Siena & Ristorante Osteria Enoteca Sotto Le Fonti

We took a bus from Rome to Siena the next day, and our first stop was the Siena Duomo. Armed with our trusty Rick Steves guidebook and Ipod downloaded tours, we had a fantastic time touring the building. The architecture was insane - we couldn't believe this equivalent-to-6-storey-building was built in the 1200s-1300s.

There were sculptures by Michaelangelo and Donatello, as well as this ornate painted room featuring Pope Pius II, Siena's favourite son.  

The exterior of the Duomo

The shell-shaped Piazzo del Campo, one of the prettiest squares in Italy

Siena's skyline with the Duomo

View of the skyline with the Torre del Mangia taken somewhere near the Church of San Domenico

The Palazzo Publico and Torre del Mangia at night

Every good gourmet needs something to look forward to at the end of every good sightseeing day - a brilliant dinner. We found this place called Sotto Le Fonti through Trip Advisor, which was pretty highly rated.

The interiors looked very homely - we've always been more taken with trattorias, compared to ristorantes, and we felt this was a bit more of a trattoria rather than something finer.  The place was packed to the rafters (this shot was snapped around 10.30pm) but they managed to find us 2 seats on a shared table.

 Complimentary prosecco is always nice.

We had one glass of each for around 5-8 Euros (can't remember how much). The vino nobile was amazing - super big bang red.

Bread to start with - this was great because our tummies were very empty, and the wine+prosecco was getting to us.

We ordered a plate of various Tuscan cold cuts (6.50 Euros) to start with - these were beautiful with the wines. Very flavourful and not too salty.

Again, we shared everything. This was my favourite cut of meat out of the entire plate. No idea what this was, but it was yummy.

This was my favourite dish of the entire night - wild boar (cinghale) pappardelle (6.50Euros). The pasta was fresh, and cooked perfectly al dente. The wild boar was minced, cooked with presumably the standard ragout recipe, but the flavour of the meat was more intense than beef.

This was the pici (hand made pasta) with rocket pesto and zucchini (7.50 Euros). I loved the texture of the pici - absolutely chewy and great to bite.

The rocket was slightly bitter, which was to be expected, but once we added shredded parmesan everything was perfect.

We shared a bistecca alla fiorentina - our first bistecca of the trip. This was a BEAUTY. Making this photo extra large for added emphasis

 

The meat was done perfectly rare. It  was charred on the outside, red on the inside yet not bloody.

Typing this out now makes me darned hungry.

The remains of the 1kg steak. This was probably around 35 Euros.

Like all good greedy Asians, we still had room for dessert. The husband's chocolate salami.

 

My panna cotta - I think it was larger than it looks in the photo. Desserts were 4 Euros each, if I don't recall wrongly.

I can't recall how much dinner cost, but it was less than 100 Euros for 1 starter, 2 pastas, 1 shared main course, 2 desserts and 2 glasses of excellent wine. Super good value for money and super good quality food - this probably takes joint top spot as our best meal in Italy (more on the other No. 1 restaurant later). The person who served us - presumably the lady boss of the place, from her body language and confidence - spoke perfect English, and was warm, hospitable and friendly. It was a really enjoyable meal from all aspects, and we both left extremely fully and happy, with very pleasant memories of our 2 hours in the restaurant.

Highly, highly recommended if you only have 1 meal in Siena, and reservations may be necessary if you're going on a weekend (we walked in on a Monday night). It's just a 5 min walk outside the city walls from Porta Fontebranda.

Website: http://www.sottolefonti.it/