Discover Tuscany’s Blog: exploring Tuscany and all its hidden corners…

It’s time for ‘olio nuovo’ in Tuscany

Tuscany today is still a region with a strong rural character, its agricultural products being synonymous of quality and excellence in Italy and abroad. If the month of September is traditionally dedicated to the grape harvest and the production of great Tuscan wines, October and November are dedicated to another Tuscan product of excellence: olive oil.

Extra virgin olive oil (EVVO) is one of the base ingredients in Tuscan and Italian cuisine and anyone that cooks knows that a good EVVO (even better if organic) is indispendable for the success of many dishes.

If you find yourself in Tuscany during these weeks, take the occasion to learn more about olive oil by following the various phases of its production from the field to the table. You can see how olives are harvested, follow the olives to the oil-mill and obviously taste the freshly pressed olive oil.
Many Tuscan dishes are perfect for tasking new olive oil, from the simple bruschetta to the ribollita to  “zuppa Toscana” or Tuscan soup .
You can find excellent recipe ideas for more Tuscan dishes at Tuscan Recipes .

Continue reading about Tuscany's "new" olive oil>>

We finally made it! After several long and intense months of work, we launched a new version of our Discover Tuscany Travel Guide a few days ago! We completely reorganized the content and navigation, added new sections and new pictures and integrated this Blog and the Forum. The Florence section is growing so much that we decided to make it a separate website: Visit Florence, our travel guide about Florence, Italy.

We have so many ideas about how we want Discover Tuscany to be in the near future and are very excited about this new website. It will be a lot easier to publish and organize our articles. We have not yet included all our Tuscan experiences from this year, but we’ll be constantly adding new content over the course of the next weeks. So if you’re interested in Tuscany and Florence, add DiscoverTuscany.com and VisitFlorence.com to your bookmarks and come back to visit us regularly!

The tiny village of Marradi organizes every Sunday in October the traditional Sagra delle Castagne or Chestnut Festival, and this year marked its 45th edition.
This last weekend we participated too!
Marradi is a characteristic little village of the Upper Mugello almost on the border between Tuscany and the Emilia Romagna territory. The Chestnut Festival organized in Marradi is dedicated to marroni chestnuts since these delicate chestnuts grow here and across the Mugello. They even are identified and protected by law as the “Marrone del Mugello IGP“, considered one of the best quality chestnuts in Italy.

Read more about the Chestnut Festival >>

In the area of the upper Maremma hills where we went to explore, an agriturismo (farmhouse) seems to be the most common form of accommodation. The area is largely cultivated and is home to the Montecucco DOC wine region and, while it is lesser known than its neighbors, the Brunello di Montalcino or the Morellino di Scansano, it is no less good and enjoyable. For our last minute trip to Maremma we searched online and finally decided on contacting the agriturismo Il Passo degli Ulivi which offered independent apartments.

Continue reading about our stay at Passo degli Ulivi »

We have just returned from a short vacation in Maremma: we decided at the very last moment to leave on this trip, taking advantage of the warm sun and nice days this mid-October was giving us.
We had never visited the upper part of Maremma close to Monte Amiata, between the Tuscan coast and Val d’Orcia. It was a nice surprise. The landscape reminds us of the Crete Senesi which so often are potrayed in postcards from Tuscany: soft hills of vineyards, brown and yellow fields with big, isolated trees in the middle of a cultivated field, woods with oaks and chestnut trees. There are few houses, mainly farms that often offer accommodation and may also have a restaurant where you can have a good typical meal.
Read More about our Holiday in Maremma

If you were in downtown Florence in the area around the Duomo or Piazza della Signoria this past Saturday afternoon, you likely encountered a parade in historical costume, drums, flag throwers and even a cannon! This procession went from the Palagio di Parte Guelfa to the Duomo to meet a large cart full of wine bottles before continuing on to Piazza della Signoria. If you saw all of this you might also have wondered what exactly was going on. What you witnessed is the welcome by Florence of the “carro matto” (crazy cart) from the nearby wine producing town of Rufina!

Continue reading about the Carro Matto in Florence »

Have you ever heard about Geocaching?
We hadn’t until a good friend of ours told us about it a few months ago, knowing how much we love to go hiking and discovering new places.
So we found out that Geocaching is a treasure hunt game played all around the world by a huge community of people. The goal is to hide and search for treasures (hidden in containers called caches) knowing only the coordinates. With the help of a GPS, every participant searches for the caches hidden by others, takes the treasure inside and leaves a similar treasure in exchange. Each cache has a logbook which you can sign so others know who else has found the treasure and, if you take a photo of you with the treasure, you can share it with the community.

Continue Reading about Geocaching in Florence

Who knows how many times browsing through a book or calendar on Tuscany you were left enchanted in front of an image of green rolling hills of such an intense color that left you marveling at the great photographer or at at least at the great skill on touching up those photos. The truth is that neither is absolutely necessary to experience such scenery! Val d’Orcia, commonly portrayed on calendars and postcards of Tuscany, is splendid just like that, with incredible landscapes, intense green and yellow hues and stone villages sitting atop hilltops that take your breath away.

This past week we spent two days in the beautiful Val d’Orcia, visiting the towns of Pienza, San Quirico d’ Orcia and Montalcino.
On Sunday the 7th, Pienza hosted the closing day to the traditional Fiera del Cacio, a festival dedicated to cheese and, in particular, to the tasty pecorino cheese made in Pienza and in Val d’Orcia in general. The small village streets were set up with stalls that offered tastings of cheeses as well as other typical local products including cold cuts and honey. A real paradise for foodies such as ourselves!

Read more about our trip in Val d' Orcia

Anyone interested in games and a Joust this weekend? This coming up Sunday, September 14, Bagno a Ripoli’s historical center will be the setting for the the Joust of the Star. The four quarters or contrade of the town compete against each other starting at 4 p.m. in several games, including a tug-of-war and various relay races with eggs, in sacks and with hoops. Points earned at these games and in the later Giostra della Stella, or Joust of the Star, count towards winning the Palio.

Continue reading about the Palio delle Contrade...

This past weekend we tried something different from the medieval festivals we’ve come to love and went to Scarperia to step back into time, but not so far back: only about five centuries back into the Renaissance. The festival took place on September 6 and 7 as part of the festivities that precede the Palio del Diotto that takes place on September 8 of every year in Scarperia.

Continue reading about Scarperia in the Renaissance...