We
were about to depart, regretfully, from our Tuscan villa when our
hostess, Dorella Sarperi, made it a point to emphasize that she was
the person in the kitchen when meals were prepared for guests.
She and her
husband, Tullio, own and operate an agritourism business. The
Sarperis have converted a large farmhouse into a charming
bed-and-breakfast, the 12-room Villa Montaperti.
The 200-year-old
house has retained its stone-and-brick exterior, original tile
floors and spacious rooms, combining that with modern, private
bathrooms and a swimming pool. Separate buildings accommodate a
taverna and a small chapel.
Adding to the
charm, the villa overlooks the Era Valley and offers a clear view
of the city of Volterra on the opposite ridge.
Villa Montaperti is among the
roughly 14,000 agritourism establishments available to tourists
because of a government policy, initiated in the 1980s, to make
Italy's countryside economically viable. A quarter of the
agritourism businesses are in Tuscany.
Rural Italy was
being abandoned, according to our guide, Vincenzo Riolo, but with
subsidies from Italy and the European Union, the situation turned
around quickly.
To qualify for aid,
applicants have to be legitimate farmers and, if they serve meals,
the food must be made with the farmers' products.
At Villa
Montaperti, we were greeted with such a meal, with the
understanding that Dorella buys the bread.
The table was laden
with bruschetta of several types (only one with tomatoes), grilled
zucchini, cold cuts, a bread-based salad (a very pleasant
discovery), red wine that was a little fizzy and grappa of several
flavors, which I was too jetlagged to risk.
This was the start
of a short Tuscan sojourn that any lover of food and wine might
want to try.
We had dinner at
Agriturismo Serraspina near Volterra, for the best pasta ever;
tasted wines at the Marchesi Ginori Lisci winery in tiny Querceto
(part of the village is still owned by the Ginori family); and
tasted olive oils at the Trattoria dell'Orcio Interrato in
Montopoli.
Tasting olive oil
by itself is like drinking flavored fuel oil, but the oil is good
stuff when offered with bread.
The restaurant, set
in a 14th century palace, now the Hotel Quattro Gigli, is worth the
22-mile drive from Pisa. Best of all was the coppetta di pomodoro,
a kind of gazpacho.
Our food
experiences also included Enoteca Del Duca, where the wine bar is
in 12th century palatial digs; the restaurant is steps away from
Volterra's central piazza. Our lunch was on the small backyard
patio, with the restaurant's herb garden to one side.
But first came the
cooking demonstration by the husband-wife, owner-chef team of
Genuino del Duca and Ivana Delli Compagni. They whipped up -- well,
they seemed to whip things up -- a baked zucchini puree called
tortino and half-moon raviolis.
Ivana had made the
pasta ahead of time but flattened and cut it with lightning speed.
We collected a few recipes then ate lunch
appreciatively.
Agritourism
businesses aren't well connected to the world's distribution
networks, but Dorella Sarperi of Villa Montaperti wants to do
business with U.S. travel agents.
Agents can view an
Italian-language site at www.montaperti.com or e-mail [email protected].
Sarperi said she
would quote net rates per room or for the entire house to travel
agents who provide an eight-digit ARC or IATA code.
About art, history
Tuscany is more
than great food, wine and country villas; it is rich in art and
history.
Volterra, with
12,000 residents, including 7,000 inside its medieval walls, is a
case in point. It is the oldest continuously occupied city in
Tuscany, dating back 3,500 years.
From about 700
B.C., it was Etruscan. Volterra was the last Etruscan town to fall
to the Romans, in 260 B.C. But it did so by treaty not in battle,
which allowed Volterra to keep
its Etruscan ways. Today's streetscape doesn't reveal much of that,
except for an Etruscan gate that was reused when medieval
Volterranos rebuilt their walls to make the city smaller and easier
to defend.
An Etruscan
treasure can be found in the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, which is
chock-a-block with urns, ranging from the simplest to some with
very detailed bas-reliefs.
In time, Volterra
emerged as one of medieval Tuscany's most important cities, until
Florence conquered it in 1472. Volterra stopped developing, which
left Volterranos with a beautiful medieval city overlooking the
Cecina Valley and with a view all the way to the sea on a clear
day.
One other thing
about medieval Volterra: It was the first Tuscan town to build a
city hall; that structure became the model for others, including
Florence's, which is easy to discern.
Tourists often find
Tuscany's smaller places by traveling from Florence, but for a
significant part of Tuscany, Pisa is just as convenient, and its
airport is larger.
Pisa is an hour
from Volterra, only a half-hour from Lucca. And the city has become
more accessible to Americans with the introduction of the first
nonstop service from the U.S. this spring. Delta flies to Pisa four
times per week from New York.
It sounds trite to
urge a visit to the Leaning Tower, but the tower is a stunning
sight. The same applies to the Pisa Cathedral, the world's largest
cathedral when built in the 11th century, as well as the Baptistry
and the Monumental Cemetery. The cathedral complex warrants an
unhurried visit.
Tourists have been
able to climb the tower since 2001. It was closed in 1991 because
of a dangerous lean, which was adjusted to keep the tower from
breaking up. Tickets are available online or on site for a
30-minute climb with a warden.
But Pisa has
something else cooking. It may be known one day as the city with a
great collection of Roman-era boats in a fabulous
museum.
Pisans in 1998
found about 30 boats that had sunk in antiquity in an area that was
once a waterway. Some have been excavated, but there is much work
left to do.
For the time being,
the Roman Ships Excavation Site offers an exhibit of two ship
replicas, a display of several large, reconstructed clay pots and a
fair amount of narrative in English to aid the visitor. The site is
open to small escorted groups that make advance
reservations.
Possibly as early
as 2009, the ships will have a home in the new riverside Museum of
the Sea in the former Medicean Arsenal.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].