Badia, short for Abazzia

Badia, as my title says is short for abazzia which translates to abbey in the English language. We visited a couple of "Badias" during our Tuscan trip.  But let me talk about my most favorite one, a town called Badia di Passignano. From Lucca, you go past Florence and into the Chianti reagion... I think. haha In this trip I basically just sat at the back, listened to my parents navigate, and sleep. So directions would not be my forte in this one.

Anyhoo, we basically just took pictures and ate at one of the town's 3 restaurants. Passignano is a town whose center is an abbey, hence the name Badia di Passignano. The town is surrounded by gorgeous vineyards which the monks, in the middle ages up to when they got tired (hahaha... I'm not actually sure when they stopped) produced the wine the town used and sold outside as well.

Today, Badia di Passignano produces great wines sold all over Tuscany. The abbey (which I believe is Benedictine) is no longer open to the public because according to our waiter, the monks prefer to be left alone. This town has 3 restaurants and 15 inhabitants, 3 of which are the monks. Everybody else lives in towns a few minutes outside Passignano. Why? There's nothing to do there when you have no work.

Osteria di Passignano is the first of 3 restaurants you'll encounter in the town. Our plan was to have our aperitif here and move on to the next town. Fortunately, we were smart enough to decide to have lunch here instead. This Osteria is part of a cooking school and a wine shop. Visitors can decide to take wine tasting tours and afternoon cooking classes organized by the people running the place.

To start, visitors are given aperitif and a bread basket. Each one gets a plate of the best bread spreads in the Chianti Region. You're given 2 choices, the simple pomodoro (tomato) sauce or their very own olive butter made only from olives (DOI!!!!) without fats (daw!)... it was the best kind of non - butter, butter I tasted!

For lunch, I decided to share a Bistecca Fiorentina. I was told by many, especially my Italian teacher, to never leave the Tuscan region without trying their special bistecca fiorentina (typical tuscan cuisine)---porterhouse for normal people. This steak is supposedly melt - in - your - mouth type. It's expensive because of the part used of a certain breed of beef known as the Chianina. It's so easy to make that's why you find it in many restaurants around Italy, but finding a very good one is a difficult task. Mine, I give a 6 for the tough parts Mom was given. Dad had some Tuna carpaccio which he said was excellent. All the wines  sold are made by the people in the town.

For dessert, we all had our coffee fix and we were served a hefty variety of biscuits and chocolates!

Passignano is a simple place. You visit for the view and for the food.

Check out my gallery for the pictures.