Lardo di Colonnata: Tuscan Treat
Regional Cuisine from Tuscany for Marble Workers
One of the most unusual traditional Italian foods is Lardo di Colonnata. This is a type of cured pork fat, which comes from the little village of Colonnata, high up in the Apuan Alps in Northern Tuscany. Colonnata is close to Carrara, famous for its fine marble, and lardo was the food of the marble quarriers: cheap and filling. Today lardo di colonnata is a delicacy, rather like a fine ham. It might sound horrible but it’s said to be silky, smooth and very tasty.
Traditional Tuscan cuisine uses up all scraps of food – nothing is wasted. And this dish is a prime example. It probably dates back to Roman times. Pigs used to be kept in the area, fed on the acorns that fell from the oak trees that grew on this unfertile mountain ridge. Lardo di Colonnata is made from very thin strips of pork fat, taken from the back of the pig.
It’s traditionally made in a marble vat, called a conca or conche – the inside of which is rubbed with garlic. The strips of fat are placed inside the vat in layers, and seasoned with salt. Each layer of fat alternates with a layer of herbs and spices. Every local producer has their own special combination of flavourings: but they generally involve seasonings like black pepper, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sage, oregano and even aniseed.
The vat is then sealed and traditionally left in a cave, where the cool mountain air passes around it. The salt dries the pork fat, and the flavours of the herbs and spices seep in. Some say that it’s important that Carrara marble is used for the vats, as this is free from lime. After 6 to 8 months the vat is opened and the lardo is ready to eat. You can buy it from one of the larderie in Colonnata, though these days it is made under different conditions due to new hygiene laws.
Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net “A frog in the well does not know the sea.”- Japanese Proverb
The 1966 Flood of the River Arno in Florence killed many people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books in Florence. It is considered the worst flood in the city’s history since 1557.
With the combined effort of Italian citizens and foreign donors and committees, or angeli del fango (“Mud Angels”), many of these fine works have been restored. New methods inconservation were devised and restoration laboratories established. However, even decades later, much work remains to be done.
November 3, 1966
After a long period of steady rain, the Levane and La Penna dams in Valdarno began to emit more than 70,629 cubic feet (2,000.0 m3) of water per second toward Florence.
At 2:30pm, the Civil Engineering Department reported “‘an exceptional quantity of water.'”
Cellars in the Santa Croce and San Frediano areas began to flood.
Police received calls for assistance from villagers up the Arno Valley.
The flood’s first victim, a 52 year old workman, died while trying to reach a crumbling aqueduct. November 4, 1966
At 4:00am, engineers, fearing that the Valdarno dam would burst, discharged a mass of water that eventually reached the outskirts of Florence at a rate of 37 miles per hour.
At 7:26am, the Lungarno delle Grazie cut off gas, electricity and water supplies to affected areas.
By 8:00am, army barracks were flooded.
By 9:00am, hospital emergency generators (the only source of electrical power remaining) failed.
Landslides obstructed roads leading to Florence, while narrow streets within city limits funneled floodwaters, increasing their height and velocity.
By 9:45am, the Piazza del Duomo was flooded.
The powerful waters ruptured central heating oil tanks, and the oil mixed with the water and mud, causing greater damage.
Florence was divided in two, and officials were unable to immediately reach citizens of the city past the Piazza Michelangelo.
At its highest, the water reached over 22 feet (6.7 m) in the Santa Croce area.
By 8:00pm, the water began to lower.
Impact
The flood has had a lasting impact on Florence, economically and culturally. City officials and citizens were extremely unprepared for the storm and the widespread devastation that it caused. There were virtually no emergency measures in place, at least partially due to the fact that Florence is located in an area where the frequency of flooding is relatively low. In fact, approximately 90% of the city’s population were completely unaware of the imminent disaster that would befall them as they were sleeping during the early hours of November 4, 1966.
Residents were set to celebrate their country’s World War I victory over the Austrians on November 4, Armed Forces Day. In commemoration, businesses were closed and many of their employees were out of town for the public holiday. While many lives were likely spared as a result, the locked buildings greatly inhibited the salvaging of valuable materials from numerous institutions and shops, with the exception of a number of jewellery stores whose owners were warned by their nightwatchmen.
Tragically, 5,000 families were left homeless by the storm, and 6,000 stores were forced out of business. Approximately 600,000 tons of mud, rubble and sewage severely damaged or destroyed numerous collections of the written work and fine art for which Florence is famous. In fact, it is estimated that between 3 and 4 million books/manuscripts were damaged, as well as 14,000 movable works of art.
Artist Marco Sassone, in an 1969 interview, recalled the impact of the flood on Florence’s residents: “The only thing you could do was watch and be helpless. Nature was master…the women became crazy with fear. They began throwing things from the windows and screaming ‘who is going to save my children?'” It was reported that 101 people lost their lives in the flood waters.
Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net
“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” Japanese Proverb
The Tumulus of Montefortini is an Etruscan tomb near Comeana, in the province of Prato, which is believed to date from the 7th century BC.
It is oval shaped, over 12 metres high, it dates from the VII- VI century B.C.
The oldest tomb, of monumental aspect, occupies the central part of the tumulus and features an unroofed dromos (corridor) that leads to a circular cell enclosed by roofing with concentric rings, supported by a pilaster.
The second tomb, dated between 620 and 590 B.C. is reached through a corridor 13 metres long, with high walls made of sandstone slabs in the lower part, blocks of alberese in the upper part.
Excavations began in 1966 and the finds are displayed in the Museum of Artimino.
Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net “A frog in the well does not know the sea.”- Japanese Proverb
Arno River
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. The river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and takes initially a southward curve. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Pisa. With a length of 241 kilometers, it is the largest river in the region.
It crosses Florence, where it passes below the Ponte Vecchio and the Santa Trìnita bridge (built by Bartolomeo Ammanati, but inspired by Michelangelo). The river flooded this city regularly in historical times, the last occasion being the famous flood of 1966, with 4,500 m³/s after a rain of 437.2 mm in Badia Agnano and 190 millimetres in Florence, in only 24 hours.
The flow rate of the Arno is irregular. It is sometimes described as having a torrent-like behaviour, because it can easily go from almost dry to near-flood in a few days. At the point where the Arno leaves the Apennines, flow measurements can vary between 0.56 m³/s and 3,540 m³/s. New dams built upstream of Florence have greatly alleviated the problem in recent years.
CYPRESS TREES (Cupressus sempervirens)
Few people can imagine an Italian garden, without images of tall, needle-like cypress trees springing to mind, so strong is the image of the cypress tree in Italy. The cypress tree’s name would suggest that it didn’t originate in Italy – even though its image really does symbolise Italy and everything that’s Italian about this wonderful land!
The Cypress tree’s origins are just as mysterious as it’s early uses and the folklore surrounding it! It is thought to be a native of the ancient Mesopotamia region between the Tiber and Euphrates rivers, which covered the area of modern day Iraq and Iran (once known as Persia). This area that was covered with Mediterranean forests was also the original home of the magical cypress tree. The same area, namely Persia, was also home to the ancient and equally mysterious Etruscan civilisation that inhabited Tuscany many years before Christ. The Etruscans regarded the cypress tree to be extremely sacred and it is widely believed that it was indeed the Etruscans that originally brought the cypress tree with them when the they began arriving in Tuscany.
The evergreen cypress tree grows to height of 20 to 25m and can survive for many thousands of years, outliving many generations of humans. The cypress tree’s longevity, the fact that it remained evergreen throughout the harsh winters and it’s heady resinous scent earned the plant a divine and spiritual status in Etruscan society. The Etruscans used the plant to line the entrances to their dwellings and they seem to have planted as many cypress’ as possible near to their settlements as they believed the fresh, resinous scent purified the air. On hot days one can detect the scent of a group of cypress trees from many metres away and it’s easy to understand why the Etruscans believed the tree improved the atmosphere with its fresh scent.
The wood of the cypress tree is very long lasting owing to its thick, resinous sap, which protects the wood from insect attack. In fact, the timber also emits a strong yet pleasant scent for many years and the Etruscans used the wood of the cypress tree to create sarcophagi and also in the cremation ceremonies themselves, so special was this plant to these early people.
In the Italian garden the cypress tree offers garden designers like me a tree that provides a vertical visual statement that really no other tree can provide. The evergreen, symbolic shape of this tree, standing s20m tall, appears to stretch skywards rather like the steeple of church and one could be forgiven for perceiving strong, spiritual connotations regarding the shape of this tree alone. Standing in the middle of a group of fully grown cypress trees and looking at the sky is most definitely a spiritual experience, as a strong link can be felt between the land on which one stands and abyss of the blue sky above.
Garden designers in Italy still use the cypress tree to line entrance driveways and create evergreen structure around the house and their presence clearly evokes strong symbolic sentiments. I find them indispensible for framing the stunning views that can be seen from many Italian gardens or as visual indications to guide the eye around my garden designs. The use of the cypress tree in Italian garden design is fundamental, however, care should be taken to not exaggerate the use of this immensely special, symbolic yet very subtle tree in Italian style gardens.
Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net “A frog in the well does not know the sea.”- Japanese Proverb
