To visit the hill town of Gambassi, a few weeks ago, we took the road to the Tuscan coast, passing from Volterra. Shortly before Volterra, we took a detour. We drove through oak woods and Mediterranean scrub, in a wild landscape that first brought us to the mountains and, immediately…
I have a dream... Yes, I have a dream, and it smells of ripe fruit. I want an orchard. A few years ago, we planted a dozen fruit trees in the olive grove, local species and heirloom varieties, investing in hope and patience. It's been three years now, but they…
Our holiday in Salento has become a habit. Tommaso and I go to Puglia to visit his uncle and aunt, his nonna, their house a few steps from the sea, where over the years I learnt to recognize the light and the rhythms. Now I know where the dishes and…
Nonna still keeps her big book on herbs and flowers on a bookrest in her living room. It has a central position in her home. When I was a child, I could spend hours leafing through that massive, fascinating volume, full of drawings, photos, recipes and remedies. Summer had the…
I started to look at recipes with a different perspective. While I am preparing dinner for us, on the marble table upstairs in our house, or while I am cooking during one of the classes, where many hands and experiences meet around the same wooden table now marked by time,…
Summer began on Friday, around five in the afternoon, when I arrived at home. As soon as we got out of the car, I immediately felt the heat rising from the sun-baked stones. Grandma was outside, in the garden, hanging out the clothes on the drying rack, hidden in the…
There was a time, before meeting Tommaso, when I would try new recipes with dedication and then I would come here on the blog to tell you everything about them. They look like past geological eras, yet I'm speaking of a decade ago. There were fewer filters, less expectations. I…
Where has April gone? And what about March and February, that slipped away from my hands, silent, liquid, imperceptible. Not to speak of May: I'd swear it had begun just a few hours ago, yet I'm already planning activities for June. Only yesterday I was hoping to spend a few…