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The Tuscan cooking is sober and presents simple tastes prepared with expert mastery. With its original kitchen and the wood burning pizza oven, Casa Santa Pia offers an upbeat atmosphere.
The simplicity of dishes is bound to a cultural story of poverty and misery. The difficult conditions of life imposed the utilization of poor food on the population, that's the reason why oil is preferred instead of lard and soups are preferred instead of pasta.
The fundamental food is without doubt bread, that is present in one thousand shapes including the long loaf, the wheel, from crostini (cruncy bread) to focacce (sort of flat bread), from schiacciata (another kind of flat bread) with oil to pan di ramerino (bread dough with rasins and rosmary). Also the absence of salt once too expensive which represents the typical appearance of simplicity, of poverty that characterized the cooking traditions of this territory. It is actually with bread that Tuscan recipes are made for example: the Panzanella, bread that has been soaked in water, and blended with fresh vegetables, the pappa al pomodoro that is bread cooked with garlic, parsley, basil, salt, oil and tomatoes and the famous ribollita that is a soup boiled several times. This recipe was from peasants that warmed up the soup, which was left over from the day before.
Still nowadays in Tuscany there is a incredible historical continuance, analyzing each Tuscan city we can notice that Firenze is well known for steak, tripe, stews, doughnuts with grapes and the rags ( cenci) that were and still are cooked around Carnival time. The rags are strips of pasta fried and icing sugar sprinkled on top.
The close city of Prato is known for a different sort of cooking, where the main recipe is that of cantucci, crunchy and tasty biscuits to be soaked in a typical spirit called Vinsanto.
In Pistoia, cooking is made of minimum, simple ingredients cooked wisely.
A soup named "the prisoner" made with giblets is well remembered because it was distributed to prisoners, the so-called briachina is, instead, a green and red salad, while bertoli are apple quarters dried in the hot sun.
Lucca presents the buccellato, a mixture of water, flour, yeast, sugar, anise and raisins, the Garfagnana on the other hand is the land of spelt, the ancient Roman cereal, whose soup is on more sophisticated tables today.
In Pisa, the truffles and simple fish recipes, which include cod, or eel dominate in cookings.
The protagonist Maremma, symbolizes, once more, simplicity with a famous well known recipe called Cooked water (acquacotta) which is made of nothing, as the name suggests, which was prepared for feeding herdsman and coalmen. A soup that during the years was enriched with bread, oil, salads of the season, eggs, mushroom and a handful of percorino cheese.
Among Tuscan sweets there are the so-called brilli, that are donuts with honey on top, the so-called sospiri made of egg whites whipped, sugar and zuccata an energy jam. The high mountains offer, as main typical dish, the so-called necci that are flat breads or schiacciatine made of chestnut flour, which are cooked on iron plates and served with, for example, ricotta. On the other hand there is the plane area that offers to visitors another kind of sweet: a pastry with anise.
This sweet was defined by the historical Italian gastronomist Artusi "special delight of Tuscany" to point out the delicious taste. |
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Tuscany is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Known for its enchanting landscapes, its fantastic and genuine food and beautiful towns as Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena.
Podere Santa Pia is situated in a distinctive location where green wooded hillsides give way to entirely different surroundings known as the Maremma. The countryside is both lunar and sublime. The hillsides are decorated with sunflowers, wheat fields and fragrant pastures as well as numerous impressive vineyards. This privileged location offers a spectacular vista over the charming medieval town of Cinigiano and the entire Ombrone Valley. It is the perfect place for your relaxing holiday with your friends and family. The property consists of 4 large bedrooms furnished in a classic Tuscan style and 2 bathroom with shower, a big full-equipment kitchen with a fireplace and a big living room and dining room. With its original kitchen and the wood burning pizza oven, Podere Santa Pia offers an upbeat atmosphere. The farmhouse has been renovated and provided with all modern comforts (satellite TV, Wi-Fi Internet access, washing machine, dishwasher, and so on), with an eye to preserve the typical and charming elements of these rural lodgings. There you have, then, cosy and warm rooms with traditional terracotta-tiled floors, stone walls and wood-beamed ceilings. And the kitchen, furnished for pleasant meals with traditional Tuscan dishes (bread soup or "ribollita", tomato soup, "fettunta", Florentine-style steak, stewed wild boar, cinta senese cured meat, and other Tuscan specialities).
The impressive garden (9000 square mt.) allows you to enjoy a relaxing holiday and is perfect for taking time out and lounging about while sipping on a glass of local wines, Montecucco DOC and Brunello DOC.
Sitting in the garden, one can enjoy our dawns and dusks, with their jubilee of colours ranging from dark yellow to pink, orange and red. In this scenario, it is often possible to observe the flight of pheasants, falcons and buzzards, great tits, chaffinches and sparrows.
This is an enchanting place far from noise, ideal to regenerate body and mind, where one has the opportunity enjoy pleasant walks or rides on mountain bike. The summer breeze that caresses Podere Santa Pia guarantees "cool" holidays even in the hottest weather.
Tuscan farmhouses | Podere Santa Pia
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Villa I Tatti |
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Sovicille, Pieve di San Giovanni Battistaa Ponte allo Spino
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Villa Saracini |
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Pieve of SS. Ippolito and Cassiano |
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San Gimignano,
view from Rocca di Montestaffoli
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Colle di Val d'Elsa |
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