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The appeal to medieval cities stems from the idea that at one time, advances were made and then suddenly time stood still.  Very rarely do you find a small town where buildings are five or six hundred years old and then suddenly buildings from the 70’s or 80’s appear.

Thus is the story of Monterchi, Italy.  This completely medieval town probably sprang up because it was the half-way point between two major cities.  What remains of the cobble stone streets shows hundreds of years worth of foot, horse, donkey and cart traffic.  It is an odd sensation, touching stones that have been worn smooth with the passage of time.

Much as it probably was in the 1500’s, the town has one restaurant and one bar.  To my recollection, the bar was never closed.  Always open to serve either beer or wine along with an assortment of meats for a continual afternoon of grazing.  The fact that the meat was free with the beer was an added bonus.

Once a day, my friends and I would find ourselves at this bar drinking Peroni’s and munching away on the free salami.  And since Italians seem oblivious to drinking water, beer and wine was the main thirst quencher.  Every now and then, a car would zoom by on the small streets.  But other than that, nothing was around to disturb us or our views of the city nor of the country-side.

It was here that I was exposed to the concept of “vino de casa” or house wine.  Before, it was always choosing a bottle of a long extensive menu.  But in Italy, the “vino de casa” often times tasted better than what you could get out of the bottle.  And that is not an insult but rather spoke to the quality of the house wine.  Add to that the house wine only cost 5 euros for a jug made this an easy decision.