on the main square. The shop was founded in 1880, and Morando started as an apprentice butcher when he was 11. Today he is a member of the Academy of Florentine Steak and a Master of the Arte dei Beccai, the guild of the Florentine butchers since the Middle Ages. Morando also started again producing the mezzone or bastardo, a more delicate kind of salame made with pig and veal meat that in the past was prepared and seasoned in the farmhouses of the Chianti.
You can prepare your bistecca on the barbecue in the garden of Poggio a Vento or in the ‘aia’ of Villa Torricella, or decide to be spoiled and book a table for the Bisteccata in Tavarnelle on the internet site of the event: http://www.ilcaratello.biz/Eventi/Bisteccata-in-Piazza/. Every Tuesday evening during the summer, the main square is full with tables in front of every shop and restaurant. You just have to book your table, go to Morando’s shop and choose your steak, following his advice and sit down in front of a glass of Chianti wine. Your bistecca will be prepared on a large grill on the square and brought to your table. Buon Appetito!!