James and I recently spent a few days in Florence. We were driving so we decided that on our way back to Panicale to stop at the mythical Castelnuovo di Berardenga. I say mythical only because each time James and I have passed the exit to Castelnuovo di Berardenga we promised
ourselves to one day stop there.
Driving through the Tuscan country side, we were on a mission.
James heard of a macelleria in Castelnuovo di Berardenga that sold Cinta Senese Pork.
Cinta is not that easy to find outside of the Siena area, so once parked we made a beeline for centro to find this macelleria.
BINGO!
James spoke to the butcher,with his best Italian, "Avete cinta senese?
"Si, Certo!"
Sure enough, this was a source of that special, rare and ancient breed of pork, named cinta ( Italian for belt) for the white colored band it has around it middle.
Another Tuscan specialty, Chianina beef.....from the huge white bull, is also available in this shop.
Do we need some of that too?
Proscuitto heaven!
Castelnuovo di Berardenga is charming. We crossed the piazza and stop to admire the fountain and to see if James could locate an enoteca or somewhere to buy a good local wine to serve with the cinta.
An enoteca is never too far away, nor is a good bottle of local wine in these parts!
Il signore described the wine as with profuma and i sapori.....the aroma and the flavor.
What took us so long to get off the highway and make a visit here?
We will undoubtably return and fill our shopping bag again.
On our drive back to Panicale (Umbria) we missed a turn and ended up on a back road, it was a beautiful drive.
Sometimes it is a good idea to get off the highway and just explore.
Ciao!
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