Being called the pits is no longer something to be worried about!

The wheels of cheese in their cloth bags
placed in the pit in August.




The pit lined with reeds & hay
3-4metres deep.

What is so wonderful about Italy is the sheer diversity from one region to another, often even from one town to another within the same region. I love so many of the twenty Italian regions that make up the nation, however I have a particular soft spot for Romagna in the region of Emilia-Romagna, situated north-east of Tuscany on the Adriatic coast. The main cities in Romagna are Rimini, Ravenna, Cesena, Forlì and Imola and there are numerous fantastic little towns and villages nestled in the regions hills. During the Renaissance, alot of the land was, for the most part, ruled by the Pope as part of his temporal domain. 

Here, bread is replaced with the piadina (a flat type of bread that resembles Indian naan or thin Greek pitta bread), the typical pasta is the strozzapreti (stangled priests) and in certain places they bury their cheese in pits for the last three months of the maturation process! 

This type of cheese (from sheep or cow milk or a mix of both) is called formaggio di fossa (cheese from the pit). It is documented to have been matured like this from the fifteenth century and is typical of Sogliano al Rubicone, a hill-top village not too far from Rimini. It is also practised in some places in region of the Marches and in Umbria. 

In August, after the cheese has matured in the open for 2-3 months, the farmers wrap the cheese wheels in white cloth with their names written on the exterior and then place them in pits, about 3-4 metres deep and shaped like a fiasco (the traditional bottle shape of chianti wine), that have been dug out from the tufa stone mountain wall. The pit is then covered and securely sealed with a wooden lid and plaster to be opened three months later. 

Traditionally, this was a way to hide the cheese (their food for the coming winter months) from  plundering bandits and armies. Every year the pits were cleaned by burning straw and twigs and then  lining them with reeds and hay, placing a rack at the bottom so that the cloth bags avoid contact with the whey drippings. 

In Sogliano al Rubicone the pits were, and still are, ceremoniously opened on Saint Catherine’s day (25th November). The cheese has a smell of undergrowth, moss, truffles and wood. So, if you are travelling in Italy during November, do some modern day plundering and do not miss the Formaggio di Fossa sagra (village festival) of Sogliano sul Rubicone held on the weekend of the 25th. Let your nose lead you to the picturesque high hilltop town where you can feast on wonderful pit cheese in an array of dishes, or simply on its own with some good local sangiovese red wine.

A native of Sogliano sul Rubicone proudly explaining the process to me.
The foto taken above of the pit is just next to his feet.

Grand Duke Cosimo II de Medici





Bust of Grand Duke Cosimo II inside
the Medici coat of arms, on the new grain
market built during his reign on the corner
of via dei Neri & via de Castellani

  


The front page of Galileo's treatise
Sidereus Nuncius 1610
dedicated to Cosimo II



Porphyry bust of Cosimo II,
Pitti Palace

The other day a mate of mine sent me a photo of a stone bust of Cosimo II de Medici that he saw on the facade of a palace and asked me who it was, and so I thought that this often overlooked Medici grand duke could be the subject of this week’s blog entry. It is often very frustrating that written indication isn’t engraved somewhere on the stone or marble of portrait busts dotted around the city, or are too difficult to read, thus obscuring any further understanding of the rich Florentine heritage. Cosimo II is another favourite Medici of mine, he didn’t rule for very long (1609-21) being of weak constitution, but he shared characteristics of so many of the great Medici men; he was very intelligent, a great patron of the arts and aesthetically, quite a peculiar looking human being. He and his wife, Maria Maddalena of Austria, created a flourishing intellectual activity at the court at the Pitti Palace (the Ducal palace) with Michangelo Buonarroti the Younger (to distinguish him from his great uncle, the great Michelangelo Buonarroti, artist from the previous century) as the court poet, and Galileo as the court mathematician and  philosopher. They invited many talented non-Florentine artists to the court, such as Justus Sustermans from Flanders (court painter to the Medici family for close to forty years) and Artemesia Gentileschi from Rome (the first female member of the Florentine Accademy of Fine Arts), enriching the domestic artistic ambience. Galileo who had been Cosimo II's tutor 1605-08 was working at Padua Universtiy when he published his recent discoveries concerning the skies. Desiring to return to Florence, he dedicated his treatise Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 to Cosimo II consequently securing him the court position. In this treatise he expounded his recent discoveries concerning phases of the moon, the existance of the Milky Way and the four satellites stars orbiting around Jupiter. He called these the Medicean stars (they have been renamed the Galilean Moons). Cosimo II was the father of Leopold (see blog entry 'Never judge a book...) and succeded by his eldest son Ferdinando II who, like his father, also commissioned expert artists for work on the ducal palace, such as the Baroque master, Pietro da Cortona for the decoration of the reception rooms and Bolognese experts in trompe l'oeil technique for the summer appartments....subject for another entry.





Judith slaying Holofornes, Artemesia Gentileschi, Uffizi gallery.
Painted during her Florentine period under the protection of Cosimo II & Maria Maddalena

  

FRITTERS FOR FATHERS!

Saint Joseph day fritters,
called frittelle in Tuscany

Adoration of the Shepherds, 1485
Domenico Ghirlandaio

Fathers day is celebrated this Saturday on Saint Joseph’s day. Lent, the time of abstinence, couldn’t possibly mean that the Italians truly refrain from eating their delightful goodies for such a long period of time, no way! In the land of exceptions to the rule, there is of course the day given over to tasty frittelle or fritters, an indulgence eaten  to celebrate the faithful guardian to the Holy Mary.

Joseph, most often relegated to the background in the family shots, is shown here in Ghirlandaio’s wonderful Adoration of the Shepherds a little despairingly, as he is worrying about where they will be next, which will determine what type of fritters they will be eating this Saturday! Because of course the recipe changes depending on the region, and they can be either sweet or savoury.

Frittelle (pictured above) are little fried balls of rice dough, eaten in Tuscany, northern Lazio and some parts of Umbria. The ingredients are rice, milk, water, egg, rum, sultana, sugar, a little grated orange peel or lemon, flour, salt and vanilla. After frying they are rolled in  icing sugar. In Sicily, they are called crespeddi and are sweet, with a filling of ricotta and anchovies. In Campania (Naples is the capital) they eat zeppole (pictured below) shaped like a doughnut with no rice in the ingredients, but based on water, butter, yeast, flour and egg and they have a cream filling often topped with amarena cherry.

Zeppole from Naples

Father’s day originated at the beginning of the 1900’s in America and was, and still is in most countries, celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The Italians too began to celebrate it in June, however, it was then moved to coincide with Saint Joseph’s day (as it was in Portugal and Spain). The Italians have been celebrating Saint Joseph’s day with the fritelle for centuries. The day dedicated to Joseph was officially established by Rome in 1479, and it coincided with the pagan ritual rites celebrating the end of winter. Big bonfires where built with the left over residue from the fields and hymns sung to Saint Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, unborn children, immigrant workers, and of course fathers…. and all Tuscans would eat lots and lots of frittelle!

THANK GOODNESS IT'S MONDAY!

The Orange Cloister

I love doing tours on Mondays, when the major ‘must see’ galleries are closed (Uffizi, Accademia, Pitti Palace being the big main ones) because then I get the time to take people to other really wonderful, tasty, delightful and often barely known (for no other reason other than Florence has the greatest concentration of UNESCO heritage protected sites in the world) places, and you need a lifetime in the city to see everything she has to offer. Il Chiostro degli Aranci, or the Orange Cloister,  is open Monday afternoon only, from 3pm-6pm. 

The cloister is inside the Badia Fiorentina  (Badia is a short-cut way of saying abbazia, or abbey) which was first constructed in the late eleventh century on land donated to the Benedictines and bought by the Willa, the mother of Ugo the Marquis of Tuscany. It developed an important collection of illuminated manuscripts as well as their its own flourishing workshop of bookbinders and copiers making their own production. The abbey was restructured in 1285 by the great Arnolfo di Cambio (the first architect of the cathedral, Santa Croce church and the last set of the city’s walls amongst other things) and the beautiful Gothic bell tower is one of the jewels of the Florentine skyline. In the early renaissance period one of the greatest architects of the city, Bernardo Rossellino restructured the two storey cloister of the oranges and the lunettes of the first floor were frescoed with twelve episodes from the life of St Benedict, the father of the European monasticism and, thus, a worthy subject for an abbey’s cloister where the monks followed his rule.

Beating the devil out of a monk

The painter is referred to as the ‘Master of the Chiostro degli Aranci’ as his identity is unknown and the frescoes were executed during the 1430’s. His style is described by the art historian Millard Meiss as ‘blend[ing]the geometry of [Paolo] Uccello, the luminism of Domenico [Veneziano], and the narrative repertory of [Filippo] Lippi with an idiom that is largely Angelican [Fra Angelico]’, suffice to say that Millard thinks, as many others, that it is pretty wonderful. The photo depicted is one of my favourite scenes from the life of Benedict, when he beats the devil out of the monk possessed by the devil, giving origin to the expression we have today ‘to beat the devil out of someone’.

So if you find yourself in Florence on a Monday, you could dedicate the afternoon to ‘time with Benedict’ with a little cruise around the fabulous cloister of the oranges (you are likely to be the only one there) and then walk up to the other magnificent Benedictine church and monastery on the hill overlooking Florence, called San Miniato al Monte, and see similar beautiful episodes from the life of St Benedict from the later 1300’s. You will notice that Benedict is now wearing a different colour robe, black turns to white…. but this will be the subject for another blog…..

Give me five & five!

A serving size of Cecina, also called
Farinata. A perfect snack!

 Situated in one of the most charming piazza’s in Florence on the Oltrarno (south side of the river) is a little café with an unsual name that opened up about one year ago. My mum and I, when walking through the piazza della Passera on a cold winter’s day, discovered it and when I saw the sign for Cecina in the window, a very tasty typical regional speciality that I knew she had never tried, we ducked in. Cecina is the perfect snack but it is not easy to find in Florence. It is something that I often see sold at growers markets around here, and now it seems that it will be a staple at this place the Cinque & 5 café, as the name actually refers to the lovely thin flat bread / pancake that you see in the photo. Cecina or Farinata as it is also known, is made from garbanzo bean flour (most commonly ) water and olive oil. The mixture is cooked in the oven and big slices are cut like pizza. Here at Cinque & 5 café, a slice costs 2.50 euro. 



look at the chalk board (bottom
right of the photo) you can
order Cecina as shown in the
above photo or a panino '5&5'



Cecina is very common in Livorno where they call the whole tray, from which the slices are cut, una torta – the Italian word for cake. It is sold in the tortai (translation of the word would be a ‘cake selling place’) which is misleading to the non-local as it doesn’t sell sweet but savoury goodies, pizza slices and the fabulous Cecina! These tortai are characteristically small and informal joints where you can chow down on some great, straight out of the oven, perfect winter snack food, a perfect ‘ferma-fame’. In Livorno the most common way to eat Cecina is cinque e cinque mode, or the ‘five and five’ way, which is a slice of the warm Cecina wrapped up in soft foccaccia bread with a substantial quantity of cracked pepper. The number five repeated refers to the price of the Cecina and the price of bread which cost both cost, some time ago, 5 lire. So if you wanted the Cecina sambo combo, which most did, then you just ordered a ‘5&5’. I love it, the Italians are cool even when they order food! This therefore explains the curious name of this great little biological café in my favourite Florentine square and why you can bet that Cecina is going to be a staple on their menu. Cinque & 5 café, Piazza della Passera 1, open everyday from 10am-10pm.





Buon appetito!



Never judge a book.......



Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici by
Il Baciccio, 1670



Leopoldo de Medici (1617-1675) was the youngest brother of Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici. He is possibly one of the ugliest of the Medici family during their three hundred year long rule of Florence and Tuscany (and they were a particularly ugly bunch on the whole) but what he lacked in looks he certainly made up for in smarts, and he is one of my favourite Medici’s.

This portrait is by one of the artists of whom he was very fond, Il Baciccio, and he is shown here in his cardinal robes. He was elected cardinal at the age of fifty after the death of Giovan Carlo, his older cardinal playboy brother. It was necessary for all influential and ruling families to have a close relative in a high placing in the church and Leopold was a good candidate to fill the newly papal Medici void as he was a bachelor and extremely intelligent, a formidable diplomat, well connected and very amiable. What is so fascinating about the Medici family of Florence is that there is a long list of family members who were outstanding patrons of the arts and learning, Leopold is one of the least talked about however even though he was one of the most significant in this respect.

Through out the family history so many of them were up to date, avant-guard supporters of new discoveries, technologies and  were addicted to knowledge. Sure, the heads of the family played dirty in order to sustain power, eliminate enemies and displayed ruthless acts of merciless violence in order to carry forth their projects of expansion and political desires but Renaissance Europe was a jungle and success in the field required that any successful player played with jungle tactics. However, the Medici family weren't simple brutes but they endlessly sought knowledge and spent tirelessly for the expansion of the mind, the beautification of the Florence and the patronage of talent in all fields making changes that were felt world wide. Leopold didn’t rule the duchy of Tuscany and so could dedicate more time to philanthropy than others. Galileo was the official court mathematician and scientist during the first half of the 1600's and Leopold was one of his most promising students. After his teacher’s death he personally sanctioned and supported Europe’s very first scientific academy, the Academia del Cimento (the Academy of the Daring), which met at his home, the Ducal palace (the modern day Pitti Palace), and he was the Academy’s CEO. He used his diplomatic skill to smooth out the differences between the various different strong characters in the group thus fostering a productive environment producing, amongst other  scientific advancements, the first barometer. He was a prolific letter writer to all heads of state in Europe, royal members, philosophers, writers, artists and politicians. He supported literary movements and was an extraordinary patron of the visual arts, in particular a collector of drawings, miniatures and self portraits of the artists (currently displayed in the Vasarian corridor). Over the years he built up a network of over eighty agents predominately in Italy but also in Paris, Flanders and Holland and elsewhere, who were perminately on the look out for artistic works and collections for sale and always kept him up to speed with developments and negotiating on his behalf.

He displayed his collection in his personal apartments on the third floor of the Ducal palace and upon his death it was, for the most part, taken to the Uffizi gallery. Of the 50,000 circa drawings in the Uffizi gallery collection today, 8,000 circa are courtesy of Leopold. He was particularly sensitive to the Venetian style, their unique colour palate and free brushwork, thus beginning the city's real display of the other great artistic Italian school along with that of Florence.  The love of the Venetian school was then continued by his great nephew, Gran Prince Ferdinand, another fascinating character…. the subject for another blog…. 

A FISH FEAST WITH A PUNCH

I am a fish fiend and one of my favourite fish dishes is Cacciucco, a speciality from Livorno, the largest port town in Tuscany (circa 1.5 hours from Florence by car). Cacciucco is basically a fish stew using about 6-7 different types of fish and crustaceans cooked with tomatoes, garlic, chilli, sage and some red wine and served over thick slices of Tuscan bread (not fresh but from the days previous) which has been toasted and rubbed with garlic. The type of fish to expect are squid, cuttle fish, prawns, shrimps, mussels and different kinds of white fish typically used in stews. Red wine, not white wine, is the accompanying beverage to wash it down.

The etymology of this marvellous dish’s name is a bit of a mystery. Some say that it could derive from the Turkish word kacuk meaning little pieces, referring to the numerous chunks of different fish used, or it could be from the Spanish word cachuco, the name of a particular fish subsequently used as a generic name for fish in general. These two possible explanations, although seemingly unconnected, being from two widely differing cultures, are both perfectly plausible when we consider the history and geographical positioning of Livorno (the English name of the city is Leghorn, which I have always found has a ridiculous ring to it). As many large port cities traditionally are a melting pot of cultures, so too was Livorno, but maybe even more so than others. With the silting of the port of Pisa, Livorno slightly further south, was created as the new  port for the Duchy of Tuscany under the rule of the Medici family. Bernardo Buontalenti, the favourite architect and inventor for Grand Duke Francesco de Medici in the second half of the 1500’s, was commissioned to draw up plans for the new city and fortress.

The city was largely finished and launched as the active and important port city that it is still today, under Francesco’s successor and brother, Grand Duke Ferdinando de Medici, who, recognising the need to increase the Duchy’s revenue, made the port a 'porto franco', a duty free haven, as well as offering amnesty to all religious and ethnic groups and thus attracting persecuted groups and minorities such Jews, Huguenots, Armenians, Greeks, and later Moriscos (Muslims converted to Catholicism) as well as others, who, bringing their trade contacts and expertise, helped to fill the coffers of Tuscany and breathe some new life into the ever declining power of Tuscany on the European scene.

After devouring a Cacciucco, it’s time for a 'Ponce' to round of the meal in true local Livornese fashion. Ponce derives from the English word, Punch, and is similar, but with a slight Italian adaptation of the ingredients. English Punch is a mixture of tea, sugar, cinnamon, lemon and distilled alcohol (generally a base of rum or rice wine) and Ponce replaces the tea with coffee (obviously!!).

I went to the trattoria Il Sottomarino tel: 0586 887 025 in the centre of Livorno, . I hear that 'Antica Venezia', also in the centre of Livorno, does a very good Cacciucco as well, which I plan to try next time.