Restaurant Il Bargello

After a morning of exploring Florence one of your most tantalizing  decisions will be where to grab a bite to eat?  As you explore the various corners in Florence you will find numerous ‘Ristoranti and Pizzeria” from which to choose.  These Ristorantes are in the Piazza della Signoria.
One may enjoy delicious pizzas, pastas, salads, and sandwiches from any number of places.  All are delicious!
It is also the perfect time to relax, rest your feet, and ready yourself the afternoon’s tour.

Web-site: www.ilbargello.it

Ravioli with tomato sausage sauteed with mushrooms, with crescent rolls

The “ravioli pasta” is different from region to region, but the Tuscan ravioli are excellent!
You can find them with tomatoes, with meat sauce, stuffed with cheese and vegetables, fish, mushrooms, truffle.
There are many different sizes, round or square, large or small .. but you’ll never forget the ravioli foods after tasting!

Bracali Restaurant - Massa Marittima

Bracali Restaurant is simply amazing! It’s a one of the best restaurants in south Tuscany coast.
You’ll be fashinated by the place, the cooking and by the excellent service.

It is not easy to sum up a chefs style in a single word.
Sensations, traditions, culture, respect for the local territory and creatività are essential elemnts when blending tastes with consistency in order to produce  a result worthy of note, establish contact with the costomers and comunicate something to them.
The philosphy is cooking as an art in the true sense of the word, it goes beyond merely preparing a recipe and requie creation, structure and presentation.
The restaurant organizes also short cooking course where you can come and learn the secrets of cooking and the art eating well.

Bracali Restaurant
Via di Perolla 2, 58020 Ghirlanda – Massa Marittima GR

Official website: www.bracaliristorante.it

Restaurants in Vorno

Thinking about my guests staying and the way they usually enjoy restaurants around my Villas, I have the pleasure to inform you that next summer you will find 2 new restaurants in Vorno… perfect for a fast and informal dinner after a full day tour arund Tuscany!

Ok, just to remind you:

1. The historical Bimbotto
2. The new restaurant Lo Scompiglio
3. The new restaurant La Bettola

3 very wonderful restaurants where you for sure can save your money! Waiting for you!

Grotta Giusti - Swimming pool

Let’s start by di spelling that terrible myth about warm and sunny Italy.
There are millions of arthritis-aching Italians to bear fitness to the truth Italy the whole peninsula from Milan to Catania, is daine cold, foggy and damp from November through April. And just like Chicago, New York, London or paris, those balmy sun-filled days don’t return to Italy until May. Rember that film Enchanted April? Balderdash! It was filmed in June at the earliest!
So, what to do as the winter months drag on and we shuffle around the house in our wool socks, leggins, sweaters, shawls and caps dreaming longingly of swaying palm trees on some lovely Caribbean Island? Well, you’ll be pleased to know there is a quick fix just down the road and not nearly so pricey as that hotel on St. Kitts!
The spa and beauty center Grotta Giusti Terme at Monsummano Terme, a few kilometers south of Montecatini Terme is housed in a lovely 19th century stone building set in a tree-shaded park. It was founded in 1854 after some workmen excavating in a nearby lime quarry discovered the cave and under water thermal spring.
Being so nera Montecatini Terme, which was a major destination for “taking the waters”, the owners of the cave, the Nencini-Giusti family, were quick to exploit its commercial value. The spa was planned as a first-class facility and, to this day, both it and its adjoining hotel are just that.

Tuscan summer nights are beautiful in themselves, but add a village festival in the cool shade of a Church or in an olive grove with a band playing music from 9 to midnight and the outdour of food coking – this is a recipe for magic. Go with friends and enjoy the camaraderie; go alone and you might meet a new acquaintance. Anything can happen.
“Sagra” can be translated as a “church supper” – sponsored by the Church or local charitable association such as the Croce Rossa or Misericordia.
They engage the Energy of the entire community so if you are already a resident you can offer a helping hand. Jobs range from ticket-taking, settin g up chairs and tents, serving food or working at the food tables.
If you are a tourist or simply want to relax, you can partecipate by bringing friends and family and eating under the stars at the long tables set up in the fields.
The local specialità, and inevitably a plate of pasta or grilled meats, are available for purchase.
Dinner is served usually from 7.30 onward, typically on friday, saturday and sunday evenings.
My first sagra this year came early, in april at Torricchio, a village between Pescia and Uzzano.
It had a unique extra feauture, a spicy crime story that anhanced the pleasure of carciofi fritti (fried artichokes, Torricchio’s speciality). At first all seemed calm – too calm.
While my friend waited in line to order food, i photographed the mosaics on the church facade. These (from 1972) portray 7 sinners on the lower half of the church facade.
According to my interpretation they represent the evils os smoking, drinking, terrorism, robbing, killing, laziness and complicity.
According to biblical tradition, the capital sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride.
This seemed to foretell something ominous lurking beneath the apparent calm.
As our meal was winding down, we noticed commotion at the nearby tables. A father with daughter about 7 years old was arguing with some of young adults while the water acted as mediators. The man’s Rayban sunglasses has disappeared and he was “interrogating the suspects” in other words, yelling at them.
My friend’s daughter had witnessed  the crime. She told me the perpetrator had already fled scene. At this point there was, in italian terms, a colpo di scena, the purpoted criminal returned to the scene of the crime, while the water and Sagra organizers were in the midst of trying to calm rising tempers.
“That’s him!” our intrepid young lady shouted as she pointed in the thief’s direction.
“Lower your arm and come quickly”. I urged. At a safe distance we followed the man.
I encouraged a waiter to join us.
“That’s the man, there in the white sweatshirt”, i said warning my friends’ daughter to maintain a low profile.
The waiter had the quickness of spirit to call out, “hey you, come back here!” And the rayban thief did return.
At that point we chose the safest route, departure, having done what we could to resolve the crime.
Hopefully the father received his Raybans and the evening could continue with music, singing and lighter spirits.
I know there will be other sagras ahead this summer.
Who knows what these will bring?
The best way to find out which sagras are upcoming i sto read the signs along the roads. Or better yet, ask the neighbors, who are sure to know. Here are a few:

Paganico (east town) Sagra del Taglierino ( a kind off lat spaghetti)
Molazzana (Cascio, north town) Sagra della Ranocchiocciola (chiocciole and ranocchie- snails and frogs)
You can find more, and tastier ones, by searching the web under “Lucca Sagras”.

Visit also this page.
Enjoy your summer evenings!
( Norma Jean Bishop)

Coincidentally enough at the press conference for this the 5th edition of Lucca Donna Jazz, held in the Headquarters of the patrons  Fondazione Banca del Monte, the conversation spontaneously turned to this era of Lucca Jazz.
The board members reminisced their teenage pilgrimages to San Giorgio in the hope of a few notes from Chet’s last partner Ruth Young sang at the 2006 edition of the festival.

So don’t miss this week of top class  concerts taking place in the San Girolamo Theatre starting February 21st and presented by famous TV music personalità and DJ Claudio Sottili. Thi is the 2009 Lucca Jazz Donna Festival organized by the Circolo Lucca Jazz, dedicated this year to Billie Holiday on the 50th anniversary of her death.

As a side event the 1984 Emmy and Bafta award winning film Billie Holiday – The Long Night of Lady Day by Jhon Jeremy will be shown at the Cinema Centrale on Thursday 19th February.

The festival aims to bring female jazz musicians to the forefront, whether they sing, play, compose or arrange jazz music. Two mid-week evenings are dedicated to the 2009 Award for young talent and feature, six female groups from Rome, Palermo, Puglia, Milan and Lucca.

The weekend events in Lucca feature Michele Hendricks, daughter of Jon of legendary trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Eileina Dennis from the US with her gospel background and hit recording with Randy Crawford and Zucchero, Tiziana Ghiglioni known as La Signora del Jazz Italiano and the captivating voice of Ada Montellanico with her guest Max Ionata.

A special tribute to Billie Holiday entitled Our Way to Lady Day will take place at Teatro Alfieri in Castelnuovo Garfagnana on March 27th with the Ricciardi/Premazzi Quartet.
previous edition have hosted dramme Kim Thompson, just on the cusp of fame, saxophonist Lisa Pollard and violinist Regina Carter, to name a few.

The festival is a showcase for Lucca to be proud of, adding sparkle and International glamour to the town during the drab low season of february. Spread the word!

Last year these shows were a sell-out so we recommend you buy tickets in advance from Telerecord, Via Santa Croce 11/13. On sale from 10th february. More info regarding the programme and tickets at www.luccajazzdonna.it; segreteria-eventi@comunelucca.it
Tel. +39 0583.442444, or centro.po@provincialucca.it Tel. +39 0583 433435
Listening also in What’s On Central pages.

Olives, those beautiful silvery trees, have today become a visual metaphor for Italy.
Nevertheless, seldom does anyone come to Italy solely for the purpose of growing olives and making olive oil. Most foreign-born cultivators naively back into it somehow. Olives usually enter their lives on a ” bit of land ” just beyond the garden of their dream home, whether it be a humble farmhouse or a full-blown villa.
Those gnarled trunks look so expressively romantic.
The delicate leaves gently sea basking in the Mediterranean sun. The terraced groves are so suggestive of a living link across time to departed generations. Yes… but, wander into any local bar and take a look around at the old tuskers playing cards or arguing over this year’s olive crop and you’ll notice they’ve grown as gnarled as their trees.
Olive farming is indeed lovely work with long hours spent in solitary meditation, but it is also year-round hard work.
The year starts in Februarywith the cutting down of the undergrowth in the olive grove and fertilizing each tree. March and April are pruning time and burning of the cuttings. In May the trees go into bloom, dropping their tiny white flowers on the ground like a summer snow. June the undergrowth is cut again to prevent fire in the olive grove.
July and August is quit time while the olives are left to grow in the hot, dry summer. In late September, some additional light pruning and cutting undergorwth is again on the agenda.
October brings the laying of the nets. November, December and beyond is harvest time and taking the olives to the frantoio to make olive oil and January is clean up time – taking up and putting away the nets and equipment and, of course, enjoying the fruit of our labor!

The “Wine Trails of Tuscany” run through magnificent wine-growing areas which, apart from the obvious vineyards and wineries, offer an integrated tourist package of cultural, historical and natural attractions.

These trails are also a means of fostering rural development and of promoting so-called “Enotourism”, that is, setting wine production in a cultural, environmental, historical and social context.

Granted, Provence lacks Tuscany’s “painted into place” perfection. Its beauty is otherwise — of sensual light softly colouring a life lived hard for centuries. This is a land of lavender, prettily perched villages and old blokes bringing ancestral wisdom to the game of pétanque.

But such postcard slivers of reality disguise a hectic history and geography that render the region rough-edged and turbulent. The villages were, after all, perched for protection. Prettiness is a by-product.

The postcards tell little, either, about a life still dominated by farming, family ties and folk who alternate between public celebrations and bitter disputes. They also ignore pieds et paquets, the tripe-and-trotters dish with which locals stun feeble foreign digestive systems.

Provence is, in short, a proper, rooted place, not an arty summer camp for the chattering classes. Bèn-vengu. (That’s “welcome”, Provençal-wise.)

For tourers: when it comes to coast, Provence has Tuscany over a barrel. Think about the Maures and Estérel corniches, where rocks plunge directly into the briny and humanity hangs on where it can. Here, the Creator was in showman mode.

The Estérel corniche ends at Cannes, a jet-set smudge on the seascape. Nice is just beyond, while, directly behind, the mountains scorn trivial pursuits for tougher concerns. Here, the region rises via forests and ravines to villages sprouting from ragged hilltops. They’ve apparently had a wilder time than their Tuscan counterparts, telling their tale through wriggling streets and ramparts, and old ladies in older doorways who are resolutely unimpressed by anyone, least of all the Beckhams in Bargemon.

Put vertigo on hold for the Verdon Gorges, where, for 13 miles or more, the French Grand Canyon has head-scrambling splendour unmatched in Europe, let alone Tuscany. This is where, unable to control terrified teeth, I join the chattering classes.

For culture fiends: Tuscans may have the Renaissance sewn up, but Provence has hosted playtime for polymaths ever since the Romans scattered theatres and arenas about the place. Later, the Avignon popes chucked up the majestic Papal Palace — which would still rule Christianity, given half a chance.

The Cistercians left purer testimony to medieval faith at Le Thoronet abbey and its sister houses. And in more recent times, Provence has gained ground with an unbeatable bevy of modern artists: Van Gogh in Arles; Matisse, Chagall and Klein in Nice; Cézanne in Aix; Cocteau in Menton; and Picasso pretty much everywhere.

Nor is Provençal culture stored solely in pictures and monuments.

It’s in the fishing boat and the curve of an ancient street, the autumn pursuit of mushrooms and wild boar, the swirl of a bullfighter’s cape. On that score, Provence is cultured to the hilt.

For the explorer: unless you’re on the way to St Tropez, most of Provence is off the beaten track. Between a few well-known spots, you can be out of touch in the turn of a hairpin. Perhaps the next bend will take you up the Dentelles de Montmirail — jagged little peaks that the Provençaux call lace (“dentelle”), though they look more like fangs to me.

From there, skirt the mighty Mont Ventoux along the Nesque Gorges, second only to the Verdon for plunging-into-the-void potential. Beyond, Sault is lavender central, its valley carpeted purple-blue in high summer. To the east, the peak of the Lure rises rocky and increasingly remote; then you’re in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, their elemental toughness apparent from the many abandoned farming hamlets.

On towards the Mercantour National Park, where there is walking, climbing and every other hairy-chested activity. But most of all, there’s soaring space. It may be standing room only back in Gordes or Avignon, but here, believe me, you will stand alone.

For foodies: Aix market is no place for the hungry. You’ll go mad with food lust, seduced by voluptuous fruit and veg, herbs, breads and an entire civilisation of cheeses. Fish lie on the stall as if the tide had just receded. Over there, meat and charcuterie dash vows of vegetarianism. Over here are several zillion versions of olive oil, nuns selling chicken and chaps in hats giving honey tastings.

And it’s all healthy — so tuck in guiltlessly to ratatouille, salade niçoise and the grand-aïoli of salt cod and garlic mayonnaise. Pasta is on the menu, of course, but there’s no Italian-style obsession with the filler material. Why would there be, when Sisteron lamb and beef daube await? Or bouillabaisse from Marseilles? A white from Cassis helps it all down. Meanwhile, reds from the southern Côtes du Rhône and Bandol rival Tuscany’s best, Côtes de Provence pinks are ace in summer, and no Italian aperitif beats the sunny savour of pastis.

For the ultimate trip: Provence invented the top-end sunshine holiday. The grand tour may have whistle-stopped through Tuscany for art’s sake, but when it rolled onto the Riviera, it stayed put, lived high and hired the locals as domestics.

The coast was speckled with palace hotels and outrageous villas — and still is. Nowhere else offers sybarites such choice. The taste-filled decadence of the Negresco, in Nice, sums it up nicely (00 33 4 93 16 64 00, www.hotel-negresco-nice.com; doubles from £200).

Slightly more contemporary — ie, there’s a spa — is the 18th-century farmstead that has been transformed into Le Mas Candille, at Mougins (0845 458 9455, www.aspireholidays.co.uk; seven days from £885pp, including flights). Or go mob-handed and move into a watercress farm, built in the days when watercress farming conferred distinction. The splendidly restored Mas St Estève, near L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, filters a noble Provençal past through present comfort (0845 070 0618, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk; from £6,055 per week, rising to £9,555 at peak times, for up to 12).

Anthony Peregrine()

TUSCANY

Provence in summer is golden and lovely. But Tuscany sets the platinum standard. Europe’s wealthiest region in the Middle Ages, home of the Renaissance and humanism, it has depths that no bucolic bit of France can begin to plumb.

The Tuscans built gorgeous cities, filled them with masterpieces, then invented country villas — which they filled with even more art. And before they downed tools and let what passes for progress carry on elsewhere, they made sure that each tree was planted in just the right place, creating one of the most civilised landscapes on earth.

For tourers: Tuscany earns its crust in the corridor between Florence and Livorno, where the serious industry and agriculture are based. Get beyond its autostrada spaghetti, though, and touring has a magical quality, as if you were progressing through a series of Renaissance frescoes, scooting along behind all those Madonnas and saints.

At its best — in soft, green Chianti, in the hills south and west of Siena — there is a mystic geometry about the landscape. Each hill wears a tiara: perhaps a rugged stone farmhouse, a villa set in a tiered Italian garden, a crumbling castle or a vertical little town. All are built with an intuitive aesthetic, in endless variations of towers and loggias, olive groves, vines and cypresses. Driving takes you past them too quickly, in fact; Tuscany was made for walking, riding or cycling.

For culture fiends: en garde, Provence! Tuscany takes few prisoners when it comes to culture. With Giotto, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli and co, the region has more great art and architecture per square mile than any place on earth.

Although Florence and Siena possess the lion’s share of the masterpieces, almost every one-horse town and roadside chapel has something worth seeing. One of the most striking images in Tuscany, Piero della Francesca’s poignant vision of the pregnant Virgin, the Madonna del Parto, resides in an old school in tiny Monterchi, his mother’s birthplace.

But Tuscan culture isn’t only about dead geniuses. Artists and musicians flock here from around the world, which makes for a lively calendar of events to complement the region’s traditional festivals: the daredevil

Palio in Siena; the tug-of-war Gioco del Ponte in Pisa; down-and-dirty Renaissance football in Florence.

For explorers: 90% of visitors stick to the core sites, leaving the fringes to explorers. If Florence is heaving, for example, take a short drive north into the lush, wooded Mugello (site of the first Medici villa), and you’re practically on your own.

And the wild side of Tuscany, the Garfagnana and the Apuan Alps, where Michelangelo sought out marble to “liberate”, is only half an hour north of Lucca.

Then there is southwest Tuscany, which holds perhaps the juiciest secrets: Massa Marittima’s cathedral on a pedestal; the sword in the stone at San Galgano; the Maremma, home range of Tuscany’s own cowboys, the butteri; and the time-capsule towns of Pitigliano and Sovana, built over and around Etruscan tombs. And in Capalbio, at Tuscany’s southernmost tip, you’ll find the most startling sight of all: Niki de Saint Phalle’s fantastical mosaic sculptures, towering 50ft tall, in the Giardino dei Tarocchi.

For foodies: Catherine de’ Medici introduced haute cuisine to France, but modern Tuscan food is the opposite — simple and wholesome, prepared with superb ingredients. Even the most basic pappa al pomodoro (tomato bread soup), made with sun-ripened tomatoes and locally pressed olive oil, can be an epiphany.

Favourites include hearty bean and vegetable soups, and pasta dishes with white truffles and wild asparagus, along with bistecca alla fiorentina — the perfect T-bone steak. Desserts, however, can be incredibly rich: Siena’s panforte, packed with nuts, honey and candied fruit, must be eaten only in wafer-thin slices.

Tuscan wines need no introduction — Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. But don’t pass up a chance to try the DOC-rule-breaking “super Tuscans”, such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, and a glass of vin santo with dessert.

For the ultimate trip: swanning around with mates in a Tuscan villa is about as good as it gets. San Martino, a 16th-century farmhouse, sleeps 12 and comes with infinity pool, spa area, pizza room, home cinema and pool table. A week starts at £4,410, rising to £7,035 at peak times, through A&K Villas (0845 070 0618, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk).

For sheer romance, Relais La Suvera, near Siena (00 39 0577 960300, www.lasuvera.it; doubles from £258), delivers the goods: a medieval fort, converted into a villa for Pope Julius II and packed with heirlooms and antiques, it offers a spa and blissful tranquillity.

Alternatively, see Tuscany in between luxuriating at one of the world’s top spa retreats: Terme di Saturnia, in the Maremma (00 39 0564 600111, www.termedisaturnia.it; from £1,176 per week for two).

Dana Facaros