Lunch with Antonio

Miles from Home - 5499.3
Firsts / Highlights - Another lunch at al Palazzo della Chigiana, climbed to the top of Torre del Mangia
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No Route Today
People - Antonio de Miccoli.



This post is from June 13, 2009.

Today was my day to break down my bike and prepare to move to the Dolomites for what will probably be my last week in Italy. Breaking down my bike is not something I look forward to, so I compensated by visiting al Palazzo della Chigiana for lunch (the scene of the Sampler Platter that I wrote about earlier).

The owner, Antonio, recognized me when I walked in. He told me that today he would make “an even better platter than before”. I said, “Okay, have at it”. He put together an amazing assortment of prosciutto, salami, roast pork, cheeses and couple of kinds of bread and a pureed carrot mixture that is a cousin to his pesto that I had last time. He set me up outside to eat where I could draw in other English-speaking customers. He also delivered a glass of Chianti Classico along with the bottle and invited me to have as much as I wanted on the house. It is fair to say that I have found my favorite place to eat in Italy.

After lunch, I asked Antonio to calculate what it would cost to ship 6 liters of olive oil back to the U.S.. I knew I wouldn’t like the answer, but I thought it would be a great answer to most of my souvenir requirements. I was right, I didn’t like the answer, so I asked him, “What makes this olive oil special?”. He said, “I am a vat of oil. You make me and later come back. This oil is only from here up (indicating somewhere above his waist). Everything else goes to someone else. This is extra extra virgin oil”. I don’t know if it was the taste of the oil or the Chiani Classico, but the explanation worked. I decided to ship it back home.

Next the conversation moved on to his desert wines. They are not actually called wines, so he is allowed to ship them. He poured me a flight from least expensive to most. The least was not very interesting, and the middle is what he had poured for me on my last visit that I enjoyed. The last was something very special. Made from grapes that were aged to nothing before being pressed. Very sweet, but very enjoyable. It was the smallest bottle and twice the cost of the next less expensive. He said, “This is the very best. What the pope drinks”. I fell for it again and had a couple of bottles shipped home.

In all, I spent about 4 days of my total budget at lunch today. I hope it all makes it home.



As my last act of procrastination before packing my bike, I climbed to the top of the Torre del Mangia. That is one of the tallest secular towers ever built in Italy and is the focal point of the Piazza del Campo in the middle of Siena. It was built starting in 1325, so I think the stairway gets a pass on meeting building codes. It was a very narrow steep marble staircase with a great view at the top. I would have guessed that 387 steps would be a challenge, but the payoff for all of those hills I have ridden in Italy was that it was not so difficult.