Sorano · Tuscany · Beneath Palazzo Palloni

Seven metres beneath the piazza.

N 42°40′55″ · E 11°43′12″ · −7 m Descend↓

La Storia

One door on the piazza, and a staircase that keeps going down.

The first chamber was carved into the tuff in the 13th century. The date 1499 is inscribed above the square, marking the reorganisation of the space before the church of San Nicola.

In the late 1700s the Palloni family built the palazzo above the bedrock and excavated the cellar, and from then it held the wine their — now gone — vineyards produced.

The tuff cellar's carved arches, lit from within.
Affacciato su Piazza della Chiesa

Locale della antica farmacia

Inside the Locale — the tuff-vaulted room and its long counter, an arched window open onto Piazza della Chiesa, a glass of amber wine in the light.
The arched doorway of the Locale della antica farmacia, open onto Piazza della Chiesa.
Inside the Locale — warm plaster rooms and a striped travertine floor, framed by the raw tuff.

A pharmacy once stood here, on the square between the church and the market. The room has always been a place where one thing becomes another.

A single table faces the piazza through a low stone window —
for a small number of guests, and no more.

Private tastings & dinners

A tavola.

Some evenings turn on a single long table — laid by candlelight in the tuff, or in the sala above.

Two glasses of wine on a stone table in the glowing tuff cellar, antique demijohns resting in the niche behind.
A long table laid by candlelight in the tuff cellar, the wine rack behind.
In the cellar — set beneath the rock, between the wine racks.
The sala — a long table set in black and white beneath a back-lit niche of glasses.
In the sala — a larger, lighter room for a seated dinner.
Two armchairs with burgundy cushions and a small wine table, beneath a floor-to-ceiling strip of light.

The Lounge

Between the piazza and the deepest tuff, a small room keeps its own light.

The facade of Palazzo Palloni on Piazza della Chiesa.
A striped corridor leading to the doorway into the tuff cellar.
The illuminated tuff staircase descending into the cellar.
The carved arches of the tuff cellar.
An antique wooden wine press standing in the tuff cellar.
The cellar table by candlelight against the illuminated tuff wall.
Two glasses of wine and antique glass orbs on a round table over the striped floor.
The sala, set for a seated dinner beneath a niche of glasses.
Fig-and-almond salami with pecorino and rosemary.

A handful of images, sequenced as a descent.

Guests arriving through the open piazza door of the Locale della antica farmacia.
Beneath Palazzo Palloni · −7 m

By enquiry.

The Locale della antica farmacia opens by enquiry — for a private tasting, or a small occasion that deserves an unusual room. No menu, no schedule.

Write to us — we are pleased to receive you.

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N 42°40′55″ · E 11°43′12″ · CIN IT053026C2KWMAA9ZK
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