Sansepulcro is a sprawling town, home to the Buitoni pasta factory now sadly owned by Nestle, but has a medieval centro with narrow streets and many nice shops. Vicki had found a review of a restaurant called Taverna Tuscany so we stopped there for lunch. It is a typical Italian trattoria with three tables outside on the street and more seating within. There were no printed menus, just a board outside listing what was being offered that day. We both started with Panzanella, the wonderful Tuscan salad made with bread, tomatoes, onions, cucumber and an olive oil and vinegar dressing.
Panzanella
It was marvelous and will be even better in the summer when the very ripe and delicious local tomatoes are available. For the primo, Vicki had Salsiccia con Fagioli, Tuscan beans with sausages, and Bob had Pappardelle pasta with ragu. Both of these dishes were divine, and we marveled how good this simple food can be.
Fagioli con Salsiccia
The beans in Vicki’s dish were canellini were cooked just right and a perfect match for the two little grilled sausages, which were extremely flavorful.
Pappardella con Ragu
My wide flat pappardelle noodles were rolled thinner than those we see in the U.S. and they were napped in an excellent ragu. Once again, another great Italian meal.
We were the only foreigners in the restaurant and it was interesting watching the Italians enjoy their lunch. The gentleman and two ladies at the table across from us started with pasta that was brought to the table in a large bowl, then served into smaller ones. After that came a huge steak, a bistecca fiorentina, which must have been two inches thick. The gentleman was given a mean looking knife and he proceeded to cut the meat into smaller portions for the group. It looked like it was cooked perfectly, seared on the outside and rare within, the traditional way this dish is prepared on the grill.
Bistecca a la FiorentinaWhen Vicki returned from the restroom she told me to check out the kitchen in the back, which I did, and saw a small waist-high fireplace with a wood fire and a grate to grill meat. The chef was at work and next to him was a huge haunch of Chianina beef from which the bistecca is cut. Our lunch was 39 euro, which included a 4 euro coperta (cover charge).
After lunch, we walked over to the city museum to see the Pieros and as happened last time, we were alone in the large room with the fresco of the Resurrection at the end. Just us and one of the greatest pieces of renaissance art. It was, of course, just as stunning as when we first saw it in 2002.
"The Resurrection" by Piero Della Francesco
The Museo Civico is a very nice little museum in a town that is very proud of its native son, Piero Della Francesca. Its other famous native is Luca di Pacioli 1446-1517), a Franciscan monk who is famous as a mathematician and called the “Father of Accounting. There is a lovely statue of him near the Museo Civico.
Luca di Pacioli
Sansepulcro is part of what is called the Piero Della Francisca Trail, which begins with his stunning series frescos Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, goes to Monterchi, where the museum holds the Madonna del Parto—the Pregnant Madonna—and ends in Urbino where the Palazzo Ducale has his famous painting, The Flagellation (of Christ). Though not on the PDF Trail, there is also another famous work of Piero, the Polyptych of Sant' Antonio"in the Palazzo dei Priori in nearby Perugia, which we saw during our stay in Umbria in 2006.
Madonna del Parto
Yesterday, Vicki and I decided to backtrack a bit from Sansepulcro and we visited the charming little hill town of Monterchi to see the Madonna del Parto. Completed in six days by PDF in 1460, the fresco was originally done in a church in Monterchi, but after the building was damaged by an earthquake in the late eighteenth century, it was detached and is now housed in the Museo della Madonna del Parto Monterchi, where it is the only work on display.
Museo della Madonna del Parto Monterchi
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