Gourmet Dining at the Volterra Prison, Tuscany

On a Friday night, the idea of going to a gourmet dinner at a 16th-century Medici Fortress overlooking the rolling, ‘trapped in the Middle Age’ town of Volterra in the Italian region of Tuscany is a must try. Simply, this is not your ordinary Tuscan dining experience. The fortress is a maximum-security prison, where the meal is handled, prepared and served by thirty of its one hundred fifty inmates.
In order to dine in the Volterra Medici Prison fortress, visitors should reserve weeks in advance, send copies of their passports, for obvious security reasons, and pay up $44. All proceeds go straight to charity. When leaving bags and cellphones at the door, the 120-odd clients are guided to a candlelit court for nibbles and Prosecco. The meal is given in a cavernous deconsecrated chapel prettied up with tablecloths, hand-crafted table decorations, glasses, plates and of course plastic cutlery, one of the grants designed for security.

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