The triangular square

Piazza Matteotti, Greve in Chianti

Piazza Matteotti, looking south

Greve in Chianti is arguably the liveliest, most interesting and possibly most hospitable town in Chianti, but its square is indubitably the most attractive sight in Greve. Roughly triangular in shape, it is also distinctive for its porticoes around all three sides and the chain of terraces above, from where residents, restaurants and bed and breakfast places enjoy the view.

the beautiful porticoes of Greve: shade in summer and shelter in winter

Markets and Festivals in Chianti

Some of the best local festivals and markets...

Greve's attractive triangular, porticoed square provides the perfect setting for a variety of markets and festivals during the year

Apart from three weekend markets selling fruit and veg, cheese, barbecued meats etc in Greve in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti on Saturday mornings and Panzano on Sunday mornings, there
are several antique/flea/craft and specialist markets as well as a selection of festivals on offer throughout the year in the Chianti area.

Walking around Villa Vignamaggio

Past, present and future revealed in a Chianti valley
- part one -

Anyone who has seen the 1993 film version of Much Ado about Nothing by Kenneth Branagh, may recall the opening scenes where the male protagonists gallop home across a verdant valley towards the villa in Messina where the play's action takes place. The villa featured splendidly in the film is not in Sicily but in the Comune of Greve in Chianti, a 15 minute drive from Le Ripe: Villa Vignamaggio.

Although the Vignamaggio website includes a cursory (and not entirely accurate) summary of the Villa's interesting history, it excludes its context: the broad, sun-filled valley it dominates. 

Slow Food in Greve

 Greve does it again

You cannot deny that Greve is bursting with initiative. Last weekend it was the Flower Show, this weekend the town is hosting its annual Slowfood market which highlights the produce of a number of Italian Comuni or towns, from Grumes (Trento) in the north to Positano in the south. 

that lovely backdrop again, plus a stunning sky this weekend

Greve's Annual Flower Market

Greve in Fiore

Once a year at the beginning of May Greve's beautiful piazza is enhanced by serried ranks of flowering plants.

Lucca's Garden Show

Verdemura, 

the annual greening of the city of Lucca

camelias sitting on grass; a simple but effective display

Lucca is a city famed for its magnificent walls. At the end of March each year these walls become the venue for a delightful gardening and outdoor living market and display called Verdemura, Green Walls.

For the first time visitor to Lucca it is the venue which is most stunning. Lucca's walls were built from 1504 to 1648 and were never used as military fortifications although they were considered a deterrent to the ambitions of Florence and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. They stretch over 4 kilometres to enclose the entire historic centre. 

Chianti Classico and the Panzano Wine Festival

Vino al Vino

2014

Each year for the past 19 years the 20 or so wine producers from the area around Panzano in Chianti gather in the main square of the town to introduce their labels to the public. For the modest sum of 15 euros the taster acquires a glass (plus a glass-holder to hang about the neck and a handy booklet for taking notes) and is free to taste any of the local wines on display.

representatives (in no particular order), from the vineyards below

Candialle, Casaloste, Castello dei Rampolla, Cennatoio, Fattoria La Quercia, Fattoria Rignana, Fontodi, Il Molino di Grace, Il Palagio, La Massa, Le Fonti, Le Cinciole, Montebernardi, Panzanello, Renzo Marinai, Tenuta degli Dei, Vecchie Terre di Montefili, Vignole, Villa Cafaggio

I wrote on the Wine Festival here  but this current post intends simply to summarise what is on offer and describe the characteristics of this particular wine-producing area.

Vino al Vino Panzano's Wine Festival

Wine to Wine

 a September Highlight

Every year in the middle of September Panzano holds its wine festival showcasing the local vineyards. In the main square of Panzano, right on the 222 between Florence and Siena you can buy a glass and pouch to carry it in for 15 euro and taste as many wines as you have a mind to.

There is live music, a festive atmosphere, the local shops and tradesmen are all open and welcoming and there are even things for children to do...

Summer Sights

A Perfect Summer's Day

a delightful new angle on Panzano from the vineyards above Querceto, accessed on unsealed road from the 222 towards Castellina

Often around mid-August the weather begins to change. There may be big, cathartic storms or simply a gradual change in temperature. This year it is the latter: the great heat appears to be subsiding; we are now enjoying hot but not unbearable days,clear skies and blissfully cool nights.  

this year we have been regaled with a second Birth of Venus

The Italian national holiday of Ferragosto (August 15th), which hails back to Emperor Augustus who proclaimed a holiday in his own name, has been and gone. The ferie, or vacations (explicitly from work), have passed their peak. We took advantage of the peace and quiet of the holiday to explore directly around Le Ripe. Here are some photos from the day.

Mille Miglia Vintage Cars

The Mille Miglia Thousand Miles Rally 

May 2013

Mille Miglia poster: "the most beautiful race in the world"

It has been a cold and rainy May this year, the wettest in 200 years people are fond of telling you, with astonishment and dismay. But for the Tuscan sector of the Mille Miglia this year the sun emerged, the rain stopped falling and blustery clouds raced over clean blue skies for the duration. We had other commitments, but managed to see a part of the rally from a stretch of the SS2 (the ancient Roman Cassia) between Tavarnelle and San Casciano in Val di Pesa. The rally stopped for lunch in San Casciano again this year, so the lucky sightseers and car enthusiasts who converged there were treated to a long and considered inspection of the 400 odd (and some are truly odd) cars parked in the main square while the drivers dined. 

The Dove

Italy's Easter Treat

The colomba or Easter dove, cousin to the panettone, was invented by Angelo Motta the Milanese food entrepreneur who first transformed the traditional Milanese Christmas panettone into its spectacularly tall shape. Motta created this variation on a theme in the 1930s,  to tempt the appetites of Italians at Easter.

Colomba di Pasqua

The traditional panettone contains raisins and candied peel while the colomba contains only candied peel but is covered in a mouth-watering almond-sugar crust. All over Italy, despite various other regional treats such as the Neapolitan pastiera, or the Sicilian palummeddi (also in the shape of doves) or the less known pasimata of Garfagnana in Tuscany (flavoured with anise and made to rise 5 times!) it has become as much a symbol of Easter and spring renewal as the chocolate egg.

delicious with caffelatte

Carnival fare

Cenci, chiacchiere and frappe

A friend has written to remind me that now is the time for cenci.  In Italian cenci are rags or dusters but at this time of year we are talking about something else entirely. 

Now that we are in the upswing to Carnival (Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras) and before the downswing to penitential Lent, the locals are making cenci, which resemble rags but taste of the ingredients of the season. They are made of egg, flour, orange peel, Grand Marnier and baking powder. The resulting dough is rolled out thin, cut into ragged strips, which are deep-fried in oil and dusted with icing sugar. The frying is what associates them with Carnival, rather like pancakes for Pancake Tuesday, and is what makes them so delicious. Often a baked version is also available...but less wonderful. In Milan they are called chiacchiere, 'chatter' and in other parts of Italy they are called frappe.

Here is a genuine recipe for 'Rags' from Anna Guarducci, an excellent cook from Panzano. We hope to have a photo of hers soon; in the meantime, here are some (which were - I stress the past tense - truly delicious) from Panzano's pasticceria Sieni:

cenci, chiacchiere or frappe for carnival on typical pasticceria's tray

Cenci (Rags)

500 g (18 oz., 3 1/2 cups) all purpose white flour

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons  sugar

2 Tablespoons confectioners'/icing sugar

1 inner part of a vanilla bean

grated zest and juice of 1 orange

1/8 cup Grand Marnier

100 ml cream

4 tspns baking powder

2 litres (2 US quarts) peanut oil for deep frying

confectioners'/icing sugar for dusting

1. Weigh flour into a large bowl and make a well
2. Dissolve baking powder in cream over low heat and cool

3. In the centre of the well, combine the eggs, sugar, confectioners' sugar, inner part of the vanilla bean, grated zest and juice of an orange, Grand Marnier and cream with baking powder and cream

4. Gradually incorporate the ingredients in the well with the flour and knead to form a smooth, soft dough

5. Pour the peanut oil into a heavy 3 quart (3 litre) saucepan and heat to 375° F (190° C).

6. Break off pieces of dough and roll out one at a time on a lightly floured surface until 1/8 inch (.3 cm) thick.  With fluted pastry wheel, cut the dough into roughly shaped pieces that look like rags.

7. Lower the pieces into the oil and fry until golden on both sides. Remove the cenci with a wire skimmer, drain and dust with confectioners' sugar. 

They are best when warm, delicious on the day they are made, but will keep in an airtight container...if you can keep your hands off them!

With many thanks to a friend for supplying recipe, text and translation...

Live Nativity Scene, Casole d'Elsa

Epiphany in Casole d'Elsa

This biennial Presepe Vivente or Live Nativity Scene has won
national prizes. It was touching to see that the 
whole town of Casole was involved in some way.
With 250 characters in costume, emergency personnel, people-movers, food and drink stalls etc it is quite an enterprise. 

The first section portrayed the Roman presence in Palestine within a kind of amphitheatre where richly dressed patricians lolled about, bought slaves and generally looked imperial and indolent...for added realism there were even a few 'lepers' begging in a corner...

After this was a delightful series of tableaux portraying 
the populace of Bethlehem with their animals, produce and crafts. This series epitomised the most characteristic aspects of the traditional Italian Presepe, live or not.  
The participants covered a range of age-groups from very young to very old with goats, donkeys, sheep and geese joining in.

The cheese stall; note the kid being held on the right.

Winter Treats

Golden bread pudding

fresh pandoro

Pandoro is a festive holiday cake in Italy. It is most often eaten on its own, and is more than satisfying. The following recipe might, therefore, be considered a case of gilding the lily... but if it's ever worth going all out, Christmas is probably the right season. Here, then, is our yeasty, citrus-y take on bread and butter pudding for the winter holidays.

Ingredients:

1 pandoro (Italian Christmas yeast cake), sliced vertically, the bottom crust removed
3 eggs, beaten
a cup of full-cream milk or heavy/double cream (240 ml)
half a cup of white sugar (100 g) or less, to taste
half a cup of water
several spoonfuls of marmalade
4 tablespoons of dark rum
a few drops of vanilla essence
a capful of orange flower water, or a few drops of orange flower water essence

Steps:

1. Set the oven to 150 degrees Celsius/300 Fahrenheit

2. Put the sugar in the water on a medium flame, dissolving the sugar and forming a caramel (3-5 mins.)

3. Spread a layer of marmalade on one side of each pandoro slice

4. Lay out the slices of pandoro in a greased rectangular baking tray, allowing them to overlap but forming a layer of roughly uniform height

5. Add the rum, orange water, molten sugar and vanilla to the milk (or cream)
 
6. Combine the eggs with the other liquid ingredients and pour over the pandoro slices
 
7. Allow to rest for ten minutes, so that the pandoro slices fully absorb the liquid

8. Place in the oven, and bake for twenty minutes. The top will turn golden-brown and the bottom will become a rich custard

Serve warm! - But also good cold.

Note: this can also be done with panettone, brioche bread or challah.

Japan in Chianti

 Japanese Christmas at Le Ripe

delicious Japanese confiseries 

from New York

make us feel quite cosmopolitan!