The Wheat Harvest: Hard work, good food and allegria!
Another fun week of stories from living in the countryside in Tuscany -- this time around the yearly wheat threshing festivals. You worked hard together, but then were always rewarded with an amazing meal -- on tables set up in the middle of the fields.
This week's menu is the one that the Chef ate all those years ago in the fields after a long day's work with her neighboring farmers.
Le Marche: The Secret of Santa Vittoria.
Food and entertainment are great diversions. On occasion, it is good to get lost in an old movie especially when it tells the story of man’s past struggles and creative solutions to catastrophic situations.
The Secret Life of Santa Vittoria, a delightful classic Italian-American film, is based on a true story of resolve, courage, community spirit, and…one million bottles of wine! It is set in Italy’s beautiful Le Marche region, the backdrop for this week’s authentic late August dinner.
Barbarossa, Lacrima di Morro D'Alba, Tenuta di Tavignano, 2018, Le Marche If ever a wine was a beacon of joy, it’s wine made from the rare Lacrima di Morro d’Alba grape from the region of Le Marche, near central Italy’s Adriatic coast. The wine’s perfume of lavender, roses, and wild berries is pure ambrosia. It’s bright, juicy, fresh flavors are heavenly pleasure. A specialty of the hills around the town of Morro d’Alba, the Lacrima grape — named for the teardrop-like shape of its berries — was all but extinct when a handful of estates in Le Marche recovered and revived it. Among them was the Tenuta di Tavignano and its owners Stefano Aymerich and wife Beatrice Lucangeli. The estate...
Spas & Thermal Springs: 3,000 Years of R+R Imagine…a glass in hand, a string quartet playing as you stroll through beautifully manicured gardens. A glass of water full of promises to enhance your wellbeing. The healing waters that gush from the Italian earth are drunk, soaked in and endlessly talked about. With a history of R+R that stretches back thousands of years, the Italians know a thing or two about unwinding in style. Many American spas today tout rigorous weight loss agendas, classes on meditation and strenuous sports activities. Spas in Italy have been popular since the time of the Etruscans and Romans when they would “take the waters” in natural hot springs. They have always been a combination of...
Every season Azienda Agricola Fontaleoni produce a small amount of “rosato” which makes for an ideal summer pairing for the beautiful produce of the season as well as the leisurely gathering of friends and family. Their rosato is based on the noble Sangiovese varietal which yields bright cherry and strawberry flavors with nuances of almond and savory acidity .
