You start out in good time. You drive around aimlessly with the goal of finding a new local gem, completely unknown to the world. You know there is, or at least should be, restaurants everywhere in this area. You listen to a great song.

You started out in good time, but it’s getting late and you’re only hungrier by the minute, and you’re in the Middle of Nowhere, Tuscany. You realise you probably won’t find that amazing place, at least not tonight.

Then, finally, you see something; a small sign by the road saying “Ristorante”. You look at your map and notice that you’re just outside Cavriglia, about an hour’s drive from Firenze. You’ve never heard the village, or the restaurant, before. And probably no one else has either. But you don’t care, because by now you’re really hungry. The place doesn’t look like much from the outside, but as you enter you find yourself in a refurbished old cellar belonging to a monastery from the 1000^th century that the local monks had been using all the way up until 2007 when Enoteca / Ristorante Papposileno decided to open up shop. Wow, this place looks great, you think.

A nice looking waiter greets you at the front bar and introduces himself as Marco. You like Marco, but you notice that except for you and him the place is completely empty. There’s no music, and the silence is almost uncanny; there’s not even a sound coming from the kitchen. Strange, you think, since this place looks really good. You know you would normally take this as a bad sign since it’s already half past eight in the evening on a Friday, but you decide not to this time, and you stay anyway.

”Ok, let me just see if we have a table for you, unfortunately I think we might be full tonight”. Of course you think he’s joking since you’re the only one there. But he’s not.

This is exactly what happened to us. But luckily enough Marco managed to “squeeze us in”, and about an hour later I’d just eaten a small but oh so delicate lobster from the Tuscan coastline and the restaurant had filled up with talking, screaming, eating and drinking Italians. It had actually gotten so loud that it was hart to make conversation, although that wasn’t an entirely bad thing since it gave us the opportunity to focus on the food.

And so we did; my taste buds again dancing with joy as the main course arrived: the “Special HOT Chili Course: Spaghetti ”Scoville” with calabrian Nduja (which is a locally made hot hot HOT spicy sausage) was amazing, especially combined with the bottle of red wine from the local vineyard Tenuta San Jacopo called Poggio alla Grilli. It was incredibly strong, but at the same time very delicate. No wonder though since head chef and owner Francesco Tarsia is the ”Master of the National Academy of Chilli Pepper”.

I finished off with, according to Marco, the best pistachio sorbet in the world. I could do nothing but agree with him.

If you’re ever in Tuscany Papposileno is definitely worth a visit. Although – you might want to book in advance…