Tuscan wines

Tuscany produces six of Italy's DOCG wines: Brunello di montalicino, Carmignano, Chianti, Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano (the only white made only from Chardonnay grapes).

It also boasts more than 30 DOC Wines. The best of the Tuscan wines, Chianti Classico, comes from seven zones in many different guises. The backbone of the Chianti reds is the Sangiovese grape, although other grape types are mixed in a varyingly modest quatities to produce different styles of wines.
Generally Chianti is full-bodyed and dry, although aging requirements differ from area to area and even across vineyards.

Choice does not stop in the Chianti region. Among Italy's most esteemed and priciest drops in the Brunello di Montalcino. This grand old red is produced by only 140 vineyards. Like the Chianti the Sangiovese grape is at the heart of the Brunello. It is aged in casks for four years and then for two others years in bottles.

Tuscany is largely, but not exclusively, about reds.
Easily, the best known withe is the Vernaccia of San Gimignano which was a favourite of artists since the Renaissance.

If you are interested in the world of wines, once in Tuscany you will be able to find many agencies that offer wine tours across the Tuscan region, like http://www.tuscan-wine-tours.com.

Discovering the world of wine is one of the experiences that you cannot miss once in Tuscany.

Sensorial Spas in Tuscany

A New Wellness Experience in Chianciano

Chianciano Terme has recently remained a little shadowed by the more famouse places such as Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, and the likes.

However, Chianciano Terme has been a famous and very important center for wellness and spa treatments since the Roman times.
The 1960s saw this little town booming with a very well-organized set of infrastructures, such as thermal facilities specialized in wellness, relax and cures, parks, restaurants, hotels of all kinds, and several entertainment facilities.

Just recently, I heard that the Sensorial Spas (or Terme Sensoriali at the moment only te Italian version of the site is ready) had been opened to the public on September 29, 2006.

The website shows a completely different approach to the usual thermal spas.
Ayurvedic doctors let you know what personalized path you should follow, prescribing times and the order with which to go about the various steps.

There are several paths, few of which are relaxing, enegizing, purifying, and regenerating.

The various "activities" comprehend chromotherapy, aromatherapy, phonotherapy, introspective therapy, total body hydromassage, creek walk, high salinity pool, underwater and chromotherapy relax pool, enrgizing marble pyramid, Etruscan Sauna, Turkish Sauna, Swedish Sauna, warm mud "Melmarium", Steam Baths, Depurative liver water fountain, Laminar water massage, and Water rope massage.

The Terme Sensoriali offer plenty of silence and relaxing corners on comfortable sunbeds. Showers and restrooms are of the highest standards. The service is first-class: at the entrance you are given a personal bag with your bath robe, slippers, soap, hair cap, towel, and a hair-brush. The locker rooms are very stylish and include two hair driers and comfortable sits.

A tea-room and a zen garden offer a great conclusion to a wonderful wellness experience in Tuscany.

The length of each session is between 2 and 3 hours.
Entrance is 30 Euro per person.
Yearly pass for one person is 500 Euros.
The You and Me formula is 400 Euros per person.

Open everyday from 10 AM to 10 PM.
Chianciano has surpassed itself with this one. After the experience I REALLY want to get the yearly pass!

You think you are going to spend your new year's eve in Tuscany?

So, I got some suggestions for you that are thinking of spending your HO-HO-Holidays in Tuscany. But first, let me tell you a little about New Year's Eve in Tuscany.

New Year's used to be a very much felt family gathering time, though in the past ten or so years younger people have started to prefer spending the night away clubbing, or at some fancy hotel. Of course, nothing bad with this. The only thing is that Tuscany has roots that dwelve very strongly in the countryside and the land. The rythm of seasons and of cultivations has been the measure of time for centuries.

Little traditions such as family gatherings at New Year's Eve or Christmas are very much felt by the generations previous to this last one. Sure, times change and customs with them, but I cannot fail to feel a hint of nostalgia thinking of those evenings spent preparing the dinner altogether, slowly enjoying it around a table, talking about projects, hopes, or simply being together.
The after dinner games accompanied by the crackling of the fireplace, the submissive snoring of some elderly in his (mostly men, I have to say) preferred armchair, and the cries of the wee ones, roasted chestnuts crackling open, the taste of sweet wine joining that of dry fruits and Panforte...

Do you like the idea? I have some suggestions for you then!
If you are planning on coming to Tuscany and spend New Year's Eve while here, a good idea would be to rent a villa in the countryside, with a nice fireplace and a good refill of firewood, a fully equipped kitchen, a nice large table for your family members, cozy bedrooms where to snuggle up in the evening, and games and cartoons for the littlest ones!

Getting the necessary for the dinner won't certainly be a problem, and if you ask the owner of the villa to buy the groceries for you in advance, he or she will be glad to help you out, though this may cost you some extra money.

Like the idea of being in a villa but don't feel like cooking? Well then, why not going to some nice restaurant that offers an all inclusive New Year's Eve dinner?
All restaurants in Tuscany offer special meals for the occasion, and you can look for the cozy solution that will mediate perfectly between your own home away from home and a restaurant.

Delicious recipe of Rice with Nero - Risotto al Nero

Ingredients:
400g (2 and 1/2 cups) of rice, 500g (one pound) of small squids, 500g (one pound) of spinach, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 onions, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, 1 liter (1 qt.) of vegetable broth, half glass of decent white wine.

Preparation:
Clean the squids, remove the bone and the eyes. Put aside, without breaking them, the bags with the black ink and rinse the squids under running water.
Dice the squids to small pieces and throw them in a pan where you have previously set the chopped onions and garlic to gently fry in 5 spoonfulls of extra virgin olive oil.
Gently stir the mix until it resumes boiling, then throw in the pan the spinach that you have previously washed and chopped.
Add salt and pepper to taste and cook at medium-low heat for at least 30 minutes, half covering the pan with a lid.
After 30 minutes add the rice, the white wine and the black ink that you have gently gathered from the bags extracted from the squids. Let the ink soack the rice evenly.

Finish cooking the rice slowly adding the vegetable broth (which should be almost at boiling temperature, not to let cooking change in temperature). Keep adding the broth each time the rice absorbs it, and until the rice is completely cooked.

The traditional steack fiorentina

Jucy and Tasty, the Easy Way

Since 2001 the Fiorentina Steak has been newly legalized.

The secret to have a great Bistecca alla Fiorentina is the cooking process. The meat needs to remain raw in the middle, just seared on the sides.
This is a test for your trusted butcher shop!

Well, here the receipe, or better, the procedure!

Ingredients:
- One T-bone steak weighing at least 1200 gr. including the fillet. The beef must be rather young.
- Pepper
- Salt

Cut to the steak 2 inches thick.
Put the steak on the charcoal grill, paying attention that there is no flame whatsoever; however, the charcoal must be bright.
Cook exactly 7 minutes on each side (or until you see that the glir has left its mark.
Remove from the grill.

Add salt to taste on both sides, only sfter you have removed it from the grill.

Slightly sprinkle with freshly grinded black pepper, if you wish.

Serve the Florentine Steak without any other condiment.

Ghosts in villa at Villa di Corliano the Haunted House

Journeying towards Florence through the Tuscan countryside one finds Lucca, Pisa and other delightful towns dotting the road to Pisa where the guests of the Agostini family at Villa di Corliano can delight during their daily strolls.


The stay at Bagni di Pisa (health giving waters are still offered to an international clientele) and the visit Pisa during one of the city�s festivals are a delight, and staying at the Agostini Palace to enjoy the best view of the festivities is even more so.

The Villa has hosted many illustrious guests such as Gustavus III of Sweden, Christian II of Denmark, the Royal Family of Great Britain, Benedict Stuart Cardinal of York, General Murat, Luigi Buonaparte, Paolina Borghese, Carlo Alberto of Savoy, the poets Byron and Shelley, and various other personages from history books.

The area of the Pisa hills was already an attraction for enlightened travellers in the first half of the 1700s with the growth of the thermal spa of San Giuliano, which became a fashionable spot for the well-off classes.

The mansions on the road along the hills, already renowned as places of gentle idleness and relaxation in the heart of the countryside and also for their small industrial facilities for the transformation of agricultural products, soon assumed the characteristics of true leisure resorts, just like those narrated by Carlo Goldoni and which we can continue to enjoy today.

The Relais dell� Ussero at the Villa Agostini della Seta di Corliano is on the road which runs along the foot of the hills from Pisa to Lucca, passing through the small town of San Giuliano Terme.
The Villa is a historical fifteenth century mansion surrounded by a centuries old park. It is a property of great charm in which the owners offer, in 12 rooms and 2 suites, a relaxing stay immersed in the beauties of the local countryside.
Guests, if they like, can join in the day to day activities of the villa. They can have relaxing strolls in the park, potter around in the gardens, chat or have dinner with the owners in the farmhouse of the villa � today a high class restaurant with authentic simple dishes of the Tuscan flavours.

The Villa della Seta is very conveniently located near the village of Corliano only 2 Km along the road from the health spa of San Giuliano Terme, and halfway between the historical cities of Pisa and Lucca (a 15 minute drive to both). Florence is only an hour away and Siena an hour and a half.

They can also organize all the necessary details for your meetings, convention, weddings in the 1700�s small private church or in the 1400�s sky garden or in the park of the Villa.

Cavallucci are the tradition of Siena

Today, enriched with some better ingredient than the original receipe had, I present to you the Cavalucci of Siena!

Ingredients for 30 cookies:

150g of flour, 25 g of candy orange rind, 7g of anise, a teaspoon of cinnamon, half teaspoon of mixed spezie, 50 g of walnuts, 150g of sugar, half glass of water, one egg white, butter in order to grease the pan.

The procedure:

Put in one bowl the flour, the minced candy orange rind, the crushed anise seeds, the minced cinnamon, spices and walnuts.
In a casserole mix the sugar with the water and put on the fire to boil.
When boiling mix in all the ingredients that you have prepared before, stir well and remove from the fire.
Turn this dense paste upside down on the table that you have previously covered with a thin layer of flour, left to cool down.
Then with your hands wet with egg white work in the dough to form a homogenous mass.
Spread the dough with the wooden or pin roll to obtain small rumbles of the height of half inch.
Put them in the oven on one buttered and flour-sprinkled oven pan for half hour approximately at the temperature of 160 Celsius and let the cavallucci dry, avoiding to let them darken.