The Legend
of
The Friars
From an Old Legend to a Michelin Star Restaurant
By Sally Pederson
“Legend has it that in a July of long ago at Abbadia Isola, in the province of Siena in Tuscany Italy, three friars gathered the freshest vegetables from their garden and the best grapes from their vineyards. In the large kitchen then, they prepared a meal from the finest treasures of their land. They ate and drank so much that they began to sing and dance tirelessly which went on well into the night. The other brothers failing to sleep or to stop them, decided to lock them up in the highest room in the Abbey tower but the three never stopped and went on to dance and sing for whole days and nights thereafter. Even today in the old convent on the 11th of July, you can still hear the echoes of the three ghost monks still drunkenly chattering from the fruits of their land: herbs, olive oil, bread and wine.”