GRAND VOYAGE ITALY
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒
We're All About Italy

Behind Bars: A Gourmet Dining Experience in Volterra

9/18/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
PictureDon't even think about stealing the cutlery...
It starts many months before. You're "booked" by the Italian Ministry of Justice on Rome. Heaven help you if your two-month long, criminal background check finds something dark in your history. On the date of your "incarceration" you are walked through the cold steel bars of Volterra's Fortezza--a high security prison for prisoners serving sentences longer than 7 years. The guards will inspect multiple forms of your I.D., you turn over any electronic devices and are scanned in the metal detector. Nothing than can be used as a weapon is allowed! Then they lead you into a large, cool, dungeon-like room with vaulted ceilings-where you are seated and given plastic cutlery.

Buon appetito!

You have just gotten a table at the most exclusive--and unusual--restaurants in Tuscany, and perhaps the world. The Fortezza Medicea is the name of a restaurant begun in 2007 in Volterra, Italy. It is housed in what the people of Volterra simply call La Fortezza (the Fortress), a Renaissance defensive castle built 1474 that is used today as a high security prison. The oddity here is that prisoners are the ones who cook and serve your dinners. That's right, now you know why you're given plastic utensils to enjoy your gourmet meal. (And perhaps so you won't do anyone harm if the dinner is not up to your standards).

Picture
Captivated diners, indeed.
PictureIt was a dark and gloomy night--for dinner... at Volterra's Fortezza
In 2006, the prison's administration began operating a restaurant within the prison, using inmates as staff, as a rehabilitation scheme.  Prisoners who are incarcerated for crimes involving drugs or violent crime are now learning culinary arts that will give them a new lease on life--and new job opportunities--after they are finished serving their sentences. The project attracts both gourmands and press from around the globe. The restaurant is always booked weeks, if not months, in advance. 

Diners are also entertained with music provided by Bruno, a pianist with a life sentence for murder. The clientele eat inside a de-consecrated chapel set behind the 60 ft-high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras. There are also meals served outside (in the exercise yard, perhaps?) The meals are reasonably priced at €25, which includes a glass of wine with each course.

PictureFrom the prisoners' production of Alice in Wonderland
So, if you want a truly unique dining experience, contact the Ministry of Justice in Rome and see if you can be booked... er, fingerprinted... uh, I mean get a table. Oh, and don't forget to ask how to get tickets for La Fortezza's theater to see a play while you're there. That's right, they also have a theater group.

--Jerry Finzi

If you enjoyed this post, please tell your friends about us. Ciao!

1 Comment
Leigh
11/15/2019 10:49:35 am

Our party of 4 would love to dine with you. My husband has

celiac and is unable to eat wheat and pasta. I'm sure you have

a set menu but is it possible to have a gluten free option.


grazie mile Leigh

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.


    Categories

    All
    1 Making Plans
    2 Gear And Tips
    3 Getting Around
    4 Tuscany
    5 Amalfi Coast
    6 Basilicata
    7 Puglia
    8 Rome
    9 Postcards
    Fotos Di Finzi
    History For Italians
    Humor
    La Cucina & Recipes
    More Than Gelato Pizza
    More-than-gelato-pizza
    News Del Giiorno
    Off The Tourist Path

    Archive

    January 2021
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2014 - 2022 by GrandVoyageItaly.com
Picture
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒