Prison Dining in Volterra

On our last visit to Italy, we stopped in the beautiful town of Volterra, Tuscany. Volterra is a “walled mountaintop” dating back to the eighth century B.C., with structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval times.

On our way there, we found a citadel built on the highest point of the hill overlooking the town.  From below the Tuscan road, it looked like two small bastions joined by a wall, a “curtain wall.”

As my husband was driving, I looked up the history of Fortezza Medicea (Medici Fortress) of Volterra to find more information about its history. Built before De Medici’s rise to prominence and power, the fortress was built by the Duke of Athens who was governor of Florence in 1342.

The second fortress was built by another Florentine ruler, Lorenzo the Magnificent, in 1474, following the sacking of Volterra by Florentine troops in 1472. The Florentines were interested in Volterra’s alum. As a chemical, alum has many household and industrial uses.

The two fortresses are linked by a stone “curtain wall” and today it houses a medium security prison. What is so interesting about this prison, is the fact that on certain days tourists can dine in a restaurant operated by prisoners who are neither chefs nor cooks. The brochure stated that inmates are appropriately supervised, and tourists are checked before being allowed into the prison.

The prison administrators decided to open a restaurant in 2006 to rehabilitate prisoners who were serving no less than 7-year sentences. The menu was rather simple, and diners had to go through a screening process and reservations had to be made in advance.

Somehow, the idea of eating meals cooked by inmates, who were not just white-collar criminals, probably injured other human beings, did not appeal to me at all. Americans love such unusual experiences, but I was raised in Europe and under communism at that, so I have a healthy dose of caution when it comes to dangerous situations when the potential of being poisoned or sickened by inmate food was the least of my worries. What was in the back of my head were hostage situations, murder, escapes, and other violent encounters in a stone-walled medieval prison built and reinforced to withstand the volleys of Renaissance era heavy canons.

 I did not tell my husband about the prison restaurant, just the history of the fortress. To this day, my husband resents the fact that I did not allow him the pleasure of dining on prison food in a fortress. As a military man, he is fascinated by the history of medieval armory and castles built as defense for the population and its rulers.