No better way to spend an icy January week-end than in Arezzo, especially if you’re staying at the warm and welcoming Casa Volpi. After meanders in nearby Monterchi, we arrived close to dinnertime at Casa Volpi where smiling owner Alessia Volpi settled us in our spacious room – what views of Arezzo out the window! We’d decided to enjoy a meal in Arezzo the next day: the bone-chilling windy winter night convinced us to stay right at Casa Vopi for dinner.
A Tuscan sunset
Casa Volpi, family-run, welcoming hotel just outside of Arezzo
Smiling owner, Alessia Volpi, welcomes us
..and what a view out our window!
Che fortuna! Service was pleasant in the cozy dining room (Alessia, too, helped out), the wines and olive oils accompanying our meal were produced by the Volpi family and each dish starred simple but tasty Tuscan goodness, right from the liver pate’ antipasto which is called “il nero” – “the black” – in Tuscany. Pino then opted for a caper-topped Tuscan steak for his main course but a soup and pasta dish both enticed me. Quandry resolved: our waiter brought me half-portions of each: a creamy squash soup and the potato-stuffed tortelli, typical of the Casentino area of Tuscany. We both shared sautéed artichokes afterwards and had not planned on dessert – until we saw the oozy chocolate cake.
Alessia, too, helps out in the dining room – and kitchen!
Wine and olive oil right from the Volpi farmlands
“Il nero” crostino
Pino ordered a juicy steak topped with capers
A creamy squash soup with toasted bread, Parmesan shavings
Potato-stuffed tortelli, a Tuscan specialty
The chocolate cake just oozed melted chocolate
The lively chatter of groups of aretini “locals” at adjacent tables confirmed we’d happened on a “Tuscan find”: not just a restaurant for guests at Casa Volpi but one frequented, too, by aretini. We’ll certainly return: after all, just over an hour from Assisi, Arezzo’s medieval and Renaissance treasures merit frequent visits. We’d reveled in the Piero della Franceca masterpieces on a past visit but we were unable to see them this round: under restoration.
Another reason to return.
….and the good wine which Alessia gave us as a gift as we were leaving is our reminder.
Mille grazie to the hospitable Volpi family for welcoming us into your home, in fact, the name you chose for your hotel, Casa Volpi is….perfetto!
“Alessia, grazie and we’ll be back!”
Pino with Alessia’s gift of their family wines
Click here to read about another Tuscan favorite
Click here to read about nearby Trequanda, another southern Tuscan favorite
Read about Petroio, not far away
Montisi is yet another southern Tuscan gem
Read about Sinalunga, a nearby southern Tuscan hill town we often visit
Read about Tuscan gem, Anghiari and its artisan market
Read about an Arezzo restaurant not to miss
