By Our Editorial Staff
Experience and dream can create a magical combination. This is the case of the entrepreneur Giovanni Pezzella, who arrived in Tuscany from Campania to create two restaurants different in proposal but similar in vocation: to offer the highest possible quality thanks to attention to detail and an all-encompassing experience. We went to visit him at Once upon a time… of Bagno Vignoni, an excellence of catering in a unique context in the world.
We find ourselves immersed in an idyllic setting where you can stop, after – or before – a walk in one of the most beautiful villages in the world, already the set of numerous films, music videos, and marriage proposals. An ideal Osteria where you can sit and enjoy one of the best cuisines in the area, whose proposal varies from zero-kilometer dishes to pizzas. «Here – says Giovanni with passion – you can taste cheeses, meat, wine, jams …, and everything comes from this area, rich in excellence, plus we offer a “Neapolitan” pizza with a high crust and fresh basil leaf, with a fantastic flavour and the right digestibility, when the customer does an encore, and it happens often, for us it is a pleasure, the feedback is incredible and many also order it to take away; we propose to accompany it with the excellent beer of the area, from a brewery in San Quirico d’Orcia, but also with the – underrated – pizza-wine combination». To the genuineness of the raw materials is therefore added an important proposal of wines and beers. Still on the menu, going into specifics, the appetizers vary from a fantastic tasting of cold cuts, cheeses and pickles (see photo) to an egg with truffles on a bed of spinach, up to an unmissable and very tasty “Mother’s Parmigiana”.
Moving on to the first courses, among others, we point out the excellent Pici all’aglione della Valdichiana and the Tagliolini with porcini mushrooms. As for the second courses, it varies from meats, such as sliced steak (in the variants onion, truffle, lard or rosemary), Florentine steak, but also eggplant and pecorino meatballs, or Tyrrhenian mackerel. These are examples of a cuisine with a heterogeneous proposal, where there is no shortage of a menu designed specifically for children.
“Coming to Bagno Vignoni – underlines the owner – regenerates the body and spirit, especially if a platter with various types of cold cuts, cheeses, jams and vegetables in oil is added to the thermal benefit to live a 360 ° experience; Finding us is simple, we are the first restaurant on the street, where the hot water spring that leads to an incredible view begins, we are the only tavern with pizza, bread, handmade pasta, in short, a few dishes but tasty and full of flavour and culture”.
A romantic place, perfect for couples as well as families: «There are people even when it rains, many triangulate between here, the ideal city of Pienza and the gardens of San Quirico d’Orcia; for those who come on holiday in these parts there is almost an obligation to stop in Bagno Vignoni. The key to interpretation, in short, is emotion, given even by a good glass of wine: «We have our Brunello, the Rosso, and the unmissable Nuvola, a liqueur that recalls the Rossana candy, the one that grandmothers gave us when we were children, and has received several international awards: the médaille d’or in Lyon in France and the gold medal in London, two very large certificates of esteem arrived in 2024 and 2025 respectively; it was invented from a “wrong” recipe, on the label we have inserted two hands that come together to ideally recall the hands of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, as well as the generations that are handed down.
Info: C’era una volta, Piazza del Moretto 40, Bagno Vignoni (Si)
Info and bookings: info@ceraunavoltaosteriabagnovignoni.it / Tel. (+39) 347 5956728
www.ceraunavoltaosteriabagnovignoni.it
