Tagliata Senese di Maiale - Sienese Pork Chop

The cinta senese breed, native to the Montagnola Senese area and the Chianti area, is the mother of all pork breeds in Tuscany.
The Etruscans already reared it and then it was among the Romans during their migrations; the farmers of the Middle Ages survived plagues and famines thanks to this animal.

Video preparation of Tagliata of Cinta Senese pork chop


It was a good reserve of food for everybody as it could be reared in the wild state for its resistance to bad weather.
In the past times, for the slow growing up of this breed (slaughtered after 12 months from its birth), quicker growing up breeds were privileged.
Following the trend of the most recent times towards a re-discovery of ancient values and tastes, the Cinta Senese is now breeded again.
The "Cinta Senese" breed is reared in a wild or in a half-wild "controlled" state.
The breeding area must be characterized by woods, sowable lands and grasslands; the feeding is integrated with vegetable origin flours as barley, corn and fava bean flour.
Nowadays every pork is registered in the Genealogy Book (as it is for Chianina breed) existin ever since 1934 (date of first breed selections); the Book is kept by the Agriculture Itinerant Chair of Siena.

The Cinta Senese meat is homogeneously veined of fat, while in the other breeds the fat side and the lean side are sharply separated.

For that reason the cinta senese meat is extraordinarily scented and tasty.

As the old saying goes, "of a pork, you never throw anything away"; so many different salami products can be prepared: bacon-fat, bacon, hogs jowls, ham, sausages, coppa and many others.

Pisa events and the Folkloric Tuscany

Many important folkloric events take place in Pisa along the year, like: the Luminara di San Ranieri (the night of 16th June, the whole town is illuminated to celebrate the patron saint of Pisa




The Day after you can see the Palio di San Ranieri ( 4 teams race a regatta on the Arno, representing historical events). The Regatta of the Old Seafaring Republics (takes place on May and June, preceded by a parade that represents the four Republics: Pisa, Genoa, Venice and Amalfi).




But certainly the one that is more in the heart of Pisans is the Gioco del Ponte. It is a curious game between two teams � which means that the city of Pisa is divided in two rival parts: Tramontana and Mezzogiorno. It consists in two different parts.
First, there is a parade along the Arno river simulating a military procession. Then, there is a battle that takes place in the Ponte di Mezzo. During this battle both teams must give proof of their physical strength, reason why there is a hypotheses that this game has its origins on the classical antiquity.



The first known edition of the Gioco del Ponte more or less as it is now comes from the 1568. Ponte del Mezzo is the seat of the battle and the aim is to conquer a part or the entire half of the bridge occupied by the �enemies�. There are actually many teams of 20 men representing each faction, Tramontana and Mezzogiorno, and they fight in turn.




The fighting is represented by a cart in the middle of the bridge that must be pushed from both sides, till all the opponents are moved back to the end of the sliding rail. The winner is the faction that conquers more number of matches. It is interesting to observe that the cart didn�t exist before 1935, when the pushing was made with physical contact.

Ancient recipes of the Templars: Biscuits

These bay leaf Tuscan cheese biscuits are easy to make and the video is full of useful information on the everyday life that templars would experience to get the nourishments during their journey to the Sacred Land and the Crusades.

The video is about 5 minutes long. Enjoy!

The slad for those who wish to have a spicy day

Well do not get my word for it! Even the cook master in the video underlines that the aphrodisiac propertis of this salad have to be taken with a question mark.

Anyhow, the white truffle is famous in Tuscany for being aphrodisiac, and true or not, if you like truffles, this salad is spectacularly good.

Most of all, this is an experiment to help you non-Italian speakers (I should say understanders) to get what this great guy has to teach to the world on hidden Tuscan recipes. My previous videos of him where without English translations. Let me know if you like it, any advice you have. I will then go back and have the others dubbed too.

Thank you, enjoy, and also let us know if this really was an aphrodisiac salad!! :P

Tuscany from the air in slow motion with Hot air Ballooning

Hot air balloning is more and more popular in Tuscany and prices are going down as you see people of any age jumping on those large baskets and fly away for a 2 hours tour in the Tuscan skyes (towards the Tuscan sun, ok...my wife wants me to write that...anyways). Famous movies apart hot air balloning's price is around 100 euros per person (down from 200 or more euros of few years ago).

The video is just 2 minutes and a half long. Enjoy it!