Excellent breakfast in the hotel with a food and wine tour in town
Culinary discoveries begin at breakfast
Hotel Italia, a short walk from the heart of Siena and just outside the restricted traffic area, is the ideal place to enjoy a gourmet holiday. The day starts with breakfast, a real triumph of delights for everyone: artisan tarts and biscuits, chocolate fondue, pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, muesli, cheeses, cured meats, yoghurt, organic jams and wholemeal bread, and there is plenty on offer for vegans and coeliacs. After breakfast in hotel you can set out on a wine and food tour, to discover the excellent products of Siena.
The flavours of Siena
A tour around the historic patisseries of Siena is a real delight for the palate of gourmands. Sample the famous ricciarelli, soft and fragrant diamond-shaped pastries made with almonds, candied orange and egg whites. Panforte IGP, a delicacy of medieval origin made with candied fruit and almonds, is also worth trying. In Siena, All Saints Day is celebrated with pan co’Santi, or saints’ bread, with raisins, dried fruit, honey and olive oil. At the same time of the year you can also enjoy pan con l’uva, bread stuffed and covered with freshly harvested grapes. If you want a truly unique treat, it’s worth paying a visit to the Buti patisserie, famous for its exquisite caramellato.
Those who prefer savoury flavours will love the bakeries in Siena, where you can taste the simple authenticity of pane toscano DOP (PDO Tuscan bread) and tasty ciaccino, a baked focaccia bread topped with olive oil and salt. If you like cold cuts, a ciaccino is the perfect accompaniment to finocchiona salami and Sienese Cinta cold meats. For a tasty lunch, don’t miss the chance to taste pici pasta with garlic sauce or Chianti minestrone. If you prefer the a meat course, it is best to opt for a costoleccio of Sienese Cinta, a rib-based dish, or pollo al mattone, a chicken dish. To finish off the meal there is the classic pecorino di Pienza cheese, produced in the Crete Senesi area, and, of course, a good glass of wine.
Among the hills of Siena, to end with a flourish
Hotel Italia is the ideal choice for a holiday in Siena, while discovering the area’s food and wine. Its location allows visitors to easily reach the beautiful landscape of the Chianti hills, embroidered with rows of vines, all just a few minutes away by car. On and around these gentle slopes, you can visit wineries that produce some of the best Italian wines, such as San Gimignano Vernaccia, Vin Santo, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the famous Chianti. There is no better way than this to end a gourmand tour: getting to know not only the products of the land, but producers and their stories, to witness first-hand the passion and love that make our food and wine so precious.