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L'Antico Borgo Ristorante, Civitella in Val di Chiana, Italy

We were lost, hopelessly, almost irretrievably lost. My friend from California had been driving us around for several hours, all three of us having gotten very little rest after our arrival in Rome. At that point, we had been up almost 48 hours with hardly a wink on the planes we took. We were searching for Civitella in Val di Chiana, a tiny little town in the hills above the Tuscan city of Arrezzo and it was a task more difficult than we thought. The directions we received were not very clear and it didn't help our cause that the signs around this area of Italy weren't very clear, either. Once you leave the city, the Tuscan towns pretty much all look the same. Pretty, but identical. And even when we stopped to ask for directions, the language barrier was worse than we had anticipated.

Hours later, our Italian friend finally decided to meet us at a nearby hotel, easier to find than the bed and breakfast in which we were to stay. By the time we checked in to Antico Borgo—the B&B— and unloaded some of our bags, we were late almost two hours for dinner at L'Antico Borgo, the restaurant. The waiter was gracious enough, through gritted teeth, to serve us anyway. We were famished and we ate quickly. The food, the service, the night were all a blur of pastas and funghis. I was so tired I even forgot to bring my trusty camera.

Hence, the pictures here are from when we came back a few days later, to make up for the fact that we could barely keep our eyes open during the first meal. I'm glad to report that, if you're alert and awake enough, you'll find the cooking here to be sensational. Exquisite preparations, wonderful ingredients, an absolute surprise in this dinky and ancient little town whose only claim to fame, we thought, was its ruins.

Left: a simple pea soup with crostini. Right: zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese on cream of fresh peas.
Left: Mousse di fegatini di pollo ruspante con pane tostato (chicken liver mousse served with toasted bread). The chicken liver was served two ways: the traditional one in the cup, the other, more intriguing one as slices of cold, soft and creamy paté. It had the texture of butter. Together with the thick balsamic vinegar, it was stunning.
Left: "Sformatini" of zucchini served with cheese fondue and bread chips. Right: panzarotti stuffed with pecorino cheese in parmigiano sauce.
Left: sirlon steak with roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables; right: pici pasta with "Nana" duck sauce.
Lamb chops scottadito-style with aromatic herbs sauce.
Left: Chianti Superiore; right: Toscana bianco - one of our favorite wines of the trip, a spicy white from Tuscany.
Left: wine-soaked pear atop sabayon; right: the restaurant's version of tiramisu.
Below: hot chocolate souffle and meringue in guazzetto of strawberry
It's not exactly a destination restaurant if you're staying in Florence, to which it is much closer than Rome. But if you're planning on going through Arezzo, it might be worth getting lost in. The B&B is also worth considering if you intend to stay in the area. It's in the midst of a very quiet town, prettier if a bit more in the boondocks than Arezzo itself, but you will need a car to get around.

L'Antico Borgo Ristorante
Via di Mezzo, 35
52041 Civitella in Val di Chiana, Arezzo, Italy
+39 0575 448160

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