POETS, WRITERS AND FILM DIRECTORS AMONG CHIANTI’S VINEYARDS

The region still exhales the natural grace of the art and life style that, from the Italian Renaissance onwards, with Leonardo, Michelangelo and Galileo has given the world a new way of thinking, and still before, with Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, had given Italy a language to speak.

And if today’s Tuscany in the eyes of the modern traveller is not exactly the one described by Curzio Malaparte in the book “Maledetti Toscani”, in which the peasants are made of green wood and have grassy hair, or the one in which wandered “Brancaleone”, funny and ragamuffin and with the face of Vittorio Gassman, directed by the very Tuscan Mario Monicelli, within its borders one can nevertheless enjoy two enormous sensations: one deriving from sight and the other from taste.

From the refined Florentine lightness of the paintings of Botticelli to the aerial dome by Brunelleschi, the learned and gourmet visitor, who should travel the Tuscan province to flatter the palate as well as the eye, will appreciate the same enchantment of the senses that originates here from the splendour of its cooking and of its typical products.

The cuisine is the one we all know: the villages provide the aroma evocated by the poets (“dal ribollire dei tini, va l’aspro odor dei vini, le anime a rallegrar” (from the boiling of the vats rises the smell of the wines to gladden the spirits), sang about his Maremma Giosuè Carducci) and is based on the ingredients-condiments duo. In the architectural magic of Bibbona, Castagneto Carducci, Bolgheri, Sassetta, Campiglia Marittima, Populonia and Rosignano Marittimo one discovers small restaurants that offer typical dishes with fresh pasta, salted meat, game, vegetables and mushrooms (even from Borgotaro), accompanied by the wines from the Chianti valley. In the farms extra virgin olive oil is produced, among which one Pgi, Toscano, and 2 Pdos, Terre di Siena and Chianti Classico, as well as cheeses, among which 2 Pdos, Roman Pecorino and Tuscan Pecorino, in a culinary jubilation that Tuscany offers to the world thanks to its no less than 59 protected products. Traditional game dishes and meat courses are accompanied by famous soups with spelt of Garfagnana, whereas the chestnuts of Monte Amiata are served roasted, from November on, with Vinsanto.

But it is in the cellar that Tuscany excels. The wines with registered and guaranteed denomination of origin (Docg) are 6: Brunello di Montalcino, Carmignano, Chianti, Chianti classico, Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Vino nobile di Montepulciano, while the Doc’s are 35. A special honourable mention is for marrone del Mugello and lardo di Colonnata (waiting for the desired Pgi), before citing among the roasted meats the Tuscan ham and Bologna mortadella, one Pdo and the other Pgi.