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Piero Fagnani, better known as Bagoga, is the founder of ‘La Grotta di Santa Caterina’ restaurant in Siena, that he runs together with his son Francesco and his wife Maria Pia.

During his career, he has ‘fed’ some illustrious people, such as Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Gianna Nannini, famous Italian singer and Enzo Iachetti, a local TV star, and the list goes on….

He was born in Montalcino in 1948 into a very poor family; at only 6 years old he was already working, and so before going to school in the morning, he delivered bread to Nello, nicknamed ‘il Chiodo’, rushed back home, put on his black school pinafore and ran to school.

One morning, the baker, furious, said to him “tell Chiodo he can go and F…. off”

Nello one morning said to him “ go to the baker and tell him his bread sucks because the flour he has used was mouldly”.

So young Piero, that everyone called “Gambassino” went home, put on his black pinafore and whilst going down the school road, in front of Nello’s shop, naively repeating what the baker had said to him, poked his head round the corner and referred ”the baker says you can go and F….off”

 

“So I got a slap from the baker and another one from my mother, who never let me deliver the bread again, I was taken out of school and sent to Abbadia Ardenga in a farm to look after pigs.”

He doesn’t tell me this either with sadness or regret, whereas whilst I am listening to him, I swallow deeply with great sadness and imagine just how you could send away a 6 year old boy….imagining my daughter who is now 12….and realizing that if it was me there 50 years ago, that could have happened to me, if I were born in his unfortunate position.

So Gambassino was taken away from his own home, his family, his school and his friends and sent, just like a parcel to live on an isolated farm, looking after the pigs, and allowed back home only once a year, at barely 7 years old.

He was only 8 years old when his mother died (without him ever seeing her again) and one year later his father died too.

His uncle was his chosen guardian, thought of sending him to college, which is unheard of in Italy, but the local priest had found him a job instead in Siena, as a plate washer, so Gambassino moved from the country side to town.

 

“I made 22 lire a month and had 18 lire a month to pay in rent.

Then a whole series of happenings that got him in touch with the horse world; he was used to working with animals but he had never riden a horse. One of the local breeders noticed how good he was with the horses, therefore gave him a job. 

Every morning he borrowed a bike at 7 am to go and muck out the horses then at 9am he went to the local rotisserie where he had already been hired sometime beforehand.

 

This is when he began to start riding, but without a teacher…. He mounted bare back….and taught himself. He gets tears in his eyes whilst telling me the “wonders of mother nature and riding bare back.

Telling me all about night time trials, real trials of once upon a time, not what they do nowadays.

 

I have seen night time trials, wonders of past times….

 

By the way: in Siena we have the wonderful Palio horse race, I will be writing an article about it shortly , well, more than one should I say.

The night before assigning the horses to the jockeys belonging to each local district, that are participating in the race, they used to run the night trials, where the horses were “secretly” brought into the main square just for a trial run (BTW for those of you that don’t know, the ‘horse track’ is the main square and not an official horse track, if that makes sense)

It was not officially allowed, today the race is full of rules and regulations, and it is no longer the same to me anymore.

I remember the only time I have ever seen it; my father woke me up at 3 am in the morning and we walked into town.

There wasn’t a person in sight, the town was deserted and all I could hear were our footsteps.

At a certain point we crossed the Vicolo di San Paolo, entering the Campo Square and it was the most amazing, memorable sight of my whole life that stills lives in my eyes and my heart.

The square was decorated with groups of ‘contradaioli’, all whispering and with the horses without any of their traditional emblems , galloping around the square in utter freedom giving me a the most sensational and unforgettable moment of my life, I have never felt so ‘alive’ in my whole life.

We were all there and everybody knew we were there, but officially there was nobody there and nobody knew we were there.

It was magic…….

All you could hear were the horse shoes and a shushed movement….

By now Gambassino, whom everyone in Siena called “Bagoga” had the reputation of knowing ‘how to ‘curve the horses’ at San Martino (the most dangerous curve and turn in the Palio horserace) so he’s asked to mount a horse and after 3 laps curves dangerously, the horse slips on the stone paving and Bagoga falls ending up underneath the horse, injuring his leg and no longer able to run the Palio race.

He tells me about his only Palio race and as he does, his eyes light up and even his tone of voice changes: such harmony and such passion in his story telling!

“To stop ‘Canapino’ I fell…but ‘Leocorno’ didn’t win”

In Siena we are all pretty odd, to say the least…..so to not let your rival win can be an even bigger victory than actually winning yourself!

But I will tell you all about the “Palio di Siena” another time…

 

In the end, at last fortune seems to come his way, he has a bargain chance to buy what today is his restaurant. “I paid 2.800.00 lire in 3 years: it was year 1973 and here begins the story of Bagoga’s restaurant.

You can’t come to Siena and not come to Bagoga’s

But why do they call you Bagoga Pierino?

“Because I used to work in a rotisserie called Monti and the owner was called Piero, just like me, so one day Piero Monti said to me, if you are from Montalcino, well then I will call you Bagoga, because the delicious apricots in Montalcino are called “bagogas!”

And this is the reason why everyone in Siena knows him as Bagoga.

Let me tell you what struck me about him, he’s authentic, he’s kind, he’s a gentleman , a little bit shy and a total understanding that whatever life throws at you, you have to accept it and carry on. He has such extraordinary Dignity.

I’m a total rebel, that never gives up, but what I felt listening to his wonderful tales, is a great sense of respect and I thank him from the inside for teaching me this great lesson of life.

 

Before leaving, I asked him “Bagoga, I had always heard that you never wanted ‘wifi’ in your restaurant, but I see you have a  pretty heavy wifi here, how come? What made you change your mind?

I haven’t changed my mind, but I had to have it by law: due to Covid we must have menu’s with a QR code, but my opinion has not changed; because in my restaurant I like to have people sitting at a table and talking instead of staring at and phone screen, I want them to savour the food, my food, my wine and hear them talk! 

And that’s the way it was until Covid: I had wi fi but I never handed out the password, because luckily telephones don’t pick up much here and you can’t surf the web without it……