Editor’s note: In the premier issue of The Tuscan Times, an exciting new supplement to The Florentine (read more about it here), our contributors shared their insider knowledge of their home bases with us. Carolyn Travers is our Pescia correspondent, and we had to pick her brain on the best of everything in her area–this summer and beyond.
1/ Best bar in your area for an aperitivo?
Cantina Nobile, Pescia
2/ Favorite restaurant for Tuscan food with a twist
Trattoria Da Sandrino, Sorana, near Pescia: everyone’s favourite. Wonderful handmade pastas, cinghiale and rabbit dishes, fresh hand-picked mushrooms and local Sorana beans
3/ Best weekend getaway near your base
Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre. Great walking, swimming, delicious food or just sit and enjoy the views from the many bars dotted along the coastline
4/ Best place to beat the heat
The ten medieval hamlets, known as “Le Castella”, built out of the local stone, pietra serena, which is still quarried in the area: Pietrabuona, Medicina, Fibbialla, Aramo, Sorana, San Quirico, Castelvecchio, Stiappa, Pontito and Vellano
5/ One shop every English speaker should know about
Pescia’s Il Caffé sotto i portici is where you’ll find English speakers meeting for coffee and catching up on local news and events
6/ The event everyone’s talking about
Every year in Pescia on the first Sunday in September, check out the Palio degli Arcieri (Palio of the Archers)
7/ A place that inspires you
Walking in the hills above Pescia starting from Pietrabuona, following the river Pescia and tracing all the villages of the Swiss Pesciatina along a trail of about six hours
8/ Best place to watch a Tuscan summer sunset
The picturesque hill town of Borgo a Buggiano. With panoramic views over olive and citrus groves down the valley at the end of the day, this is a magical place to watch the sunset
