Wandering Italy: a Tuscany and Rome Photo Gallery
Several years after our visit to Northern Italy, we made our return to Italy with a brief stop in Rome followed by a week of the Tuscan countryside. Staying just outside of Panzano, this was a less cycling focused trip than our last visit to Italy. instead we focused on enjoying all of the delicious food and wine that the region has to offer. While our adventures were perhaps not photo heavy as some of our other Destinations, it was hard not to grab a few images along the way. A full gallery follows below - starting in Rome and continuing through Tuscany - along with some of the hits and misses from our trip.
The hits
Osteria Acquacheta a Montepulciano - we had some incredible meals in Italy but if there was one standout it was this small restaurant in Montepulciano where you are given a single glass for both wine and water and every single dish was a delight. The steak was incredible but don’t sleep on the truffle sausage pici. The restaurant was packed so reservations are probably a good idea.
La Ciambella (Rome) - of all the incredible pasta that we enjoyed, the standout was this casual Roman restaurant that we visited for lunch. The pasta carbonara was up there with the steak from Osteria Acquacheta as our favorite single dish from the entire trip.
Prosciutteria Roma-Cantina dei Papi - on our first day in Rome we stumbled into Cantina dei Papi where we sat on empty wine boxes and had a truly massive (and delicious) meat and cheese plate.
Rinuccio 1180 at Antinori - based on the size of the parking lot we could easily see this being overrun with crowds during peak season, but our mid-week visit to Antinori was a decidedly low key affair as the restaurant was less than half full and there wasn’t a single tour group in sight. The food was good, the wine was delicious, but it was the property that was the standout star.
The misses
Officina della Bistecca - like a crowd of other Americans who had presumably watched Chef’s Table or read Heat, we had dinner at Officina della Bistecca. Unfortunately the showmanship was more memorable than the food - we preferred Osteria Acquacheta a Montepulciano by a wide degree.
The weather - not much to do about this one, but we got unlucky with the weather with rain on perhaps half of our days in Tuscany. Thankfully Tuscany is beautiful in just about any weather.
These images were mostly shot with a Leica SL paired with the Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 lens. It is an exceptionally heavy (and expensive) kit to lug around the Italian countryside for two weeks, but I continue to love the image quality and color that comes out of the Leica.
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
