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.
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.
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.
Come on, admit it, British bread is much better than this Italian stuf…
On a recent trip to the UK, i finally found something that i mis; it’s a nice fresh soft load of Mother’s Pride from the local supermarket.
Processed food, probably filled with all kinds of weird modified, life-threatening chemicals, but doesn’t it taste good? It makes perfect toast, lightly grilled with butter or, better still, a real treat with the centre pulled out and rolled into a ball in the palmo f your hands and then eaten in one mouthful. Delicious. It i salso a really good way of clearing your hands. Admittley, your local branch of Sainsbury’s or Waitrose is more likely to be offering French baguette or Italian ciabatta but at least you can still buy unhealthy bread in Britain if you go to the right places. You can even geti t in restaurants. Well, i say reastaurants but you know what i mean, those places where you can get a real English breakfast anytime of day.
Actually, Eglish breakfast is another thing i miss, but i’ll tray and stay focussed on the bread. On my recent trip, i was reminded that Englsh breakfast even comes served with a dollop of brown sauce, unless you are really quick and stop them, but who is that together at 8 am after the insanely early Pisa_Liverpool Ryanair flight? But then who said there is no remaining traditional colour in the UK? An equivalent activity in one of the villeges of the Garfagnana Valley would have us all trekking up there in search of some local caracter and maybe a glass of grappa as we head for the door. But try buying a grappa anywhere else in the world but Italy and you will run into problems there must be a reason for that? Sorry, i am getting diverted again.
Sure, you can get approximations of soft bread in Italy. Conad makes one which isn’t bad when it is fresh. Giusti’s, the excellent bread shop in Lucca, however, singularly, fails to come up to the mark in the field of unhealty processed bread, in spite of being an otherwise impressive operation.
Just off Piazza San Michele, i have never seen such a popular shop. It can be quicker getting served in the bank than buying your daily bread from them. They have an unusual queuing method where everyone who arrives after you seems to get served first.
But i suppose it at least helps you learn to mix it with the locals; either that or starve. They also have unusual names for the bread, boy Scouts? Militari? What is that all about? Give me a couple of baps every time.
But their bread is admittedly excellent; crusty, fresh, tasty, it even has salt in it. And Giusti’s flour is a prime ingredient, brought in fresh from the wheat fields of the Padana river basin, or somewhere, and lovingly prepared by committed professionals. Just think of a Mulino Bianco advert to get the full effect of the image i am trying to create here. You know the thing, crusty bread with rich green olive oil dripping down your chin as you take a bite, sorrounded by laughing children and old folk gathered around the farmhouse table.
So what is my problem? Why the login for the processed aquidgy stuff which is about as good for you as a dose of Swine Flu?
I’m not saying that Mother’s Pride is a real alternative to fresh Lucchese bread. Even if it does fit in the toaster it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it all just drips off leaving the bread completely unmarked.
So iìm not really sure where the login for nasty processed British bread comes from and what it says about my mental health. But it is there so i guess it is just something i need to deal with and try to accept what is probably obvious to all for you: That you cannot really compare production line bread with something produced by an artisan. It is like comparing a Ford Focus with a Ferrari.
But then again, which one would you choose if you actually needed to drive somewhere? (Mauro Vincent)
