Castiglione del Lago (PG), Zona Industriale le Pucciarelli.
In the middle of an Italian industrial zone, I found myself listening to an Ommagio a Edith Piaf, sipping French wine (George Deboeuf Beaujolais-Villages), nibbling delicious and beautifully rendered pasteries, and chatting with friends from Australia and Great Britain. Manola Rosati was singing, and Eleonora Conti accompanied her on the piano.
This presentation of music, wine and food was the gift of owner and master pastry chef Michael Piselli who has created a delightful bistrot in the middle of a drab industrial zone on the outskirts of Castlione del Lago. Everything is creatively arranged to delight the senses and offer hospitality.
GMB's omaggio to Edith Piaf
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People are talking about the Pasticerria GMB — we are rooting for Signore Piselli’s success. It is not that the business itself that is a new idea: it is a pastry shop and cafe. There are many of those here. It is the creativity, playfulness, and gracious hospitality of the place that is so charming.
As you appoach the pasticceria, you pass trucks and concrete buildings–then come upon a garden filled with boxwoods and cypress. Outside, a reindeer and sleigh, and a couch and chairs with umbrella for the warm days still gifted to us now and then in this early part of Winter.
Once inside, you are surrounded by crystal chandeliers, a gilded carousel, Christmas packages. And then, the raison d’etre: the cases of beautiful pasteries. Signore Piselli is a master pastry chef, who clearly loves his work. When I asked him how long he had been doing this work, his face lit up and he shrugged his shoulders in that very Italian way, and said “My family….” he has always been a baker, surrounded by his family of bakers, born into the tradition.
It is his love of the work, though, that you experience in his cafe. The details are entended to delight. Definitely worth the effort to find it. This coming week, Signore Piselli is offering Mozart on Thursday evening. I’ll be there.