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Tuscan cooking

From the beach to the kitchen
A gastronomic competition that can change your life. Aprons girded and utensils at the ready! For the 18th edition of “A tavola sulla spiaggia” the epic clash of fabulous dishes from ancient recipe books and others that valorize traditional on the beach picnic foods at the Roma di levante arena in late August.

Besides tasty tidbits, the event has proved its capability to “dish up” unexpected talents: many of the partecipants in past edition have transformed a hobby into a profession at which they excel. Take Toni Brancatisano, a Pietrasanta resident originally from Australia, the house-wife contender at the 2008 edition who recently took first place at the “La scuola-cucina di classe” gastronomic talent show and now hosts a program on Gambero Rosso Channel.

Or the Roman princess Orietta Boncompagni Ludovisi who in 2006 tickled Forte’s palates with the turquoise cabochon dessert she invented just for fun and went on to author the novel and very popular “Guida delle migliori pizzerie d’Italia”. Or Fabiana Giacomotti, a journalist and writer who delighted us in 2007 with her Mediterranean antipasto and has now launched Dolcelieve, the first-ever line of haute patisserie for gluten intolerants with a sweet tooth.

Web-site: www.atavolasullaspiaggia.it

Italy coast

forte-dei-marmi — Italy coast - Forte dei Marmi

Surf’s up
At the Pontile, biting salt spray and crashing waves, walls of water, barrels and riptides: riding the giants, dreamin’ California… Forte dei Marmi’s sea like you never seen it: the best place in the world to be. In the tube.
It’s said that caution is a natural human mechanism. Caution, not cluck. And maybe this dualistic thought caution vs fear is what runs through the mind of the surfer riding the Versilia waves.

On that same sea, so safe and welcoming so perfect for kids and families, that canturn into an amazing arena of impetuous sewlls, barreling and mean; waves to catch, attack, caress and follow into whitewater. Pur collective California dream plays out in a bit of versilia’s sea near Forte dei marmi’s Pontile. An expanse of water that has become the Tyrrhenian playground for stoked foam-breathers on bords.

Everything turns on the waves, whenever, wherever: little snappers, crumbly waves, or big, glassy giants, perfect, pitching, peeling. An eternal pilgrimage in search of ideal spot, even if the best spots are right there, around the Forte Pontile and a tad downscaled at Marina di Pietrasanta. The surfer suffering from perennial abstinence thus sets off looking for a nice wave to share with some good friends. Bundled in a wetsuit in winter or reveling in skin-sea contact in a summer.

The rest, all the rest, is an explosion of utter freedom and pure passion. The kind that drives you to frenetically click all the surflines to see where the surf’s up and then “dive” down from the remotest inland sites in Versilia by scooter, Ape, car, bike, VW bus…. any means of locomotion is the right one for getting to the beach or the Pontile, board under arm, and paddling out. This is what it’s all about. Someone defined it “the innermost limits of pure fun”.

A step into liquid time. Momentum. Passion. Passion that takes you, with your board buddies to hangouts like the Nimbus Club. Or to explore the specialized shops – on the increase throughout Versilia. The same passion that, in a business key, has spawned a host of boardshops that build to order (Ola Surfboards of pietrasant, for example).

The sea is an open-air stage on wich the curtain never falls: in winter as in summer, at dawn as at the dusk of a long, long day the blue crush is a never-ending attraction.
A “fatal” attraction, while all around unpredictable and unsettling, the unceasing wind and the whipping sea foam vehemently caress the senses of the surfer on a living curl at the morning of the earth.

Tuscan cookery

Farro -Spelt

Farro – Spelt
The Farro of Garfagnana is a very ancient cereal, cultivated on small plots of land which are low in nutrient levels, in a band from 300 m to 1.000 m above sea level. The sowing heppens in the autumn in pre-prepared ground with the use of the dressed seed, a derivative of the local population of Triticum dicoccum (spelt).
Following the traditional practices of the Garfagnana, the farro production occurs without the use of chemicals or chemical fertilizers, resulting in an organic product.

In the Garfagnana it is polished, or freed from its outer covering, in traditional stone mills and used for typical local recipes – farro soup, farro cake and farro with beans.
The farro of Garfagnana has been recognised with the IGP marque.
There are about 80.90 farms today involved in the cultivation of farro, for a total area of about 100 hectares. The average size is quite small, many farms growing in less than one hectare, while around 10% grow on an area greater than 3 hectares.

Lucca wine

Lucca and its territory do not only have extra virgin olive oil, they also boast a very respected wine production, which is becoming ever more noteworthy.
The wines of the hills of Lucca and of Montecarlo possess a tradition which, based on precise historical documents, dates back to mediaeval and Roman times. It seems than even before the Romans, the hills of Lucca were cultiveted by the Etruscans and then the Ligurians who were well versed in the art of viticulture. These wines were well appreciated in the past by popes, in particular Gregory XII and Paolo II Farnese, who, respectively in the 15th and 16th centuries, made ample use of them. In the development of viticulture, one shiuld remeber the influence exercised by religious orders in wine making.

Among the wines of Lucca, those that stand out are those with the domination “Montecarlo“, which is reserved for wines coming from vineyards located in the municipalities of Montecarlo, Altopascio and also Capannori and Porcari. The Montecarlo white obtained its DOC denomination in 1969, the red in 1986. The DOC Montecarlo white is excellent as an aperitif and goes together very well with starters, soups and all types of fish dishes.
The Montecarlo red, which with two years of ageing is allowed to be called “reserve”, combines naturally with meat dishes, stews, pultry, mushrooms and roast white meats. The domination of Montecarlo also refers to types of vinsanto.

The secon denomination of origin of the province of Lucca is called ” Colline Lucchesi” (Hills of Lucca), and contrary to how it happened for Montecarlo, in this case it was the red wines which were first denominated DOC in 1968, while the white wines gained the same distinction in 1985.
The “Colline Lucchesi” and “Montecarlo” wines are among the main grape harvests of the selected wies, and their appreciation has recently been confirmed by numerous awards both in Italy and abroad.

Web-site: www.stradavinoeoliolucca.it

Tuscany churches

The convent of the Clarisse and the Church of Sant’Anna
The idea to build a convent in the centre of ontecarlo was implemented between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, following the religious fervour created by the Council of Trent. It was built between 1610 and 1614 (from a design by the architect, Gherardo Menchini of Florence) and was enlarged subsequently with the inclkusion of the building that until then had been the residence of the Vicars of Montecarlo.

The running of the convent was entrusted to the Pooor Clares who remained there until 1810, when the religious community was expelled after the Napoleonic wars. The building was put up for auction and was subsequently redeemed and given to the Fondazione Pellegrini-Carmignani and used as a school for children.
The old convent complex, now in need of restoration, also includes the 17th century church of Sant’Anna, which is entered from Via Grande. Inside there is a Madonna in trono col Bambino e Santi of 1709 by Giovan Maria Corsetti and a San Lorenzo by Apollonio Nasini.