In the bar Il Barrino di Montisi there’s party, and what a party!
Montisi -Il Barrino – Navel of the world
Montisi, this hamlet has only 400 inhabitants, but seems to be the centre of Tuscany. Its heart is represented by the bar called Il Barrino where broker’s from London, billionaires and farmers all have a coffee together
Il Barrino’s success come s from the fact that it authentic, people make friends purely through the pleasure of spending time together. This is a place where you are never alone, where you dress as you like and you can always find some interesting gossip. There’s a mixture of languages, habits, and lifestyles that is the real key to its charm.
Let’s go back a step so as to understand better. Here we are 10 km from Fattoria del Colle south-east Tuscany, in an area where mass tourism does not exist.
Montisi - Barrino – launching of the renovated premises
The name Montisi comes from the goddess Iside (Montisi –mount of Iside) to whom the Etruscan had dedicated a temple in that location. In fact in Montisi there is an Etruscan necropolis. The present village was born around the year 1100 as a castle of the Cacciaconti family who in 1295 gave it to the Ospedale del Santa Maria della Scala di Siena. The older fortified nucleus is in the highest part of the village and still today has a circular shape, called Grancia – in other words the fortified granary – this was on the other hand built by the Ospedale in the 14th century.
Recently Montisi has become a place for super VIPs. Here live 400 sienese and ever growing number of characters.
Montisi - Giostra di Simone – historical costumes
Mostly from abroad, of very high level. More and more one hears people talking in British, by those who seem have just come out of the City, but have in fact muddy shoes. An incredible place! In the Montisi cinema, where one must bring ones own chair from home, films are shown in English. La “Piccola Accademia di Montisi” animated by Bruce Kennedy (collectionist and builder of concert harpsichords) organizes lessons and concerts, and his director comes straight from Covent Garden.
In other words Montisi is a lively place, where it is fun to live and full of contradictions which create the Tuscan countryside myth. The heart of the jet set-rural community is the bar Il Barrino which last Saturday launched its new premises with a big party, such a big party that a traffic jam was created in the village centre
Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini