An unforgettable holiday in one of the most beautiful Italian place? In the heart of the amazing Tuscany countryside there is a Luxury Villa for rent for the organization of meeting, weddings, anniversaries and events, Villa Belsole.

In Villa Belsole you can relax enjoying the beautiful hills scenery, and the many facilities offered, such as the pool and the sun beds or you can participate to the various activities that are organized on demand and according with the customer wishes.
In Villa Belsole you can have Italian cooking courses and grape harvest, in the Chianti hills. This is a beautiful location for the perfect organization of events and a perfect choice to pass a luxury and relaxing holiday in Italy.
Near to Florence, Pisa and Siena, in the Chianti hills, Villa Belsole is a luxury accommodation with 18 sleeps in 9 rooms perfectly furnished in the Tuscany style and with the most modern facilities.
Your holiday will be perfect and unforgettable, have a look to the Villa Belsole website and discover the beauty of this luxury accommodation in a Tuscany Villa to rent.

Versione italiana

In Tuscany, cantucci di Prato—miniature, anise-flavored almond biscotti—are traditionally served at the end of a meal with a glass of Tuscan dessert wine, vin santo, for dipping.

Ingredients

1. 3 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
3. 1 cup whole almonds
4. 2 teaspoons baking powder
5. 2 teaspoons anise seeds
6. Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 3 large eggs
9. 2 large egg yolks
10. 2 teaspoons vin santo or other sweet wine
11. 1 large egg white, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle, combine the flour with the 1 cup of granulated sugar, almonds, baking powder, anise seeds, lemon zest and salt. Add the whole eggs, egg yolks and vin santo and beat at low speed until a stiff, crumbly, slightly sticky dough forms.

2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it 2 or 3 times, until it just comes together. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and form each one into a 12-by-1 1/2-inch log. Transfer the logs to the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops of the logs with the egg white and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake the logs in the center of the oven for 25 minutes, or until they are lightly browned and slightly firm. Let the logs cool for 30 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cutting board.

3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. While the logs are still warm, cut them into 1/3-inch slices with a sharp serrated knife. Arrange the cantucci on the sheets, cut sides down, and bake, turning once, until golden, about 25 minutes.

Make Ahead

Once fully cooled, the cantucci can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Source: Food and wine

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

I found a place in Rome that can suit your needs: it’s a restaurant that also organizes cocktail parties and aperitifs, it’s a wine bar, a club and a sport café, a pizzeria and a location for parties and events…

This place is named Sport café.

With friends you should go there watching a soccer match and eat a pizza, with your girlfriend you should have a drink on the romantic terrace: they always got an answer!

Try it out…

Italian version

Elegant gentlemen with sophisticated tastes smoking cigars in a stylish cafè… those were the days!
In the heart of Rome, near the Colosseum, you can experience this ancient high society personally.

There’s an historic cafè, called Caffè Martini, that keeps this world alive.
Caffè Martini, besides the famous restaurant and coffee bar, also offers a Cigar bar, where to taste wines and spirits, while smoking a quality cigar.

Feel like a nineteenth-century intellectual!

Italian version.

I always have problems when I have to translate the word “Enoteca”, because it is a particoular place that the dictionary translates with “Wine Bar”.
This is the description I found on wikipedia.

Enoteca (plural: Enoteche) is an Italian word, formed by analogy with biblioteca (”book repository, library”), which literally means ”wine repository” (from Oeno/Eno- “wine”, and teca ????, “receptacle, case, box”), but is used to describe a special type of local or regional wine shop that originated in Italy.

The concept of an enoteca has also spread to some other countries. A genuine enoteca is primarily directed at giving visitors or tourists the possibility to taste these wines at a reasonable fee and possibly to buy them.

An enoteca is often run in collaboration with growers or growers’ or tourism organisations in the village or region. The reason such establishments were named to connote ”wine libraries” was that they were intended as a hands-on source of information on local wines rather than as regular outlets for larger quantities of each wine, or primarily intended for established customers.

Often, an enoteca stocks rather small amounts of each wine, and customers who wish to purchase large quantities after tasting are referred directly to the producers. In some cases, an enoteca will also sell other local foodstuff and/or serve small snacks to go with the wines.

Since some enoteche serve snacks with the wine, enoteca has also been used as the name of some wine bars or restaurants, especially bistro-style restaurants with Italian food.

There’s another Florence.

Not the one of the Dome Square, full of tourists, cameras and coloured guide’s umbrellas.
Nor the one of the glamour night discos, with its lights and music.
It’s the old traditions’ Florence, the one which have been lightly touched by the mass tourism and have preserved the charm of an antique place, with its voices and perfumes and so on…

The “Tripperia il magazzino” is “that” type of place: everything is the real Florence.
It’s a little tavern-restaurant-wine bar that have tripe as its specialty, and you can find it everywhere in the menu, together with lampredotto (tripe cooked with vegetables, oil and pepper) and game like rabbit or wild boar cooked with pappardelle.
Very wide is also the choice of desserts, including typical cantuccini (almond cookies) with vinsanto.
Luca is the chef and his mother Rosita helps him in the kitchen, while Alessandro is the sommelier: a nice family contest!
The restaurant is placed in Piazza della Passera: a nice little square in the very centre of Oltrarno Florence, where, during the summer, there are concerts and theatre shows.

I think that experience Florence life means also eating in such a place and transported by the way of being of real Florentines.

Italian version.

Sometimes happens: you visit a place, you taste local specialties, and the flavour remains in your heart, like Proust’s “madeleines”.
It’s not easy to replicate these sensations with the low quality imitations of Italian products you find around the world: if you want your friends and relatives to taste the same food you tried in Italy in summer holidays, buying them a fly ticket for Rome or Florence seems to be the only way.

But it’s not always true, and maybe this wine shop I found in the net can solve the problem to find an unusual Christmas gift for a hard to please friend: Enoteca Ducale is a family run wine shop in the very centre of Modena, with a large selection of Emilia Romagna typical products like the famous Modena’s vinegar, ham or Parmigiano cheese.

The balsamic Modena’s vinegar is made by grape must cooked with direct flame and preserved in wood barrels, and you can use it on cheese, salads, meat or fish and even on cakes: it has an unforgettable taste, soft and sweet.

Enoteca Ducale can select a range of typical products from Modena and prepare you a gift pack (and send it wherever you want) with vinegar and cheese, but also with wines like Lambrusco, Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo, liquors, jams and hand made chocolate.

Everything is so tasty that you’ll book a holiday in Modena the next time you’ll come in Italy!

Italian version.

Three generations of farmers in love with wine, 50 years of tradition and a very strong awareness for the quality. Fattoria Campigiana,  a Tuscan farm situated in the country of San Miniato, has a passion for good wine, made by selected grapes with an eye on ecosustainability and low impact vineyards.

Vintage is rigorously manual, to produce a wine of superior quality that has obtained D.O.C.G.  mark by Consorzio Chianti.
From Sauvignon to Verduzzo, from Sangiovese to Grappa, grapevines at Fattoria Campigiana have produced wonderful wines with strong or delicate taste.

Now, if you want to spend some days and see with your own eyes how wine is made, you’ve found the right place: Fattoria Campigiana gives you the chance to make agritourism and agricultural holiday in the beautiful Tuscan country.
You can stay in one of the rooms in the farm and enjoy the tasty local food, walk around the property, trying to connect with nature.

Italian version.