Viktoria and I have a simple answer to where to go on your first trip to Europe: Tuscany. "What about Paris, the City of Lights?" No Paris and no lights. Indeed, no frogs, no snails, and no midnights in a café drinking cognac with Hemingway's enthusiasts. Buy your ticket to Florence and, perhaps, visit Paris next time. To clarify, Viktoria and I are NOT the latest members of Francis Mayes' fan club. Quite the contrary, we frown upon the hordes of zealots that go to Cortona to

When is the perfect time to get married? First, you need to find someone that wants to spend the rest of her of his life with you. But still, there are other variables to consider. In Italy, in the last decades, the average wedding age has stretched beyond thirty years. Especially for the males, it's hard to leave the comfort of their Italian mom's home. One may argue that economic factors, too, had significant implications in delaying the departure of Italian children from t

Where am I? Does it matter? What I know is, That I dream of you, My dearest Tuscany, An impossible place to forget. I am back in my hometown, On a cool spring morning. An elderly lady sits on a balcony, While I walk down the street, Crossing paths with smiling people, Chatting nonstop. All around me are vivid colors: Flaming red terracotta, Ponds of olive green water, Sculpted tan rock, And a sparkle of bright light, Of mystery and intellect. Behind the bell towers, The rolli

During the Paleozoic Era lived two cavemen brothers named Mario and Luigi. Every year they would go on a special hunt along with four of their cousins, two uncles, and fourteen nephews. They sought an animal that was the most dangerous of the time and yet the most delicious. They hunted a dinosaur called Sausage-osaurus. Upon their successful return, the cavemen’s grandma used her secret recipe to prepare everyone’s favorite “homemade” dish of grilled Sausage-osaurus, paired

I will never forget the guy I met years ago, who was sure that pizza had been invented here, in the heart of America, by Chuck E. Cheese. No joke. Obviously, he has not heard of my homeland country, Italy, the cradle of pizza. As you know, pizza is a simple dish originating from Naples back in 1889. Maybe the U.S. feels a sense of ownership due to their very creative toppings that have definitely deviated from the classics. How could they think of adding BBQ chicken or pineap

This past May, Sam and I were visiting his family near Florence when his sister suggested that instead of going to the center of the city as we normally do during our annual visits, we should visit the village of Vinci, Leonardo’s birthplace. “What a great idea!” Sam and I enthusiastically exclaimed as we welcomed this change in plans. Besides our curiosity about where the master came from, it was only a one-hour drive and an exciting new place for us to explore. And since th

I think we can all agree that not all bread (and pastries) are created equal. You know that feeling, as soon as you take a bite of freshly-made, warm, crispy, and delicious bread. It is a rush of pleasure flowing through your body, and your taste buds start cha-cha dancing in your mouth. It is incredibly satisfying for us humans to eat good bread. There have been a few countries dominating the bread-making art, and Italy is certainly on top. Especially the Italian bakers in F

All of a sudden, one can find countless blogs and articles about biscotti. But I am not here to discuss just any kind of biscotti, but rather the Biscotti (with an uppercase B) from Prato, the town that I am from, a few miles north of Florence. It's okay if cookie connoisseurs overlooked the real story of biscotti till now because once they read our blog, they'll know. Biscotti are made with a few simple ingredients: flour, almonds, eggs, sugar, and yeast. But the secret lies

You don’t need a time machine to immerse yourself in the simple, genuine and flavorful foods from centuries past. When we visited the historic Falorni butcher shop (Antica Macelleria Falorni) founded in 1806 in Greve in Chianti, Tuscany, we found ourselves back in time. When someone says Chianti region, all you can think about is wine, although there is so much more to this famous province. Falorni is a traditional establishment that still stands, following nine generations.

There are many enigmatic civilizations that historians continue to speculate about. One is the wealthy and powerful Etruscan civilization, which existed over twenty-five hundred years ago in Tuscany, Italy. This past September, we visited Volterra, which was one of the epicenters of the Etruscan civilization. This ancient town has become a medieval treasure of this region thanks to its unique “walled town” and its Etruscan heritage. It’s hidden in the rolling hills of countle