|
Typical local cuisine can be experienced at our restaurant La Taverna del Barbarossa, which is just 20 metres from the Casanova in a 13th Century farmhouse surrounded by a garden from which there is an incomparable 180° view of the Val d’ Orcia. The name derives from an extremely important historical event which took place in 1154: the meeting between the Papal legates and Emperor Frederick II of Svevia, who was known as "Barbarossa". |
The Restaurant has been carefully and skilfully restored, conserving the most important architectural features, such as the huge clear-stone fireplace with its coat of arms of the Ospedale della Scala di Siena. The restaurant is made up of two large rooms and a lovely veranda which in summer allows you to enjoy our typical local cuisine outside.
La Taverna del Barbarossa, with its exclusive sense of intimacy, is available for guests who wish to find a perfect balance between tradition and nature. Here you can leave behind the noise and congestion of the city and treat yourself to our seasonal cuisine based on locally grown produce and flavoured with herbs from our kitchen garden. While eating you can take in the incomparable view of the beautiful Val d’ Orcia with its ever changing colours: the golden yellow of summer, the bright green of spring and the thousands of shades of red and brown that characterise the autumn. |
 |
Our menu changes seasonally and includes typical, traditional Tuscan dishes based on ancient recipes (some dating back to Etruscan times) and more recent inventions of our resident chef. We have a fully-stocked and eclectic wine cellar which includes Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino, made by some of the area’s most prestigious wine-makers. Also available are our very own red and white house wines. Children are more than welcome and can choose from a special menu. While they wait, we can provide them with paper and colours to help pass the time.
|
 |
 |
If, during your stay, you would like to find out more about typical Tuscan cuisine, why not take part in one of our cookery courses.
Our chef will teach you how to make dishes which you will have no problem repeating at home, as well as revealing practical hard- come-by secrets. A recipe book of local dishes will serve as a perfect reminder of your culinary experience in the Val d’ Orcia. |
For groups of 8-10 participants, we offer weekly cookery courses which, apart from theory, include a good deal of practical work, and themed tasting sessions, including local cold-pressed olive oils, honey, Pienza cheese and wines such Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. In this way the course is not just simple cookery lessons but a total gastronomic experience where everything which is connected to the local gastronomic tradition is included so as to perfect your knowledge of the area’s recipes and dishes. Indeed part of the course includes guided visits to some Brunello and Vino Nobile vineyards, and other gastro-enologic visits to places such as the famous Vigna Tonda, the Museo del Vetro a wine museum in the Castello Banfi, a local extra virgin olive oil press, a dairy making the famous Pecorino cheese in Pienza and a white truffle house in the Sienese Crete. At the end of the course you will receive a small book in Italian or English.
|
|
 |
|
