A fine art - a guide to shopping in Florence

When you think of big name shopping in Italy the likes of Rome and Milan immediately spring to mind, however Florence can really hold it's own when it comes to both luxury labels and vintage finds!


It may be easy to pick up the latest off the catwalk looks from Italian heavyweights such as Gucci and Prada yet one of the city's best retail pleasures is stumbling across it's little-known traditional shops from centuries old pharmacies to historic gems selling sumptuous silk to hand marbled paper. Below is a list of some of the quirkiest and cutest boutiques you can find on those criss-crossing Renaissance streets!

Filistrucchi (Via Giuseppe Verdi 9) A wig shop patronised by a plethora of worldwide stars (on a strictly hush hush basis) you will be astounded by the range of human hair wigs and beards. This shop also stocks a range of props for private and commercial use in film - you just might recognise some of them!

Antico Setificio Fiorentino (Via L. Bartolini 4) Florence has famously produced silk for centuries. This friendly shop supplies exquisite silks still made on original looms and according to traditional Florentine techniques. Open by appointment Monday to Friday 9am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm

Giulio Giannini & Figlio (Piazza de' Pitti 37r) Florence is famous for marbled paper, Giannini has been making distinctive designs since 1856. It comes in sheets, covers, books, frames, bookplates and plenty of other stationery items.

Madova (Via de, Guiciardini 1r) This cute shop may only sell gloves, but what gloves they are! Every style and every colour is available, all in sumptuous leather, with luxurious linings of silk, lambs wool or cashmere.

Fonte dei Dolci (Via Nazionale 120-122r) If you have a sweet tooth - this one is for you! Established in 1954, this is the Florentines' first port of call for sweets and chocolates.

Flavours offer Italian cooking holidays, painting holidays and Pilates holidays in Florence, for more details visit our website.

The rough guide to Modica chocolate!

Modica is a baroque gem, nestled in the south of the island of Sicily. A beautiful city traversed by wide boulevards, which were actually riverbeds paved over after a flood in 1902. The city is famous for one thing, chocolate, but not as we know it!Anyone who has been to Mexico will recognize the chocolate from Modica. This exceptionally handsome Sicilian city owes it's chocolate heritage to the Aztec people. The chocolate makers of Modica create bespoke blends to suit each customer, combining cacao, sugar and spices. No dairy products are added to Sicilian chocolate, as it solely consists of the dry ingrediants of sugar spices and cacao, no heat or cacao butter is used during blending. This method ensures none of the beneficent nutritional properties of the cacao are lost and the chocolate retains a sandy rough texture, characteristic of the mexican product, as the sugar crystals never melt. Chocalate is a major export of this fabulously baroque city.

Flavours organise cooking, Pilates and painting holidays to Sicily and a trip to Modica chocolate maker, Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, is a highlight of the itinerary!

The Dolceria opened in 1880, owner and manager Pierpaolo represents the sixth generation in the bussiness, who comes from the tradition of the ciuculataru, or ambulant chocolate maker, who travelled the towns and villages of the surrounding area mixing chocolate according to the tastes of patrons. He now runs the most idyllic and elegant chocolate shop in Modica.

Learning with laughter...a cookery course in Italy!

Last week I spent a week in Tuscany (a small perk of working for Flavours) and I've come back brimming with stories to tell on our Flavours blog! I thought I would start with what was one of the most hilarious groups we've ever had with us. A group of ladies that really knew how to live la dolce vita!

We have a lot of clients travelling on their own with Flavours (mainly due to our zero single supplement policy) and a common trait of all of these single guests is the apprehension they feel towards the prospect of spending time in a remote villa with a group of strangers - not only that - having to share a kitchen with them too! I can imagine the kind of fear associated with going on a blind date, as you nervously search for that Flavours sign in the foreign and mildly exotic arrivals hall in a antiquated Italian airport, yet I can assure you that this is quickly put to bed when you pull up to the villa, as I did for an al fresco lunch with your fellow cooks!

It never fails to amaze me how food (of course with that secret ingrediant of Italian charm) brings people together, after that first sip of Italian chardonnay, everyone was getting along splendidly. I've seen an accountant from Nottingham swopping recipes with a art teacher from Kent and a retired project manager from Milton Keynes talking wine with a chiropodist from Dublin, every holiday has a huge range of professions and ages!

The great thing about Flavours holidays is that we bring people together that have one common passion, it could be painting or pilates but this time it was cooking! Food is central to la dolce vita that Italians are so fond of and it's suprising how quickly you can slip into a daily life of eating, cooking, sunbathing, wine tasting and shopping, without those niggling annoyances of home (you will never need to wash up on a Flavours holiday). I don't know if it was the wine or the sunshine but I have never laughed so much as I did that week, and I was at work...with compleate strangers! On the second day, one of the ladies coined a phrase that I think will become a Flavours cliche, 'it's like learning with laughter!' I couldn't have said it better myself! Our holidays are as much about relaxation and socialisation as they are about learning authentic Italian ways of cooking, you will find that the week flies by, yet when you come back, you will have scores of different things to do with courgettes, tomatos, rabbit(it's amazing!) and the shapes you will make out of pasta would easily put Henry Moore to shame!

The week ended with us all exchaning email addresses and ready to meet up in the future, I just have to find an excuse to get out of the office for a dinner party, just to make sure everyone was paying attention, rather than giggling behind wooden spoons and pasta cutters!

You can find out more about our cookery holidays to Tuscany on our website, where you can also try out some of the recipes we sampled!

There's more to Pisa than the leaning tower...Our City Guide to Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa by Martin Parr

All our aspiring chefs joining us for a Flavours Italian cooking holidayin Tuscany find themselves arriving at Pisa airport. We decided to put together a city guide to give you an idea of the great things there are to do in this often overlooked city!

If you are planning a travel to Tuscany, you must pay a visit to the beautiful city of Pisa. Summer and the cooler days at the onset of Autumn are the perfect times to appreciate the city in all its splendour. Many people don't realise that Pisa is close to the sea and some beautful beaches such as Viareggio so it's the perfect spot for a summer break or during the gloden Tuscan autumn you can lose yourself in the unique colours of its hills that make this area so known the world over.

One day can be sufficient to see most attractions of Pisa city centre; however, if you want to enjoy at best the beauty of its countryside and seacoast, you should allow at least 2 or 3 days.

One-day tour of Pisa

Start your day from Ponte di Mezzo, previously called “Ponte Vecchio” (old bridge), the most ancient bridge in the city crossing the Arno River. At the north end of the bridge, you will find Piazza Garibaldi. Go on along Borgo Stretto, one of the main medieval streets of Pisa, and have a look at the beautiful Gothic–Romanesque church of S.Michele in Borgo. You will then arrive at Piazza dei Cavalieri (Knights’ Square), the core of the ancient republican Pisa, where you can admire some magnificent buildings designed by the architect Giorgio Vasari. Don’t miss the superb Palazzo dei Cavalieri (Knights’ Palace), now seat of the Scuola Normale Superiore, an élite institution for teaching and research founded by Napoleon in 1810. In front of Palazzo dei Cavalieri you can see other 2 masterpieces by Vasari, the Fontana di Francavilla (a fountain dating back to 1596) and the impressive Palazzo dell’Orologio (Clock tower). Worth-seeing is also the beautiful Church of S.Stefano dei Cavalieri.


The next stop will be at Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), where you can admire some of the highest examples of Pisan Romanesque style and pay a visit to the real “symbols” of Pisa. Indeed, the square is one of the most significant and most visited monumental complexes in Italy. You’ll be definitely amazed by the majestic Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Cemetery and of course the spectacular Bell Tower, known worldwide as the Leaning Tower.

Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction. The tower presently leans to the southwest. Due to it's fame this area can seem a bit of a tourist trap, so to escape you could pay a visit to the small church of Santa Maria della Spina, attributed to Lupo di Francesco (1230), an excellent example of Gothic building: You can admire it while strolling along the beautiful riverside (the so called “Lungoarno”), which is worth seeing as well.

The cuisine of Pisa

Like Tuscan cookery in general, the cuisine of Pisa perfectly mirrors the forceful character of its inhabitants, having originated in a genuine peasant culture where being simple never means being poor. Tuscan dishes can significantly vary from one city to another, yet the basic ingredients are essentially the same everywhere in Tuscany: beans, peas, chestnuts, game (especially birds) and pork.

Nonetheless, the cuisine of Pisa maintains its own specific character and offers a wide choice of traditional dishes: the most typical first courses are usually minestra di fagioli bianchi di S.Michele (a delicious soup made with navy beans), bavettine sul pesce (thin long strands of pasta – like linguine - with seafood), zuppa di ranocchi (a traditional soup with frogs) and risotto con le arselle (rice cooked in stock with clams).

If you would like some fish as a second course, definetly recommended is the exquisite muggine della foce dell’Arno alla griglia (grilled mullet from the mouth of the River Arno), cee alla pisana (stewed newborn eels), pesce ragno bollito (poached spotted weever) and baccalà o stoccafisso in agrodolce (sweet-and-sour salted cod or stockfish).

Of course any dish can be matched with one of the excellent DOC and DOCG wines produced in the area, such as a full-bodied Chianti (ideal with meat courses) or a white Bianco Pisano (perfect along with fish).

Why not try one of this traditional dishes of Pisa before you go!

Minestra Di Fagioli Bianchi

Ingredients:

Navy beans (about 100 g per person)
Any type of small pasta (such as elbow macaroni)
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 big cloves of garlic
1 small bunch of sage
2 tablespoonfuls tomato sauce

Directions:

Boil the navy beans slowly. Meanwhile brown 2 cloves of garlic and a glass of oil in a saucepan. Add the sage leaves to the oil and a ladleful of bean broth, after having diluted it with two tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce. Sieve the beans and add the resulting bean mash to the sauce. Boil for 10 minutes and then add the pasta, cooking it for 10-15 minutes depending on the type you choose.

Bavettine Sul Pesce

Ingreadiants:

350 g linguine pasta
600 g seafood normally used for fish soup – choose at least 3 different types of fish among scorpion fish, sole, hake, mullet and weaver).
300 g peeled tomatoes
2 onions
Parsley
Chilli pepper
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions:

Clean the fish and poach it in a little salted water, adding some parsley and 2 onion halves. Then remove the fish and filter the broth. Remove fish bones and then whisk all the fish.
Meanwhile brown a thinly chopped onion in a saucepan with 6 tablespoonfuls of oil and a pinch of chilli pepper. Add the peeled tomatoes, salt and then cook for 10 minutes. Then add the fish cream and some of the fish broth, bearing in mind that the resulting sauce must be very creamy.
Cook the linguine until they become just slightly firm and then sauté them in the fish sauce. Scatter with parsley and serve hot.

Flavours have a range of holidays available in Tuscany including weekends close to Lucca and Florence as well as painting and pilates holidays.

Win the new book by Paolo Arrigo ‘From Seed to Plate’ !

Like Flavours Paolo Arrigo is passionate about food in a very Italian way. Although bought up in urban London he’s still very much an Italian at heart, taught from an early age how to pick mushrooms, grow and cook vegetables and shout loudly when watching football. His passion is real Italian food and ‘From Seed to Plate’ is testament to this.The best way to get fresh, tasty flavour filled ingredients is to grow your own.

This tradition is part of the Italian psyche, no house, apartment, school or office no matter how small isn’t complete unless it has a small corner in which to grow tomatoes, herbs, salad leaves and whatever else can be crammed in! From Seed to Plate covers that very Italian, very ‘Flavours’ way of growing to cook, using recipes handed down to cook to cook, often through generations.

We have 10 copies of Paolo Arrigo’s brand new book to give away. All you have to do is send us a picture of your apron for our summer exhibition, 'The Apron – The History of the Cook’s Best Friend’ by the 21st April, the winners will be selected from a draw and notified by email! Please send high quality Jpegs to oliver@flavoursholidays.com - Good Luck!

Easter in Italy - Italian culinary traditions - What do people eat in Italy over Easter?

Buona Pasqua!

What are the traditions of easter in Italy? Our guest writer Ilaria from beautiful Venice tells all!

Easter is a great time to visit Italy, with festivals and celebrations taking place all over the country. Together with Christmas, Easter is one of the two most important festivals in the Christian year.

In Italy, Easter is a strictly observed religious celebration, characterised by specific rites and rituals. Some of them are performed throughout the whole country (such as the traditional procession on Good Friday), but there’s also a variety of town festivals and street celebrations taking place during the Settimana Santa (Holy Week) which are part of the local folklore. One of the most characteristic street representations is probably the traditional “scoppio del carro” (Cart Burst or Easter Fire) in Florence, a ceremony dating back to 1099.

On Easter morning, a monumental, richly adorned oxcart arrives in Piazza del Duomo followed by a traditional procession of trumpet-players and performers dressed in traditional customs. Then, during the mass, the bishop lights an "Iron Dove" (Colombina) with flames and slides it along a wire that connects the major altar to the cart outside. The Colombina ignites the cart, which will burst out in all its magnificence, and then slides back to the altar.

However, for most people Easter means much more than a religious celebration, representing indeed a major occasion for conviviality and family gathering. Like Christmas, Easter day is closely associated with excellent food and special culinary traditions, which Italian people are very proud of. Let’s have a look at them!

On Easter Sunday, after the Holy Mass, people usually gather for the traditional Easter lunch. The menu varies from region to region, but a typical Easter lunch will usually consist of at least 4 courses;

Starters (usually hard-boiled eggs followed by a selection of local cold cuts and cheese), a first main course (chicken broth with tortellini and meat lasagne are the most popular dishes), roast lamb as a second course served with seasonal vegetables, and finally the traditional Easter cake, the colomba, followed by Easter egg. To pay homage to the spring, most Easter dishes are usually flavoured with fresh herbs, especially home-made pies such as torta pasqualina (a traditional Easter pie filled with cheese and vegetables, typical of Genoa). Torta pasqualina is usually eaten during the traditional Easter Monday picnic, as on that day it is customary to go with one’s family or friends for an outing to the hills, the country or the lakeside.

The colomba (the name derives from its characteristic dove shape) is a simple but delicious cake made of leavened pastry with candies, topped with frosting and sugar grains. Its shape is highly symbolic, as doves are typically associated with peace, but is also said to result from an ancient folk legend set in the sixth Century, according to which Olbino (King of the Lombards) received a dove shaped cake on Easter Eve as a symbol of peace, and decided to stop his siege of the city of Pavia.

Another popular Easter cake in the south of Italy is pastiera napoletana, which is typical of the area of Naples and is regarded as the real masterpiece of Neapolitan pastry making. The basis of the pastiera is traditionally obtained soaking wheat and then cooking it into milk and sugar. The resulting pastry will be then enriched with ricotta cheese, milk, eggs and citrus candies. The origin of the pastiera napoletana is associated with a fascinating story as well, according to which seven maidens would have offered the 7 ingredients of the pastiera (each of them bearing a symbolic meaning) to the mermaid Partenope: wheat and flour as significant yields of the Earth, eggs as symbol of life renewal, ricotta cheese as a gift from shepherds, citrus flavours and sugar recalling spring scent.

If you can’t spend Easter in Italy, try one of the following recipes and enjoy the traditional dishes of Italian Easter tradition at home! For more information about our Italian cooking holidays visit our website, we offer courses in Tuscany, Bologna, Sicily and Puglia - which are sure to wet your appetite!

How to make Torta Pasqualina...

This savory Torta is similar to a quiche and is perfect as a side for easter dinner or as a starter!

Torta Pasqualina

Ingrediants:

400 g White flour

2 Tablespoonfuls extra virgin olive oil

Salt Water For the filling

500 g Chard

200 g Ricotta cheese

50 g Melted butter

6 Eggs

1 Tablespoonful fresh marjoram

4 Tablespoonfuls grated Parmesan cheese

4 Tablespoonfuls grated Pecorino cheese

1 Glass milk

1 Glass olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method:

Mix the flour with olive oil and salt, and then gradually add as much tepid water as you need to get a soft, solid mixture.

Knead the pastry until you see some little bubbles in it and then let it stand under a moist cloth – if you wish to save time, you can use frozen flaky pastry. Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin to obtain 6 layers, which need to be as thin as possible. Clean the chard and cook it on a low heat for 6 minutes.

Then squeeze water out of it, chop it thinly and put it into a big bowl. Add the crumbled ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, the grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoonfuls of Pecorino and the marjoram: if the mixture is too stiff, soften it with milk.

Line an oiled mould with a layer of pastry and oil the layer itself with a pastry brush, repeating the procedure with 2 further layers – remember not to oil the last one). Lay the filling on the top and dig 4 holes with a tablespoon, then place the raw eggs into them. Season with salt and dust with the remaining Pecorino.

Cover with a layer of pastry and then lay 2 further layers upon it, always oiling the top of each layer. Seal with the pastry left-overs forming a thick border all around the pie. Oil the top and puncture it with a toothpick, paying attention not to break the eggs. Put the pie in the pre-warmed oven at 200° C for 40 minutes.

The torta pasqualina can be served tepid or cool, and it’s ideal for Easter Monday lunch.