Where “cooked water” is a culinary wonder - Tuscany Foods The Maremma, Italy’s version of the Wild West, includes southern Tuscany and part of Lazio. Its famed cowboys, the butteri, herd cattle here, and the land not used for stock animals is dedicated to farmlands and vineyards. Farmers and cowboys alike have big appetites and the cooking that has developed to satisfy them is likewise hearty ... Read Full Article
Enchantments in the “Etruscan triangle” of Southern Tuscany
Southern Tuscany - Enchantments in the “Etruscan Triangle” A triangle of villages in southern Tuscany contain treasures undiscovered by American travelers. Sorano, Sovana, and Pitigliano nestle 50 miles southeast of Grosseto, close to the border with Lazio, and offer much to visitors above and beyond what you expect in southern Tuscany, i.e., good food, great wine, medieval village ... Read Full Article
Tuscany Regions: Exploring Etruscany
Tuscany Regions: Exploring Etruscany For most foreigners, a tour of Tuscany means Florence, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, and maybe Lucca. While these well-known cities and towns exemplify the Tuscany region’s medieval treasures, its history encompasses far more than the Medici, Michelangelo, and all that. The enigmatic Etruscans were a major civilization of ancient Italy, and a little-visited ... Read Full Article
Best Pizzerias in Naples – What makes Neapolitan Pizza so special?
Best Pizzerias in Naples - What makes Neapolitan Pizza so special? When is a pizza more than leavened bread with a choice of toppings? When it is cooked by a pizzaiolo (pizza maker) from Naples, for whom it is a memory of childhood, a history of the city, a key to socialization, or a lifeboat of salvation. Pizza in Naples is more than just a culinary experience and here is a list of the best ... Read Full Article
Viareggio, Italy: A Summer Pearl
Viareggio, Italy: A Summer Pearl that Gleams Year-Round Viareggio, Italy, is known as the “pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea”, with good reason. In the summertime, it is a chic and sought-after seaside resort, with stylish hotels, fine dining, and an upmarket clientele. Its fine sandy beaches stretch for six miles up and down the Mediterranean coast: one-third are public with open entry, and the ... Read Full Article
Hotel Plaza e de Russie in Viareggio – Cooking Class in a Michelin-Starred Restaurant
Hotel Plaza e de Russie: Clowning around in a Renowned Tuscan Kitchen Viareggio, Tuscany: Filling and rolling out three different flavors of pasta looked easy when Luca Landi was doing it. Landi is the chef of Lunasia, the Michelin-starred restaurant of Viareggio’s Hotel Plaza e de Russie, and was conducting a cooking class for a group of non-professional foodies. His recipe this day was ... Read Full Article
Carnevale Di Viareggio – An Alternative to Venice?
Carnevale di Viareggio: FOLK ART ON A GIANT SCALE Poor Burlamacco! The clown character symbolizing the world’s most outsized Mardi Gras celebration is unknown outside Italy, and more’s the pity. The Carnevale di Viareggio is more accessible, family-friendly, and human-dimensioned than its better-known counterparts -- Carnevale di Venezia, Carnevale did Rio, and Mardi Gras in New ... Read Full Article
Don’t Miss Italy’s Brescia Opera Festival
Opera singers coming up from manhole covers, serenading crowds from second-story windows, harmonizing on mountaintops, and vocalizing in vineyards. Flash mobs in public squares and live jukeboxes on busy corners. Brass bands in markets and melodies in museum courtyards. In only one place in the world do all these things happen on the same day, and that place is Brescia, in northern Italy. Since ... Read Full Article
Brescia Food: Building a Center of Gastronomy in Italy
If you want good food in Italy, follow the wine. Good food follows good wine as the night the day. If an area has an articulated wine route, that’s even better. And if it has three separate wine routes, you can practically order from a menu with your eyes closed. So it’s easy to see why Brescia is one of four Italian cities to be honored jointly as the "European Region of Gastronomy 2017. " ... Read Full Article
Brescia, the Lion Queen of Italy
At first glance, the Italian city of Brescia seems to be an industrial pole, not a lion’s pride. Lombardy’s second-largest city (Milan is first) is respected for its metallurgy and machine-tooling prowess and for Beretta, its firearms manufacturer. But the city center is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Italy and a 3,200-year-old history you can experience on winding streets and splendid piazzas. ... Read Full Article