Rosano is located along the Arno, just south of Florence. It is the village that delimits the boundary between the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli and the municipality of Rignano sull’Arno.
What’s in Rosano?
Few houses and a large Benedictine monastery.
We enter the Borgo del Monastero and walk along the very long wall. The windows are small, they are those of the monastic cells. We guess a colonnaded cloister beyond, but we cannot enter. On our right the beautiful Tuscan countryside, on the left the church.
We actually came here to eat. Finding a monastery was a Sunday gift.
We wanted to come here, to the Bottega di Rosano. An informal place where you can buy cigarettes, drink an espresso, have a full meal on the veranda, with food cooked for real, have a platter of delights in front of the counter.
We stop in front of the counter. We are undecided. Shall we have a lunch on the veranda or would we like a cutting board? On the counter there are homemade savory and sweet foods and an incredible range of cheeses and cured meats …..We listen to Matteo praising a small production Pecorino that he has recently discovered.
We decide for the cutting board. But with something cooked too …. why not?
Let’s start choosing and here it is …. the eyes are bigger than the stomach: will we ever be able to finish all this food?
We sit down.
The food is tempting but something happens, that special something that makes us fall in love with this place. Some people come in and ask for sandwiches. They want this and that in you and a little bit of that too ..
- … can you put also some mayo?
- Mayonnaise? – Matteo replies
- Yes, a little mayonnaise
- We don’t have mayonnaise
- Don’t have mayonnaise?
- No. We don’t keep it. We haven’t had mayonnaise in jars all along. Never kept …
What do you say, you who read me and know how I am made. If you read me I’m like you. Here, this conversation made me fall in love with this place. And you have understood why.
ps: we didn’t finish the food. We took it home …..
Marcella Ansaldo © 2021