You can take the guy out of New York but you can’t take New York out of the guy

Meet Nicola. Nicola, a friendly, talkative guy, was one of the first people I met in Panzano. The day I arrived I had unpacked and was hungry. I wandered a few steps beyond the piazza heading toward the oldest part of the village. The twinkling lights strung around the wrought iron rail outside Ristora del Cinghiale looked inviting. I stepped onto the patio and greeted the server in Italian. As she went to fetch my aqua naturale (no fizz), a guy in a tee shirt walked over to me and asked, in Italian, where I was from. When I answered, “Filadelfia”, he flashed a smile and said, “Hey, I’m from New York!”

Over the course of several conversations I learned Nicola had roots in Puglia but had grown up from age 8 in New York. This is his restaurant but he is “retired” from his busier New York life at the well known I Trulli. Now he splits his time between New York and here in Panzano where he also owns the area’s most historic vineyard and winery, Montefili with two partners.

The menu at Ristora del Cinghiale features the expected classic Tuscan meat dishes, including some with the cinghiale, the restaurant’s namesake, alongside family recipes from Nonna Dora. In New York, Nicola’s mother, Nonna Dora, is famous for her legendery pastas which were featured at I Trulli. Today at 86 she continues to make her tagliatelle, ravioli, cavatelli and other traditional pastas from the new restaurant that bears her name. She told Nicola she didnt want to retire when he did.

Most days as you head up Via Giovanni da Verazzano (named for a local hero born in Greve, the next town over) toward the hilltop chuch, you will hear Nicola before you see him. Wearing a tee shirt, regardless the weather, his phone to his ear, his steady stream of Italian and English (sometimes both in the same sentence) echoes off the tawny walls of the narrow medieval street, adding a contemporary voice to this ancient place.

Nicola with his cinghiale, the Tuscan boar and nameskae of his restaurant Ristora del Cinghiale