Lunigiana , a very special part of Tuscany

Pubblicato il 24 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

Springtime is coming. Are you ready to venture into a special Tuscany, outside the touristy beaten paths? Forget for a moment the stunning cities of art and plunge into small charming villages. Give yourself a treat with  authentic natural parks and open spaces with breathtaking views on The Apuan Alps, just less than an hour’s drive from the Mediterranean Sea.

We are suggesting a visit to the northern part of Tuscany called Lunigiana.

A landscape of green meadows spotted  by sunny old stone houses, telling those who can listen, stories of a simple way of life. Tuscany Holiday Rent recommends holiday accommodations in a quiet area just outside the lovely hilltop hamlet of Casola in Lunigiana.

The area is worth being visited. History has left  meaningful marks here. Among them the Francigena, a road  leading to Rome which in the Middle Ages was trodden by the pilgrims heading  for the center of Christianity. One of the most famous, Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, recorded his several stops here in Lunigiana. In Montelungo, just beyond the Cisa Pass, St Benedict’s monastery  hosted him.  In his record he also well remembers Pontremoli, St Peter’s Church and Aulla along  the banks of the  Magra River.

The Francigena was used by the Lombards on their coming south from Pavia, their political center. The monasteries and abbeys they built on their descent were safe, political and religious strongholds.

Inside the Piagnaro, the museum inside Pontremoli’s castle, one can admire the original inhabitants of this area, historical witnesses of the Liguri, belonging to the third millennium B.C.. We mean the statue stele, archeological remains of the prehistoric inhabitants. Their mostly unknown anthropomorphic cult of stone divinities can be a charming voyage back in time, essentially evocative because of the statues’ geometrically essential features, though well identified in their respective genders, males by daggers and axes and females by adorned breasts.

From their sacred  area near Villafranca they have been moved to the castle, faithful to their secrets.

Culture in Lunigiana  also means cooking, well rooted in its peasant background,  the simple ingredients perfectly combine in special recipes  worth being tasted. Among them, just to mention some, the “torta d’erbi”, a sort of pie, made of a thin pastry layer filled with  simply cooked wild spontaneous herbs. The testaroli are probably the most known and appreciated, a sort of salty pancake generally served with a pesto or mushroom sauce. They are delicious.

Lunigiana is truly far from common tracks, needing to be discovered and appreciated by the curious  traveler.

Pubblicato in Culture and accommodations in Tuscany, Senza categoria | Lascia un commento

Amerigo Vespucci, the explorer who changed the world

Pubblicato il 23 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

Apart from its permanent museums and open-air wonders, Florence is a continuous source of events. Springtime in Florence can become a sort of spiritual rebirth, necessary to get free from the blues of a long and cold winter. What about spending some days in a Florence apartment or a Tuscan villa? Have a look at the proposals offered by www.tuscanyholidayrent.com

Once here, don’t miss the exhibition about Amerigo Vespucci, on March the 25th 2012, called ”Amerigo’s America- Firenze e i mercanti del nuovo mondo”, in the magnificent Palazzo Rosselli in Borgo Santi Apostoli, nowadays seat of the Florentine European School of Economics.

New York has just celebrated the fifth centenary of Vespucci’s death, 22nd February 1512, at the Manhattan Campus of St. John University. Later in October 2012, the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo will host the exhibition. The perspective is a new one, Vespucci will be presented through his entrepreneurial skills by highlighting the cultural features of the Florentine merchant, complementary to the ones of the explorer. Living the full blossoming of the Renaissance, as a young man he joined the Neo-platonic Academy of Lorenzo the Magnificent, together with Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola. After having spent 40 years in Florence, the explorer decided to move to Siviglia, devoting himself to business together with merchants and bankers such as Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco dei Medici and Giannotto Berardi. It was the year 1492. Many great eventshappened. At that time Lorenzo The Magnificent died and Modern Age was beginning. As a learned man, fed on humanistic studies, Vespucci needed to go beyond the known and face new adventures. He sailed in 1499, aiming at exploring the coastline of new lands from Maracaibo to the Amazon River. There he named his discovery Veneziola (thence the present Venezuela) because of the lake dwellings reminding him of Venice. He was quite sure, unlike Columbus, that the newly discovered lands didn’t belong to The East Indies. He was now facing a new world, as he wrote in the letters to his friend Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco dei Medici.

A revolution was then taking place, turning the Ptolemaic world upside down. Vespucci’s second voyage started from Lisbon. He sailed through unknown seas and unexplored lands often keeping in mind his homeland. He would name, after his Florentine Borgognissanti, Salvador de Todos Santos( the present Salvador de Bahia).

He was a real humanistic man.

His Mundus Novus, a new world, called after him America, was, a basic discovery, doomed to be a milestone of the Renaissance where politics, economy art and faith would build up the basis of the modern world.

Pubblicato in Exhibitions and accommodations in Tuscany | Lascia un commento

After New York Eataly lands in Florence

Pubblicato il 21 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

Florence lives continuous changes.  Able, however,  to safely guard its past heritage it doesn’t miss the directions and  the perspective of new times. Many the enthralling things to be done there. Comfortable or charming holiday accomodations are easy to be booked. Profit from the Florence  apartments or the Tuscan villas in the immediate surroundings  offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent.

An event not to be missed in spring 2013  could be the start- up of Eataly , which after a search of about  three  years has found home in Florence. The great  new  foodie emporium turns upside down food retail, conjugating high quality food with large distribution  Small suppliers from the whole Italy are going to offer their products. It will be possible to get the best  of Italy such as almond jam from Noto, Sicily, the sea salumi” by Michelin two-star chef Moreno Cedroni  from Senigallia or many Slow Food Presidia produce such as Carmagnola rabbit and Saluzzo chicken.  The space will feature  various restaurants as well  cooking lessons of the dishes on offer in the numerous onsite corners. The idea behind is or taking the ingredients home to prepare a meal yourself or  enjoy  the stinging nettle lasagna with pesto or what you like at one of the on- site restaurants. “Buy, taste and learn about the best foods all under the same roof” that is the motto of Oscar Farinetti, the brilliant Piedmontese,   founder of gourmet food and wine market, creator of Eataly. In New York City Eataly, opened in the Toy Building in 2010.  Mr Farinetti teamed up  with three of New York’s most beloved Italian-American restaurateurs, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Mario Batali, making of the 200 Fifth Ave, seat of Eatitaly, the one must –stop food destination in New York as  Joe Bastianich loves saying. Similar to the one opened in Turin in 2007, it houses an Italian bakery, a coffee-corner with a pastry-shop for an authentic Italian breakfast, a restaurant with take-out counter, and, not to be forgotten,  tasting and cooking classes.

A megastore- in the definition of New York Times- that combines elements of a bustling European open market, a Whole-Foods-style supermarket, a high-end food court and a New Age learning centre.

Now a new foodie emporium will be opening next year , 2013,  in Via Martelli, Florence, on the site of a historical bookshop. Its 1,300 square feet will be turned into a multi-functional area including   bookshops,  mini-theme restaurants and events such as cooking classes, in the new perspective of reviving  Florence  deserted centre,  chasing away  the recently barbarian invasion of  cheap cloth shops. The Cathedral  Santa Maria del Fiore will be able to shine again in its overall glamour under the stars  for the pedestrians  able again to gain back the town centre at night.

How  did the adventure of Eatily begin?  It sounds like a  fairytale. The dream of fostering the understanding and appreciation of the Italian cooking sorted out the meeting of Oscar Farinetti  and Alessandro Frassica, aka Ino, who had been running since 2006 a small slow food sandwich shop in Via dei Georgofili, bringing  to a new life a site badly damaged  by mafia bombs in 1993.  Frassica, faithful to his style, is able to endorse Mr Farinetti’s proposal of setting up  A Florentine Eataly, a challenge to make people aware of what they eat, what they feed on. He likes repeating his refrain. Just three things would accompany him to a desert island: real Tuscan olive oil, Chianina meat and a bottle of Chianti  to enjoy life  to its deepest essence.

Pubblicato in Senza categoria | Lascia un commento

Cinigiano celebrates Lent

Pubblicato il 20 Febbraio 2012 da Genni

The hill town of Cinigiano lies at 33 km from its provincial capital of Grosseto, in Maremma, in an area dominating both the Ombrone Valley and the last part of the Val d’Orcia. It is considered a land between sea and mountain: the town, in fact, offers many viewpoints from which one can admire the sea in the distance and contemporarily presents alternating landscapes leading inland towards the majestic peak of Mount Amiata. Dominating the plains where the River Ombrone lazily flows, Cinigiano is surrounded by gently rolling hills dotted with farmhouses and covered with golden cornfields, dark green thickets of oaks, the forever changing colours of the vineyards and the mystifying silver of the olive groves.

The town of Cinigiano developed itself around a medieval castle of the 12th century and along the ridge of the hill. Interesting sites are the 15th century little church of Santa Maria della Neve and the 16th century church of San Michele Arcangelo. On the highest part of town are still visible the remains of an ancient tower. In the town centre, many traditional wine cellars open onto the streets and are open to visitors during events such as Calici di Stelle, ‘Goblets of Wine under the Stars’, during the summer and the Grape Village Fair in autumn.

This Wednesday, 22nd February, Cinigiano is celebrating an ancient tradition, recently brushed up, which commemorates the end of the Carnival period and the beginning of Lent, La Notte dei Rivolti, uncomely translatable into “The Turned Overs Night”. This event goes back to older times when the means of entertainment were fewer than today, but greater were the imagination and the desire to be together. Everything started on the last night of carnival, practically a will not to interrupt the celebrations. These “party animals”, after celebrating the whole night, on the first morning of Lent would start to cook the Rivolti, the ‘Turned Overs’, a popular dish of flour and water, cooked like pancakes in  a pan. Dividing themselves into teams, the villagers would go looking, from house to house, for olive oil, wine and, who were luckier, even chicken and lamb. Others would visit shops and receive various items such as shoelaces, knives and more, which would be sold, together with the dishes prepared. With the money, crates of fish would be bought and the highlight of the celebration would be the ‘baptism of pork into fish’, more precisely salted cod, baccalà. This way Lent was safe.

Today this gastronomic revival hopes to gather again that healthy spirit of togetherness  extant in present villagers. Some kilometres away from this beautiful village, quite near the gorgeous thermal baths of Saturnia is a lovely bed and breakfast hidden among hills of vineyards and olive groves. This holiday accommodation in Maremma offers 6 large rooms, furnished with environmentally-friendly materials, and a magnificent garden full of roses and cypresses, with swimming pool, overlooking the unspoilt Tuscan countryside surrounding it.

Pubblicato in Festivals and feasts in Tuscany, Folklore and accommodations in Tuscany | Lascia un commento

Madonna back in Florence again

Pubblicato il 16 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

It is time to book an accommodation for a midwinter holiday, be it a Florence apartment or a Tuscan villa in the immediate surroundings offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent. A great opportunity to spend  a holiday in Florence, enjoying both  its charming glamour and  the many events taking place there.

Madonna, the great chameleon-like pop star, is going to come to Florence on June, the 16th, 2012, as officially announced by the mayor. The site of the concert is Florence Franchi Stadium. After 25 years Madonna will be  back in Florence,  the town which welcomed her 1987 show ”The Material Girl”. She was already a show icon at the time. The fans were thrilled by her impressive silhouette in net stockings, biker boots and ragged wedding dress. Rob Sadusky, at the time, her stage costume supervisor, chose carefully her fashion designers who had to give the right shape to her on-going changes. Madonna’s  shrewd and very personal taste often urged her to address the aesthetic sensibility  of  Old Europe to frame  the image she had carefully planned. Thence J. Paul Gaultier,  the French fashion’s original enfant terrible who designed Madonna’s risqué cone bra  for the Blond Ambition Tour in 1990  and the following  stage costume for the 2006 Confessions Tour.

This year, 2012, at the Super Bowl Indianapolis, U.S.A. the Material Girl has dazzled football fans at Lucas Oil Stadium for her Cleopatra- style. The dramatic performance, highlighted by her Egyptian regalia, headdress, spiked black boots, was enhanced by other visual effects planned  by the Canadian Cirque de Soleil. Givenchy haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci has perfectly matched the show.

Italian style fashion, synonym of quality, style and elegance,  is not forgotten by Madonna. She particularly adores  the long-established Florentine Salvatore Ferragamo, “the shoemaker to the stars”, who after  earning a name in Hollywood  in the 20s, came back to the native country in search of high quality human resources. He settled in Florence at Palazzo Spini Feroni.

He is  still there nowadays.

Florence forever.

For the shoes worn by the pop star in Alan Parker’s Evita, she chose  the Florentine craftsmanship because of the functional, aesthetic and fashionable accent in her overall female look.

Even in her private life the Florentine timeless elegance and striking style have become a common connotation.

Feeling quite confident of her stylistic choices, she can conjugate the fashion designer Roberto Cavalli with Frida Giannini of Gucci Fashion either for a soirèe at the MOMA in New York City or for day at the Venice Film Festival.

Florence means perfect design and material, techniques  and creativity along a line of  continuous cross-references between past and present, sharing art, in all its forms, as common domain.

Pubblicato in Music and events | Lascia un commento