Prato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato.

Historically, Prato’s economy has been based on the textile industry. The renowned Datini archives are a significant collection of late medieval documents produced between 1363 and 1410. The Textile Museum also reflects this history.

Prato is also a centre of the slow food movement, with many local specialities, including cantucci, a type of biscotti, sold by local speciality bakers.

Since the late 1950s, the city has experienced significant immigration, firstly from southern Italy, then from other nationalities, the most notable being a large Chinese community which first arrived in the late 1980s. With more than 180,000 inhabitants, Prato is Tuscany’s second largest city and the third largest in Central Italy, after Rome and Florence.

Source: wikipedia

Cycling, golfing, horseback riding, water sports at Lake Bilancino, trekking, Moto GP and other activities: enjoy Mugello!

Mugello is a landscape north of Florence, in Tuscany. It’s a wonderful area full of nature and lovely towns, as Barberino di Mugello, Vicchio and Borgo San Lorenzo.
The most typical recipe of Mugello are the Tortelli di Patate.

It’s worth visiting if you’re in Tuscany, it also is very near to Florence.

Italian version.

Tortelli di Patata, stuffed pasta with a potato based filling, are the high point of many a sagra and country fair. According to a friend who owned a pasta factory, they must be made by hand to come out right, because the dough of the sheet is too thick for machines. It’s worth the effort.

Prep Time: 1 hours, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 pounds (600 g) mealy potatoes
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 pound (100 g) cured lard, minced (Tuscans use lardo di Colonnata, from a town in the Apuan Alps)
* 1 medium onion, minced
* 2 cups (about 100 g) grated Parmigiano
* Scant 1/2 cup (125 ml) melted butter (for the sauce)
* Salt and pepper

Preparation:

A note: Lardo di Colonnata is salted and cured with herbs and spices. If you cannot find it, use fatty pancetta or, in its absence, well-seasoned prosciutto fat.

Wash and peel the potatoes, quarter them, and steam them until done but firm (they shouldn’t be mushy).

Sauté the lard and the onions in a skillet until the onions are lightly browned.

Mash the potatoes (a potato ricer makes mashing easier) while they’re still hot. Put them mashed potatoes in a bowl and add the onion mixture, two tablespoons of grated cheese, the eggs, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and let cool.

Meanwhile, make a the pasta, using 1 1/4 pounds flour and four eggs: make a mound of the flour on your work surface, scoop a well into it, crack the eggs into it, and work them into the flour, together with a pinch of salt. If need be, add a few drops of water as well, but go easy. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes, then roll out two sheets about the thickness of a nickel. The sheets should be rectangular and about the same size.

Place, on one of the sheets, walnut-sized balls of filling about 1 1/2 inches apart. Carefully lay the second sheet over the first and press the dough down between the balls of filling with your fingers so the pasta sticks well. Using a serrated pasta wheel, cut the dough to make square tortelli.

Boil the tortelli in salted water, removing them with a slotted spoon as they’re done (a minute after they rise to the surface) to a warm serving bowl, pour the melted butter and the remaining grated cheese over them, and serve.

Hint: If you happen to have some left over drippings from a roast, replace half the butter with them. You can also serve tortelli with meat sauce or tomato sauce, and grated cheese. Serve with a fairly hearty wine, for example Chianti Rufina.

Yield: About 4 servings potato tortelli.

Source: Italian food

Easter is one of the main festivals in Italy and eggs and lamb always feature in the typical Easter recipes.
This is the roasted lamb recipe.

Ingredients

* 1/2 lamb, about 10 to 15 pounds
* 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/2 tablespoon pepper
* Chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions

Marinate lamb in white wine vinegar, oregano, oil and salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, for 24 hours. Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Roast lamb, potatoes and onions, uncovered for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Source: Food Network

If you want to learn English, I know someone that can help you: Easy London.

Easy London helps you to plan a study holiday in Great Britain: language courses, jobs, accommodations and all you may need to learn English abroad.

Students can choose between 2 destinations: London and Dublin.

Go to learn the real ENGLISH.

Italian version.

Suppose that you’re in Italy, and suppose you already seen enough of this country and you want to go somewhere else before coming back home.

Suppose you come from America and you want to visit India before leaving, or you want to make a stopover at Seychelle Islands… where would you book the ticket or a package tour?

It’s not easy to find a reliable place abroad, that’s why I hope my advice will be helpful to you: Sporting Vacanze is an Italian Travel Agency specialized in the Maldives, Dubai, Sri Lanka and India.

You can find Sporting Vacanze in every Italian city, just check the website for further info.

Italian version.

If you’re planning a holiday in the Mediterranean area you could need a travel agency specialized in cruises and ferries online booking.

HML travel agency provides travel solutions to Greece and Italy and is specialized in ferries bookings, airline tickets and hotel accommodations.

Through their website you will find timetables, schedules, fares for ferries from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa, Corfu, Kefalonia and Patras and v.v. operated by Endeavor Lines in cooperation with HML Hellenic Mediterranean Lines Ferries.

In addition, they can also make arrangements with other ferry lines for the Greek Islands, Italy, Albania and Turkey.

The Mediterranean is waiting for you…

Italian version.

If you are visiting Rome and you don’t want to eat in a touristic place my suggestion is Fresia.

Fresia is the Italian word for the flower Freesia.
Fresia is a bar, a restaurant and a wine-bar where Romans go daily for a cappuccino at breakfast,  for a brunch during the lunchbreak, for a drink in the late afternoon (during the happy hour), for  dinner or  after…

There you can taste traditional Roman cooking and Italian wines while listening to live music.
So, for a sandwich or a drink, with your family or for a romantic dinner, try out Fresia.

Italian version.

In Italy, a sagra (plural: sagre) is a local festival, very often involving food, and frequently a historical pageant and sporting events: when the sporting event is a historical recreation as well, such as a joust or a horse race in costume or armour, it is called a palio.

The various sagre almost always have their origins in old country fairs or similar entertainments, but many of them now aim at visitors or even foreign tourists, and some, like the Quintana of Foligno, had lapsed for many years but have been recently revived.

A sagra is often dedicated to some specific local food, and the name of the sagra includes that food; the array of gastronomic specialties covered across Italy is amazing: for example, we find a Sagra della Rana (frog) at Casteldilago near Arrone, a Sagra della Cipolla (onion) at Cannara, a Sagra della Melanzana ripiena (stuffed eggplant) at Savona, a Sagra della Polenta at Perticara di Novafeltria, and so on. Among the most common sagre are those celebrating olive oil, wine, pasta and pastry of various kinds, chestnuts, and cheese.

Italian version.

Source: wikipedia

Salento (Salentu in local dialect) is the south-eastern extremity of the Apulia region of Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the main Italian peninsula, sometimes described as the “heel” of the Italian “boot”. It encompasses the entire administrative area of the province of Lecce, a large part of the administrative area of Brindisi and part of that of Taranto.

A number of places, the coasts above all, are remarkable landscapes and environments, among them the Alimini Lakes, on the Adriatic coast, and Porto Selvaggio, on the Ionic coast.

The soil is very fertile: some of the finest olive trees and grapes grow here, and their products are exported worldwide.

Salento’s coasts are varied, and can be sandy or rocky, but all boast pristine beaches and crystal-clear waters. Some of the most renowned locations in Salento for summer holidays (from May/June to September) are: Ostuni, Oria, Ugento, Manduria, Porto Cesareo, Gallipoli, Torre dell’Orso, Otranto, Santa Maria di Leuca, Lizzano, Pulsano, Santa Cesarea Terme.

Salento is a peaceful land full of history and traditions whose strong points are its natural and architectural beauties, hospitality, atmosphere, and of course sea and its coast.

Source: wikipedia