The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
September 30 - Crawlin Thru Chianti - Part 1
This is Montebenichi, the little town we see at the top of the hill above La Selva. There isn't much here except the old church, a cute little osteria (now closed for the season) and probably a few dozen residents. They have clean clothes, though. Sometimes I wonder about Margene's fixation with other people's underwear, but you gotta love her anyway. So then we jumped back into our faithful little Renault Twingo (we saw this model advertised for 7800 euros -- about $11,000 -- in France ... not bad for a new car!) and off we went into the wilderness.
Unpaved roads are still quite common in Italy. They are known as "white roads" which sounds better than "gravel track." They are, however, reminders of a simpler time when most all travel was over roads of this size and type. The ride can be a little rough in spots but they will take you to areas that tourists never see.
One of those areas was the little village of San Vicente. There wasn't a lot here but a very old church starting to crumble a bit around the edges. I was struck by the textures of the stone, brick and wood.
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor
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