tuscany # 52-56 ~ an Italian treat

Dante & Company ~ Viliano, Tuscany • click to embiggen
Fried rabbit, a happy camper, & ricotta custard • click to embiggenAbout 1/2 way through our time in Tuscany, I remarked to the wife that the one thing we had yet to do was to met an Italian. We had come in contact with quite a number of Italians - all friendly, courteous, and kind - while going about our daily business but what I meant was to met someone with whom we could have a conversation.

That situation came to a happy conclusion the very next day in the tiny village of Viliano. The wife and I were rambling around in hot pursuit - I was in hot pursuit, the wife was doing more of a slow burn - of the picture postcard Tuscany when we came upon the hilltop village of Viliano which was just a hair bigger than blink-and-you'll-miss-it size. Smaller still was the gated entrance to Piccola Trattoria Guastini which I noticed when driving by only because, playing near the gate, there was a little long blonde haired kid who caught my eye. He wasn't the spitting image of my grandson, Hugo, but he was close enough to catch my attention.

So we stopped and descended the stairs to the terraced restaurant that overlooked a vast stretch of southern Siena/Tuscany. It was open and in we went.

To make a long story short, we met an Italian or, more accurately, several Italians - little Dante and his mom (seated in the above picture) and dad (seated with wine). Emanuela (dad), the owner of Piccola Trattoria Guastini, spoke very passable English - Dante could only count to 10 in English - and he turned out to be a very friendly, gracious, and informative host. We had an interesting conversion - in fact, we had 2 conversations with him because the food was so good that we returned the next day with my brother and his wife in tow to do it all over again.

As luck would have it, I had a picture of Hugo on one of the memory cards I was using. Dante and his dad and mom got quite a kick from the visual similarity between Hugo and Dante. We got quite a kick from the similarity of Dante's and Hugo's energy levels. Meeting the Scortichini family and enjoying their warm and genuine hospitality was a real treat.

And, oh yeh, the food was magnificent - I had the fried rabbit and a ricotta/honey/cinnamon custardy with pistachios thing for dessert that was an absolutely delicious Italian treat.