Thursday Nights at the Vinaria

I think I first heard about it at Tai Chi on a Wednesday. The Panzano neighbors I saw every Wednesday and Saturday, Anna and Anna, who seem to know everyone and everything, mentioned there would be music in the piazza in Panzano Alto on Thursday night. Then it just so happened two nights later on Friday at La Macina, there was talk again of a Thursday concert the next week. Mimma the owner and host at La Macina invited me to join the table of eight she was putting together for the following Thursday.

So at 7 PM Thursday evening I climbed that steep cobbled hill to the high piazza. I walked around looking for people, a stage, the sound of music, anything that hinted of the concert I expected to find.

As often happens, information was literally lost in translation. As I tried to figure out what I was missing I saw a few people duck into the doorway of the Sassolini Vinaria so I followed them, hoping to find someone I could ask about the concert.

Yes, there was a concert here tonight. Not actually in the piazza but in their walled garden behind the restaruant. I was escorted to a table under a flowering wisteria and joined the others from La Macina.

Here, every Thursday through June and July is a Rassegna Musicale (musical review) under the artistic direction of Carlo Fagiani.

Carlo was Panzano’s famous shoe maker until some years ago when he gave up the trade, closed his shop and devoted himself to other creative pursuits as painter and drummer. He is celbrated as a master craftsman who creates sophisticated clothing and accessories, inspired by his art. A friend who was at one of his shows told me that Carlo’s scarf collection was the most exquisite he’d ever seen! Carlo is a humble, familiar face in Panzano who greets everyone with a warm smile and shares an Italian embrace with a kiss on each cheek with his many friends. Carlo and his son Francesco who is a guitarist are regulars at local concerts like those at Sassolini’s. Every Thursday, Carlo is introduced and shyly acknowedges the applause.

Weekly an assortment of musicians settle in against the craggy garden wall and fill the evening with soft jazz, raucous ethnic tunes or lively rock. Locals and stranieri (that’s what foreigners are called) sit two or three or four, or six or eight at tables set up on the pebbly garden ground. The resident dog moves among the tables to get all the loving he can. Children run through the garden or spread toys on the uneven stone floor inside the building before and after the buffet is spread on the rough wooden table.

Barbara Sassolini and her staff serve up a tantalizing assortment of mostly vegetarian dishes - think spanakopita, potato salad, lasagna, thin slivers of pear wedged between melty brie, watermelon speared with chunks of feta, green sald, slaws, bruschetta, crostini with creamed beet spread (delicious)! But it is Tuscany after all so these dishes share the table with wedges of melon draped with prosciutto, slices of cured meats and the inevitable crostini fegatini (toasts spread with chicken liver).

Dinner is always capped by a simple but refreshing dessert. One week its olive oil cake with a drizzle of cream or strawberry sauce. Another week fresh fruit with a dollop of cream. Last week was homemade vanilla gelato with berries! YUM! All for E25- a weekly feast for the body and the soul!

Carlo Fagiani (as you face the picture, in the middle to the left of the woman) is the artistic director for the Thursday night concerts. Some weeks he joins the musician as the drummer.