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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 products

When you leave the walls of Lucca heading northwest on the SS 12 road (the Brennero) towards Abetone, you will immediatly begin to notice the mountains surrounding the plain of Lucca. Our trip is taking us to Brancoli. Or rather to the villeges of the Brancoleria. On entering the tiny village of Vinchiana perched right on the river Serchio, you will find a cluster of signs on your right, announcing the villages of the Brancoleria. The are many of them, and they are still inhabited and doing business, fortunately many are served by local Lazzi bus.
Piazza Brancoli is the oldest and was at one time a Roman lookout village called a platea. This tiny village sports one main road into the centre where a cluster of houses are still inhabited and several cobled roads leading up to houses on the hillside above.
The church of Santa Maria Assunta dates from the 700s and is still used.
There are also some families still working here in the trades of their ancestors, for example at the Studio di legno, where the Casoli Cecchettini family still make windows and doors.
In Campitello, the Di Aiuta family make a sweets and have a travelling van that goes all over the Lucca area.
The Giammattei Morelli family keep bees and sell their honey and other products in the Tuseday “mercato” in Ponte a Moriano and on the Brennero outside Lucca.
And the there is the wonderful “Bottega”, open daily and on Sundays by demand.
Established fifty years ago and run by Liliano Diodati, his wife Livia and their children, particulary Nara and her husband Armando. This wonderful emporium stocks fresh tuscan products and is godsend for villagers who would otherwise have no travel by car to do their daily shopping.
The “Bottega” now proudly displays a new sign, the work of local resident artist Marj Picchi, an enthusiastic customer.
With springtime weather now hopefully upon us, take a little trip from Lucca to explore this charming corner of the Garfagnana.
And if you think you may get peckish, you can place an order with Nara Diodati at the “Bottega” for a basket lunch or sandwiches by telephone on 0583.965041.

Italy recipes: tasting tuscan desserts…

Buccellato
Perhaps you have already tried buccellato the traditional lucchese fruit bread?
It’s poor man’s food, bread made with a few simple ingriedents, which have made it a symbol of good luck and therefore very suitable for a Celebration.
For example, it contains aniseed, thought to promote fertility in women, and raisins, still seen on the table as a sign of good luck for the coming year. And of course while you may find it in a baguette shape know as a sfilatino, it is usually made in a shape of a circle or crown, the symbol of honour and glory. The name comes from the latin “bucella” which means a morsel, or bread for the poor. But there also existed in latin the word “buccellatum” which is probably best translated as “hard tack” or “ship’s biscuit”, the sort of iron rations provided for Roman troops.
The Buccellato is perfectly good form to dunk it in your wine or vinsanto.
You will find it in any good panificio or alimentari, and in Piazza San Michele (Lucca) at Taddeucci’s shop.

Tuscany – Christmas in Florence

If you decide to spend your Christmas in Florence, you can lose in the atmosphere of the city, with squares, avenues, side streets and shop windows are bathed in the special atmosphere of lights, colours and Christmas cheer.
Here tourists and visitors can find useful information on the Christmas period.
For example you might start your visit with the nostalgia of the German Christmas market in Piazza Santa Croce until December 20 or you could choose from the wide choice of markets in the Province of Florence. You can admire traditional, mechanised or live Nativity scenes , fascinating for adults and children, in churches, institutes or in the open air. Who is interested in cultural actvities can find the opening times of museums and churches for Christmas and the first week of the New Year. Can choose guided tours as well as a list of activities to do with children are also available.
For a general calender of variety of events, from gospel choirs to charity fairs, from exhibitions to shows and venues for Saint Silvester Night .
For the first time this year it is possible to celebrate the new Year’s Eve together with Bologna: the two cities are now much closer thank to the high speed train that allows passengers to get from Florence to Bologna and back in only 37 minutes.
In cooperation with the municipality of Bologna and Trenitalia there are concerts and special events with artists performing in both cities .
Lastly, there is a wide selection of proposals for your Christmas and New Year parties and dinners, listing restaurants where you can have dinner, but also cafès, pubs and discos , or villas, castles and palaces in or outside Florence.

You can find all informations on : www.firenzeturismo.it

Tuscany – Montelupo Fiorentino

ceramic-montelupo — Typical hande-made plate

Montelupo Fiorentino, is a town on the immediate outskirts of Florence, between Montalbano and the river Arno.
Its location and the presence of waterways helped to develop numerous craft activities, especially ceramics, which reached its greatest splendour in the course of the 15th and 16th centuries.
This art is still alive in the numerous artistic ceramics workshops. Every year in the month of June there is the Festa Internazionale della Ceramica (International Ceramics Festival) where the area’s history and traditions are re-enacted in a series of exhibitions and artistic events. The origins of Montelupo probably coincide with the building of a castle at the end of the High Middle Ages.