Lunigiana, the land of the moon

Here you can reach the sea at Lerici, famous for its Gulf of poets, and Mary Shelley, who stayed at Lerici castle, a beautiful medieval sea-side castle of quite some fame.


We chose this area to live in above many other parts of Italy, and we have no regrets, in fact we now assist others,like ourselves, who want nice properties and locations, good prices, beautiful settings, sea access and general accessibility, and nice people! We are the team at Italy Simply and we can help and assist you with every little thing to do with getting here, being here, staying here, and much more.




Lunigiana is also the land of 100 castles, though they number more than this! The main family here were the Malaspina, a noble family dating back a long long time, thus named Malaspina 'bad spine' because one ancient ancestor, was out riding one day and ran into an Acacia spine, which caught him in the neck, and he cried out 'mala spina mala spina' which translates basically to 'bad spike bad spike!'




There is much to discover here, dont miss out on this area, come here and be delighted and amazed!



Zac B Mahoney

Exitement over your table with the Truffle Tarts!

Black truffles are called "scorzoni" [skowrzohnee] as refferred in the video.

This video in Italian language from Casa Tocci shows a very simple way of preparing black truffle tarts.

If you do not know Italian, I have written down here the recipe for you:

Set a handful of black truffles (dry ones, not the pickeled ones in a jar) and set them in a glass of "Vino Santo" (a sweet Tuscan dessert wine made from raisins and aged two years in small barrels) overnight.
Get some good quality pork lard and slice it thinly. Wrap each truffle with the slice of lard and then wrap the whole thing with a layer of tin foil.
Set the wrapped truffles under hot ashes (do not set besides live charcoal!!!) in your fireplace and leave there until soft (depending on the teperature it may take two hours).

That's it! Enjoy!

Folklore: Montepulciano Bravio

The Bravio is an extreme feat for the athletic pushers that alternate their strengths to compete with eleven pairs of rollers.
The huge and heavy wine barrels (hundreds of pounds) are rolled upwards the extreley steep uphills in town along a track of one mile and a half.

Just to let you have an idea of the extreme struggle, a couple of years ago one pusher died of a heart attack during the trials.

Here the Bravio in an 8 minute long video. It also is a good video to show the streets of Montepulciano.

The Mediterranean landscape of the lulling Elba

We spent two lovely weeks over at Villa Eucalyptus right on the coast and have shot this short video to share with all of you the relaxing sound of the Mediterranean waves, a lulling sound that will give you an idea of the beauty of Elba Island.

We hope you enjoy this very short video which is not even a minute in length.

The old way of Moving around: Treno Natura

This quick video shows the line of the Treno Natura that connects Siena to this wonderful culinary and historical town called Monte Antico in Tuscany.

This is a one day trip and anyone can join. You just need to reserve! All the information here!

This video is only 3 minutes and a little more! Enjoy!

Traditions and Middle age in the Medieval Festival

Volterra is a small town in Tuscany famous for its terracotta. The Medieval festival is called "Volterra - A.D. 1398" and is a one-week-long reenactment of the original Medieval Volterra as it was in 1398. The city center is closed and free from traffic during the weekend. The artesans create Tuscan artesanry in front of you and cook the medieval way.

This year 2007 the Festival also includes a noteworthy dinner at the castle on the 19th of August, 2007. A medieval dinner will be prepared and served by the "prisoners" in the courtyard of the "maschio" of the medicea fortress of Volterra.

Enjoy the video!

Hand Made tradition of Tuscan pasta

Simply work the dough with flower and eggs until it's smooth and soft.
Flatten it, spread a little olive oil...Oh well, you will be better off just watching the video. Just 3 minutes in length, it tells you a bit about olive oil, too.


Enjoy!