La Bottega Del Mulino - PONTASSIEVE

I rented a scooter in Florence and after escaping city traffic, I rode through the hills above town. My goal was the windmill and lunch. You drive up through olive groves and finally there is the windmill. Across the road is the building that contains the deli and behind is the restaurant. The day I was there the restaurant was not opened for lunch. It sits on a hilltop with views of the valley below. Walked back up the hill and entered the building where there was a nice lady behind the counter. Fresh meat and cheeses tempted me, but I had a salad with fresh bread and olive oil made there on the farm. Finished off the meal with two kinds of cheese cake. I toured the windmill before I began my trip back to the scooter shop.

We loved this little deli farm shop front. The meat cheese products are delicious. The range of farm products fantastic. We never ate lunch at the cafe there, but we had fresh foccacia (still warm from the oven with fresh cheese meat cuts divine. Do yourselves a favour and pick up a jar of their locally harvested white tartufo (from their forrest)... Yum.....

We ate here twice and on both occasions we had a table with a magnificent view, the food was great and the service very good.

The setting is absolutely beautiful! Set up in the mountains with wonderful views! Truly magical! The presentation and quality of the food was excellent. The service was a little slow but that is quite typical!

We stopped in for a light lunch while visiting Fattoria Lavacchio last week. It was amazing! The 2 gentlemen in our group opted for a hearty sandwich of delicious roasted pork loin. While us ladies decided on a board of typical Tuscan salumi and cheeses served with some wonder Tuscan bread. Of course all this wonderfulness was accompanied by a lucious bottle of Cedro a fantastic wine produced right there at Fattoria Lavacchio. Truly a find sitting in the shadow of a windmill designed by Leonardo himself!!