The Friendly Country Campaign into action in Tuscany

Pubblicato il 15 Febbraio 2012 da Genni

The Friendly Country Campaign Foundation, Campagna Amica, has organized for the month of February a series of markets around Tuscany. The objectives of the institution are to cater for both consumers and farmers in consideration of today’s most heartfelt themes: food, tourism and ecology. This way the foundation inaugurates a new quality of life. Sales should be direct: from producer to consumer. These markets, in fact, are organized by the farmers themselves and they offer citizens a large choice of products in just one location. Food chain, price trends, purchasing styles, seasonality, zero kms, no GMOs, short chain: the  Friendly Country Campaign Foundation makes the culture of conscious shopping grow.

The region of Tuscany has a very varied and well marked landscape. The Apennine mountains are rich in vegetation and ideal for pasture whereas the green plains are full of cultivated fields, vineyards and olive groves that thin down towards the coast. It’s a unique land that has preserved its unity and territorial identity made of strong traditions, language and culture. Its gastronomic tradition is in harmony with its landscape: simple and tasty, refined and delicate, focused on products that nature provides in abundance. Two traditions can be identified here: one of the land, fully exploiting the resources of the territory, and the sea one, perpetually changing whilst travelling south.

Cortona

Of all the Tuscan provinces participating to the campaign, let’s just take a look at Arezzo. For the rest of the month the markets will be held every Monday in beautiful Cortona, every Tuesday in San Giovanni Valdarno, every Wednesday in the capital town of Arezzo itself, every Thursday in Sansepolcro, every Friday in lovely Castiglion Fiorentino  and every Saturday in Bibbiena. Here one will find all the rich products of this territory, from the veggies to the fruit, from the meat to the fish, from the cold cuts to the cheese, from wine to olive oil and yet much more in a whirl of colours, scents and bustle.

To learn the culture of the countryside what better than a holiday in a farmhouse? The Friendly Country Campaign Foundation think the same and are promoting quality accommodations, that respect the landscape, the environment and also the uniqueness  of the products. These agritourisms are the main reference for anyone wanting to organize a holiday in the country. Today the offers are diversified in consideration of the peculiarity of the territory, the rural vocation and the specific characteristics of those who run them. Tuscany Holiday Rent offers a very side selection of holiday farmhouses in Tuscany for vacations in touch with nature and excellent products.

Pubblicato in Culture and accommodations in Tuscany | Lascia un commento

A medieval Saint Valentine’s at the shade of Chianti’s hills

Pubblicato il 13 Febbraio 2012 da Genni

The beautiful scenery of the Florentine hills this time will be the backdrop for a romantic evening, where the magic of the past merges with the gentle breeze of love. The Sestiere Castellare, association for the promotion of cultural and social re-enactments, is in fact organizing at the Antico Spedale del Bigallo at Bagno a Ripoli, outside Florence, an alternative dinner-show for the lovers of the 21st century, intended to make them plunge into the courtly love of the 14th century. Delicious spicy food, the sweet notes of a harp resounding in the hall with all the charm of medieval love music, minstrels, jugglers and fire-eaters are all the ingredients of an evening in which you will become ladies and knights for a Saint Valentine’s celebration certainly unusual and alternative.

On the slopes of the hills just outside Bagno a Ripoli stands the Antico Spedale del Bigallo, built in the early 13th century to offer hospitability to both pilgrims and the sick. Surrounded by olive groves, this ancient hostel has some breathtaking views over Florence. Inside the vestiges of its past can still be found in the lacunar ceiling and ancient cotto flooring. The surroundings of Bagno a Ripoli offers many beautiful glimpses on the lifestyle of the Florentine countryside. Not far away is a unique holiday home in Chianti, originally a medieval Tuscan tower house  of the 12th century. A very exclusive way to spend an unforgettable vacation.

Pubblicato in Folklore and accommodations in Tuscany | Lascia un commento

Sticky & Sweet Tour of the province of Pistoia

Pubblicato il 10 Febbraio 2012 da Genni

Sunday full of sweetmeat goodies scheduled this weekend in the province of Pistoia. The town of Borgo a Buggiano is hosting its traditional “Gluttons’ Carnival”. The streets of this ancient city will be packed with stalls full of delicious local gastronomy. Buskers will animate the day, entertaining both children and adults. A carnival train will scurry around town transporting visitors.

Borgo a Buggiano

It is said that during the second century BC a soldier requested from his Roman commander a reward for his merit in a battle against the Ligurians. The commander knew the soldier wanted a piece of land where to build a house and live in peace, so he offered him the possibility of defining the borders using the hide of an ox, bue. The wise soldier took the hide and cut it into many thin strips, which he used to limit quite a large plot of land. At the end the captain was forced to accept the shrewdness of his man and legend wants that on this land was founded the town of Borgo a Buggiano.

Instead, up on the mountains of the Apennines the village of Le Piastre is setting up its stalls for the “Sweet Polenta Festival”. This type of ‘polenta’,  aka as Polenda and characteristic of the mountain areas of Northern Tuscany and of Emilia-Romagna, is made with chestnut flour and not maize as its savoury version. Other tasty products made with this flour will be sold, amongst which the famous necci, considered the ‘poor’ ancestors of pancakes.

Ghiacciaia della Madonnina

The small town of Le Piastre based its initial economy on ice. In fact just outside town one can still admire the Ghiacciaia della Madonnina, the “Little Madonna’s Ice-House”, built in the early 1900s to store and conserve the ice produced by the mountain streams. Once along the Reno valley there were hundreds of private ice-houses, destroyed during the years by landslides or by the erosive action of the river itself.

Today the village of Le Piastre is nationally famous for its humorous Liars Italian Championship, began in 1966. Yet it is with a truthful heart that we recommend our holiday accommodation in Le Piastre. This lovely holiday estate hosts four cosy self-catering apartments which share a swimming pool overlooking the valley. The tiny hamlet comprising the flats offers many scenic corners surrounded by colourful flowers where one can enjoy a glass of wine or read a book enjoying the exquisite hospitality of owners, Maria and Massimo. Here guests can spend an amazingly relaxing holiday in close touch with the natural beauties of the Tuscan mountains yet be conveniently located for daily trips to the art cities of Florence, Pisa and Lucca. Certainly the setting for an unforgettable holiday far from the madding crowd.

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

Filippino Lippi comes back home

Pubblicato il 9 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

Next Sunday,  February the 12th 2012,  the altar-piece Nerli  by Filippino Lippi will be welcomed home by Florentines. It is back to its original spot,  the Santo Spirito  Church. The painting, which has been there for five hundred years,  was moved to the  restoration workshops and after its rebirth it was sent to Rome,  as part of the exhibition “Filippino Lippi e Sandro Botticell nella Firenze del Quattrocento” at the Scuderie del Quirinale. The restoration work has been  great.  Accurate and swift.

The painting has been brought back   to its original  splendor and  beauty, and  new details  reveal, now,  the  rich materials employed such as the stunning gold of the frame, the silver of the grottos and the lapislazuli of the Vergin’s dress. The yellowish light which seemed to hint at a sunset after the cleaning has revealed  clouds before invisible and more defined  countenances of the characters.

The scene is very harmonious, in the front  the Virgin with  the Child and San Giovannino  enclosed by  St Martins of Tours and St Catherine of Alexandria. The  sacred group  is framed by  the commissioners Tanai de’Nerli and his wife Nanna.  At the back  Florence with  its San Frediano Gate and scenes from ordinary daily life among which a man saying goodbye to his family on a doorstep before a departure.    A very Florentine architectural element,  a loggia,  separates the two worlds, the sacred and the profane.  Is there a link between the two spheres?  Since the  painting records a historical event episode of  Nerli’s life, his leaving for France for negotiating  peace with Charles VIII,  king of France, maybe the background reveals a moment of his familiar life, his hug to his daughter in front of his wife while a groom cares his horse.

The art historians are at work on the issue.

Florence is a  very romantic town.  Imagine strolling  on Ponte Vecchio with the person you love, on a special day,  St Valentine’s.  A suggestion definitely more valuable than a large bunch of red roses.  Why not profit from the holiday  apartments in Florence offered by Tuscany  Holiday Rent ?

Pubblicato in Art and accommodations | Lascia un commento

Food in Tuscany: a journey into a repeated miracle of simplicity

Pubblicato il 7 Febbraio 2012 da Beppe

Cooking is a civilized  way of communication,  it is a special way of taking care. The pleasure of  the eye and taste is,  in Tuscany,  increased by  grace and elegance because here cooking breathes life into  the even  simplest ingredients.  Just a drop of olive oil  on top of a slice of plain  bread finds its legitimacy as natural dressing,  far from blunting the natural savour.  It has been turned into a noble addition.

Verify the meaning of that,  turn the words into experience paying  a visit to the ”Bottega di Cuoco” of Paolo Bindi at Monte San Savino, Arezzo (for directions enquire at www. tuscanyholidayrent.com)

Get inside,  you will find yourself  in an extremely simple place,  a  dining hall with a large table for twelve  people.  All  guests sit together,  often they come from different countries,  they meet by chance but surely share a common taste for genuine and simple food.  You are  welcomed by the owner , Paolo,  who  turns from time to time into the cook or the waiter.  A former Latin  teacher (just for a very short time actually)  and  antiquarian, this  cultivated guy is  able to prepare  and offer his guests  excellent food  in a  convivial atmosphere. The pleasures of the table are accompanied by friendly talks.  In his Bottega di Cuoco,  whose name reminds us of medieval memories,  he has for ten years been preparing  old  recipes of the Tuscan countryside.  A fixed menu with  the best quality produce,  coming directly from the surroundings.  A gorgeously simple meal,  accompanied by generous Chianti wine  at an extremely cheap price.

Among the successful dishes we strongly recommend, the peposo stew from the most established Tuscan tradition.  Its  main ingredient is patience, in the past  its cooking could take up to eight hours.  Nowadays, in a more accelerated lifestyle,  three hours do.  Originally  the recipe goes back to the watch furnace lads working at Impruneta,  in the hills behind Florence, who used to keep an eye for the whole night on the wood-fired oven where the famous earthenware pots, bricks and vases were cooking. They cleverly  exploited the situation,  placing pots of peposo stew at the mouth of the oven,  where the red terracotta was hardening at a slow and even heat.

Try the recipe on your own.

For 4 servings:

– 500g/14oz beef stewing steak

– 6 cloves of garlic

– 3 ripe tomatoes

– 4 slices of  toasted stale Tuscan bread

– salt and pepper

Place the cubed stewing meat in a deep saucepan with chopped garlic and the tomatoes, previously  skinned and roughly chopped. Season with salt and pepper, much pepper(  a full tablespoon at least). Thence its name peposo.  Add cold water in order  to cover completely the meat. Now let it cook very slowly,  stirring from time to time. It will be ready in three hours’ time.  The secret is its slow simmering which  makes the spell of  such simple ingredients.  The stew has to be served boiling hot on crostoni,  that are the grilled slices of Tuscan bread.

Very amusing,  but having it at the bottega del cuoco at Monte San Savino is something more.

It  is a thrilling experience,  in an unusual setting,  in company of   random  fellow guests.

Another kettle of fish.

Pubblicato in Tuscan food and wine | Lascia un commento