Tuscan Traveler

On the trendy Via de’ Tornabuoni, nestled in the courtyard of the luxe Palazzo Tornabuoni, is a new restaurant, Obikà, the latest location in a chain of mozzarella bars that has its birthplace in Rome, and now has siblings in London, New York, Kuwait City,Tokyo, Turin and Milan.

Smoked mozzarella with tomatoes, basil and pesto

Obikà has the look of a stylish bar where one can stop in for a snack and a glass of wine.  But it is more.  You can get a full meal – antipasto, primo, secondo and dolce – or you can simply have a hand-pinched ball of the freshest mozzarella di bufala with a side of prosciutto or salame or tomatoes and basil, paired with a glass of Tuscan wine.

Bringing an Italian favorite into the 21st cenury

The minimalism of the counter at one end with its clear containers, which hold balls of the mozzarella and colorful vegetables, and even the brushstrokes of its logo suggest a Japanese, more than Mediterranean, sushi bar, not for fish, but for the freshest of cheeses. At the other end of the vast room is a cocktail bar of identical design, serving a full range of drinks.

Obikà focuses on the most prized mozzarella in Italy, small and large balls of mozzarella di bufala, made from water buffalo milk. For some, the smoked affumicata is the best choice, especially paired with a Sicilian eggplant caponata. For others the favorite styling is stracciatella di burrata.

Burrata starts out much like mozzarella and many other cheeses, with rennet used to curdle the warm milk. But then, unlike other cheeses, fresh mozzarella curds are plunged into hot whey or lightly salted water, kneaded and pulled to develop stretchy strings, then shaped in whatever form is desired. When making burrata, the still-hot cheese is formed into a pouch, which is then filled with scraps of leftover mozzarella and topped off with fresh cream before closing. Obikà serves a small glass bowl with only the buttery “scraps” swimming in cream.

Buffalo mozzarella with sun-dried tomatoes and anchovies

Obikà’s mozzarella is served with accompaniments such as Sardinian bottarga, mortadella with pistachios, Tuscan porchetta, Ligurian pesto and seasonal fresh figs. Large salads, tasty pastas, desserts, coffees and a large selection of Italian wines from small Italian producers are also available.

Each evening the large raised communal table is decked with small plates of the freshest snacks, salty and sweet, some with mozzarella and some without.  For 9 euro, guests are invited to eat all that they wish, accompanied by a cocktail or glass of wine to drink.

The communal table and mozzarella bar

The only drawback to Florence’s Obikà is the service. The staff is either uncaring or poorly trained. Dropped and sloshed drinks, delivery of the wrong order, ignored requests for the bill, staff surfing the music sound track or congregating at the bar to chat, and a bartender who loves the crash the empties into the trash, may be part of any meal. (See 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do, Part 1 and Part 2) Also, there was a disconcerting architectural design flaw (perhaps, by now, it has been solved) that resulted in all of the collected dirty dishes being periodically wheeled through the tables to a washing facility located somewhere not connected to the restaurant. Neither this nor the service failings should be sufficient to discourage the visitor from enjoying the impressive décor or the superlative cuisine.

Address:  Via de’ Tornabuoni, 16

Phone:  +39 055 277 3526

Hours:  Daily 10am – 11pm

The most Anglo American-styled library in Florence, the Harold Acton Library, is owned and operated by the British Institute of Florence. Contained on 2 ½ book-lined floors, the library allows full access to the stacks and provides knowledgeable assistance to the collection and extensive archives. The full catalogue is computerized and is available on-line. The Acton library contains the largest collection of English-language books in Italy.

Books line the main conference room used for the Wednesday evening lectures

There is a reading room, furnished with ancient over-stuffed couches and chairs, where both English and Italian newspapers and a variety of literary, economic, news and travel magazines completely cover the coffee table. Computers are available to use for a fee, but it is rumored that free wi-fi may be offered in the future.

Views of the Arno and Florentine palazzos

The British Institute of Florence, established in 1917, granted a Royal Charter in 1923, was the first of the post-colonial British cultural institutes to operate overseas. The Institute’s objectives are “to promote understanding between the citizens of Italy and the countries of the British Commonwealth through the maintenance in Florence of a library illustrating Italian and British culture and the promotion of the study of both the English and Italian language and the cultures of both countries.”

The library, with its panoramic views of the Arno River, was born from dozens of small donated collections and has matured into the present compilation of over 50,000 volumes published between the 16th and 21st centuries. About 500 new titles are added each year.

The collection has a strong emphasis in history of art, English and Italian literature and language, history, travel, the Grand Tour (mostly undertaken by Brits and Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries), and music. The library has a couple of thousand literary novels by both American and British authors, mostly from the first half of the 20th century, enough to keep an expat busy catching up on a must-read list of the likes of Wharton, Austen, Henry James and Virginia Woolf.

A mix of the old and the new.

The library was named after Harold Acton. Harold’s father, Arthur Acton, well-bred, but poor, was from Shropshire. His mother, Hortense Lenore Mitchell, was a banking heiress from Chicago. When Hortense married Arthur in 1903 they moved into the Villa La Pietra on the via Bolognese in Florence – a short time later she bought it for him.

Harold Mario Mitchell Acton was born at La Pietra in 1904, and grew up in the cultured and cosmopolitan Anglo-Florentine society before the First World War. He was sent to Eton and then to Christ Church, Oxford, where his contemporaries included Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Cyril Connolly, and Brian Howard.

Harold was an active member of the British Institute. He joined the governing board in 1950 and made available his apartments in the Palazzo Lanfredini (in the Oltrarno neighborhood downstream from the Santa Trinita Bridge) for the library in 1966.

When, in 1994, Harold died, he left his portion of the Palazzo Lanfredini to the British Institute and the Villa La Pietra and its surrounding properties to New York University.

The Harold Acton Library can be visited free of charge and offers a free well-attended lecture series on most Wednesday evenings.  To check out books and use the internet, a variety of fees apply. See the website.

Address:  Lungarno Guiccardini 9

Hours:  10am to 6:30pm, Monday through Friday

Americans and Brits usually find visiting libraries in Italy both frustrating and dissatisfying. The stacks are not open, so no browsing. You usually have to deal with a surly civil servant who will tell you that you do not have the right paperwork, but even if you did have lending privileges, it will take at least two weeks to obtain the books you are requesting and then you won’t be able to remove them from the premises and there is no place to sit down.

A short walk from the Duomo

In May 2007, the Oblate Library (Biblioteca delle Oblate) opened. It is the most user-friendly library in Florence for tourists and foreign students. (Another option is the Bristish Institute Library – better for expats, graduate students and seniors.)

Cloistered calm inside the Oblate Library

The Oblate Library is a long block from the Duomo and occupies the newly restored space of a huge 13th century convent of nuns – the “oblate”. Oblate derives from the Latin for “colei che si è offerta” or “she who offered herself”.  The semi-cloistered nuns served as nurses, cleaners and cooks at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital from the time of Dante (the hospital was built by Beatrice’s father) through the 1400s when Leonardo da Vinci was examining corpses in the tunnels that ran below the convent and for over 400 years more – until 1936 – when a new convent was created near the much larger and more modern Careggi Hospital.

Magazines and newspapers outside the children's space

The convent building was sold to the City of Florence. It first became the new home of the Museum of Prehistory as well as the central city government library that was moved from the Palazzo Vecchio.  Then it was closed for years for a full restoration, which preserved the late-Medieval, early-Renaissance bones of the building while opening the warren-like space up for two libraries – one for studying and the other for lending books, DVDs and CDs.  There is also a reading room where daily newspapers and monthly magazines are available in Italian, English, French and German.

Enjoy a cappuccino at the Oblate

Computers and free WiFi are also available. Children run wild in the spacious colorful biblioteca per bambini. Parents can escape to the adjoining café with a view of the cathedral’s dome. On the second floor the museum of prehistoric artifacts has reopened and can be visited for a fee.

Views from the top floor of La Biblioteca delle Oblate

La Biblioteca delle Oblate is worth a visit just for the panorama from the top floor or the sense of quiet offered in the walled cloister, but the friendly openness will bring you back to use the reading room, to listen to music in the outside loggia (where the nuns used to hang the hospital’s linen to dry), and maybe, even to peruse the book shelves holding a small selection of English fiction available for checkout for a month at a time.

The website of the Oblate Library is not available in English.

Address:  Via dell’Oriuolo 26  Florence

Hours: Mon. (2pm to 7pm), Tues. (9am to 10pm), Wed. to Sat. (9am to 7pm), closed Sunday.

In the 16th century Medicean Villa of Castello, is one of the most important of Florence’s many libraries, the Crusca Academy (Accademia della Crusca).  The Villa of Castello, located on the northern edge of the city, with its magnificent gardens (open to the public), passed from the Medici dukes to the Lorraine dukes to the King of Italy, who gave it to the State in 1919. The villa was chosen as the permanent home of the Crusca Academy in 1966.

Lunette of Villa of Castello and its gardens by Giusto Utens (1599)

The location is fitting because the origins of the Accademia della Crusca can be traced back to the mid-16th century when a group of educated philosophers, writers and linguists, disliking the rigidity of the revered Accademia Fiorentina decided to form a new academy. Calling themselves the “brigata dei crusconi” (brigade of coarse bran), they organized cruscate – amusing meetings with trivial speeches and conversation – but which also included debates and readings of cultural value, focused on works written, not in Latin, but in Italian, especially in the Florentine vernacular.

Sheaf of wheat - another symbol of Crusca

Soon, the academy adopted the name Crusca (bran), establishing the use of the symbols related to flour and to the process of separating the flour (the good language) from the bran (the bad language), following a language model that was based on the supremacy of the Florentine “vulgar” or everyday tongue. The goal of the lexicographers was to propose language cleaned of the impurities of its usage.

They went further with the theme by deciding that all the objects and furniture of the Accademia should have names relating to grain, bran, and bread, including the personal coats of arms of the Academicians, the “pale” or wooden shovels, which were painted with a symbolic image, together with the nickname of each Academician and his chosen motto.

Contento is the nickname of one of the members of Crusca

In 1590, the “frullone” or sifter, the vessel used to separate the flour from the bran, was chosen as the symbol of the Academy, as well as the motto -“il più bel fior ne coglie” (”she gathers the fairest flower”) – taken from a verse by Petrarch.

The traditional furnishings of the Accademia della Crusca included:

1) the gerle (panniers) – ceremonial academic chairs made of an upside down breadbasket with a bread shovel skewered through it to form the backrest (the addition of the shovel is attributed to Leopoldo de’ Medici);

2) the sacchi (sacks) – lockers shaped as sacks, which each had a door and shelves inside to preserve the “farina” or flour – the statutes, regulations and other writings approved by the academic censors; and

3) the pale (shovels) – decorative painted wood paddles, each bear the academic name of its owner, the motto (a line of verse originating from the 14th century many composed by Petrarch, chosen to encapsulate the spirit of the enterprise chosen by the Academician), and an image. The iconography of the shovels has been an object of study precisely because of the metaphoric meaning of the subjects, always linked to the agricultural, domestic or culinary subjects.

'Pale' adorn the walls with 'gerle' chairs below

In the 20th century, the Accademia dedicated its energies to research activities, editorial duties and to giving advice about the Italian language, opening new paths in the fields of grammar, lexicography and philology.

Today, the Accademia della Crusca is the most important center of scientific research dedicated to the study and promotion of Italian language. Its main goal is to share historical knowledge of the Italian language and its ongoing evolution in the contemporary world, in Italian society (especially in the schools), and abroad.

A 'pala' showing the process of distillation

The Academy pursues its own editorial activity, and allows public access to a specialist library and the archives; it also maintains international contacts with similar institutions, organizes meetings, seminars and conventions on the Italian language; and it has an active role in the field of European linguistic policy. The Crusca Academy offers a linguistic advice service to the public and preserves a rich collection of artistic portraits, painting, frescos, and objects, such as the famous pale.

The Accademia della Crusca is located in Florence, at the Villa of Castello, Via di Castello, 46. Its website, accademiadellacrusca.it, contains all relevant information in English as well as in Italian. For information about entry into the gardens, see the website of the State museums.

The Florence American World War II Cemetery is the smaller of two such cemeteries in Italy and thus seems more personal, more approachable, nestled in the classic Tuscan countryside below the hill town of Impruneta.

The World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial is more imposing in its sheer vastness, bringing home the horrible cost of war, but it is still a beautiful, meditative, and educational place to visit.

The Memorial and Chapel

The southern Italian memorial, often know as the Anzio Cemetery, is located on the northern edge of the town of Nettuno near the site of the Anzio beach landing (January 22, 1944). It covers 77 acres, rising in a gentle slope from grand pool that surrounds an island containing a cenotaph flanked by groups of Italian cypress trees. Beyond the pool are row upon arcing row of headstones, marking the graves of 7,861 of American military war dead on broad green lawns beneath rows of Roman pines.

The pool surrounds an island of cypress and a cenotaph

Beyond the almost unfathomable number of gravestones, the personal cost is readily apparent in the following stories:  23 sets of brothers are buried side by side, including two sets of twins; seventeen women and two children are among the dead; almost 6,500 soldiers died in two weeks starting with the bloody Anzio landing; in the attack on the City of Cisterna by the 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions, only six men survived out of 767 soldiers; and only 35% of the of the Americans who died in the fighting between Sicily and Rome are buried in the cemetery or commemorated in the chapel. The marble walls of the chapel contain the names of 3,095 personnel missing in action.

The majority of these men and women died in the liberation of Sicily (July 10 to August 17, 1943); in the landings in the Salerno Area (September 9, 1943) and the heavy fighting northward; in the landings at Anzio Beach and expansion of the beachhead (January 22, 1944 to May 1944); and in air and naval support in the regions.

Fresco depicting the capture of Sicily

An educational map room, across from the chapel, contains a bronze relief map and four fresco maps depicting the military operations in Sicily and Italy. The maps on the east and west walls were designed by Carlo Ciampaglia of Middle Valley, New Jersey and executed in true fresco (mixing of pigments with the plaster as it is applied to the wall) by Leonetto Tintori of Florence. At each end of the memorial are ornamental Italian gardens.

Headstones of the American soldiers who fell in battles between Sicily and Rome

The cemetery and memorial are cared for by the American Battle Monuments Commission and are open daily to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except December 25 and January 1. The gates are open on Italian holidays. When the cemetery is open to the public, a staff member is on duty in the Visitor Building to answer questions and escort relatives to grave and memorial sites.

Of all of the Musei del Cibo (Museums of Food) in Italy, there are probably more dedicated to olives and olive oil than any other (except, perhaps, wine). Tuscany has the best olive oil (according to this writer), so it is a decided disappointment that the region has only one measly museum (and perhaps another, rumored to be in Carmignano) dedicated to the golden-green oil.

As the new 2009 extra virgin cold press Italian olive oil is released to the impatient masses, the following is a survey of some – but not all – of the Musei dell’Olio d’Oliva.

TUSCANY

Museo dell’Antica Grancia di Serre

The Museum of the Ancient Serre Grange is housed in a grange (fortified farm) situated in the Sienese countryside. Its fortification, which served to safeguard the stores from incursions, represents an interesting architectural type. In 2001, the museum  was inaugurated, divided into two sections, the Olive Oil Museum and the Grange Documentation Center. The first of these museums, housed in an ancient frantoio (olive-mill), displays a collection of implements and materials from the early 20th century pertinent to olive-growing and the production of olive oil.

Address: Via dell’Antica Grancia 3, Rapolano Terme, Serre di Rapolano (SI)

There is no museum website, but it is described in the website of the Florence History of Science Museum.

LIGURIA

Museo dell’ Olivo – Fratelli Carli Possibly the most interesting and complete of all of the Italian olive oil museums, the Olive Museum in Onelia was established to house a variety of objects collected over decades by the Carli olive oil company, founded in 1911. Housed in a small Art Nouveau mansion (1920), which was the company’s headquarters, it is still surrounded by the olive-oil factory. The same building accommodates a library dedicated to the olive and olive oil, while a cafeteria and a museum shop are in an adjacent building. The collection includes several rare objects, antiques and archaeological finds. All the exhibits tell the story of the customs, costumes, tools, production methods, commerce, without omitting the philosophical and artistic – the olive tree has inspired poets, authors and painters for more than a thousand years. The Olive Museum received the European Museum of the Year Award for 1993.

Address: Via Garessio 13, 
18100 Oneglia (IM)

Official Website (occasionally out of order)

UMBRIA

Museo della Civiltà dell’ Olivo

The Museum of the Olive Culture, the first public museum of its kind in Italy and in Europe, is housed in an old Franciscan monastery, which also includes the church of St Francis and a collection of works of arts. Divided into four sections (”Botany”, “Getting to know the olive and olive oil”, “The olive as a symbol of peace”, “The history of the olive”) the museum utilizes multi-media to tell its story. The Ro Marcerano** sketches amuse and educate children. The texts presenting the olive in history, botany and agronomy complement corresponding tables with data from the National Research Center. Interactive devices provide information on pressing techniques, while documentary films show such details as the manufacture of the sacks made of goat hair in which the crushed olive mush is placed for compression, and the phases of high-density cultivation, including tree pruning.

Address: Musei di San Francesco, Chiesa di San Francesco, 06039 Trevi (PG)

The official website has no information about opening times or ticket prices.

Museo dell’ Olivo e dell’ Olio – Fondazione Lungarotti

The Museum of Olive and Olive Oil was established in 2000 by the Lungarotti Foundation in a small nucleus of Medieval residences, where many decades ago an olive press operated in Torgiano’s historic center. The museum is organized in ten rooms and the tour starts with information about the phytological characteristics of the olive, the varieties grown in Umbria, and the various methods for olive cultivation and olive oil extraction, from the traditional to ultra-modern techniques. The presence of the olive and olive oil in daily life, and their use and importance throughout the centuries are also explored. These exhibits examine the mythological origin of the plant and the use of olive oil for lighting, in rituals of major western religions. The role of olive oil in medicine and in the diet, in sports, in cosmetics, for heating are described.  Finanly, popular beliefs attributed to the tree and its product – symbolic, appeasing, deterrent and therapeutic – are explored.

Address: Via Garibaldi, 10 
06089 Torgiano (Perugia)

Official Website and another claiming the museum as one of the attributes of Bella Umbria.

Frantoio Bartolomei Olive Oil Museum

The Vecchio Frantoio Bartolomei has an extensive collection of old machinery and vintage objects used in the cultivation of olives. The exhibition provides an itinerary that takes the visitor through the phases of the production of olive oil, from the growing of the olive trees, to the gathering of the fruit, from their processing to the storing of the golden oil. A 16th century press is one highlight of the collection.

Address:  Via Cagnano, 6 – 05020 Montecchio (Terni)

Official Website

LAZIO

Museo dell’Olio della Sabina Located in the village of Castelnuovo di Farfa, the Sabina Olive Oil Museum holds a rare collection of olive presses, which attest the evolution of olive oil production in the region over the course of four centuries. The museum is unique in its use of the works of five internationally renowned artists (A. Cavaliere, G. Gazzola, M. Lai, H. Nagasawa and I. Strazza), who, with music and sculpture as their tools, explain and honor the important role played by olive oil in civilization.

Address:  Via Perelli, 7
02031 Castelnuovo di Farfa (RI)

This museum has many fans, especially in Great Britain where it has been written up in the Independent and the Telegraph.  It was also mentioned in a Slowtrav.com trip report.

VENETO

Museo dell’Olio – Oleifico Cisano del Garda The Olive Oil Museum at Cisano of Bardolino, near Lake Garda, was established by the Cisano del Garda Oil Mill, which has been operating since 1936. The museum’s most important exhibits include an ancient olive-press with a lever, grindstones, screw presses and the reconstruction of a 19th century hydraulic press, as well as a centrifugal separator from the 1930s and various containers used to store the final product, including the characteristic stone jars of the Garda-Verona region.

Address: Via Peschiera, 54
37011 Cisano di Bardolino (VR)

Official Website with virtual tour. Military families from the nearby U.S. base include this museum in their visits to Lake Garda as reported in the Stars & Stripes.

PUGLIA

Museo dell’ Olio di Oliva Sant’ Angelo de Graecis

Created in the 400-year-old building that housed the olive press of the Sant’ Angelo de Graecis estate, the Museum of Olive Oil includes a collection of machinery and equipment attesting the history of olive oil production from the late 17th century until the early 1900s.

Address: Contrada S. Angelo, 5
72015 Fasano (Br)

There is no official website, but it is mentioned in a travel site and the details of the museum’s hours are on the Fasano website.

ABRUZZO

The Museum of Olive Oil of Cantinarte

Located in the small village of Bucchianico near Chieti, the Olive Oil Museum offers a view of olive oil production as practiced in the 18th century using stone and wood machines powered by man and donkey. The museum is housed in an ancient frantoio where the interior spaces and architectural details have been restored with special care to authentic detail.

Address: Via San Camillo 21, 66011 Bucchianico

Official Website and the website  Abruzzo Today describes the museum.

Museo dell’ Olio di Loreto Aprutino

The small Abruzzo hill town of  Loreto Aprutino has five – yes, five – museums. One is all about olive oil. It is housed in the New Gothic-stlye castle, itself worthy of a visit. A 90 minute guided tour is included in the 6 euro ticket price.

Address: Via C. Battisti, 65014 Loreto Aprutino (PE)

Official Website and bloggers About Abruzzo and Life in Abruzzo describe the olive oil museum and the castle.

All About Olive Oil Museums

For information about Olive Oil Museums anywhere in the Mediterranean check out the Olive Oil Museums site.

Best Photo of Olive Oil

National Geographic’s Photo of the Day – Olive Oil: Elixir of the Gods

Next time:  Museo del Gusto – the Taste Museum

On a cold and rainy day when nothing is going right, Italians don’t have the same craving for Mac ‘n’ Cheese (maccheroni e formaggio) as most of the American baby boomers.

Mac 'n' Cheese plain and simple

During the 50s and 60s across the U.S., moms would make Mac ‘n’ Cheese from scratch with a butter and flour roux and American cheese. In the 70s and 80s, Kraft cornered the market with powdered cheese or the deluxe version with a packet of “real” cheddar cheese sauce.

The popularity of macaroni and cheese in the U.S. supposedly started when Thomas Jefferson served the dish at a White House dinner in 1802. Some say he got the pasta machine from Italy and the recipe from France.

Macaroni’s first mention in literature is in Boccacio’s Decameron (1348) where on the eighth day the group, hanging out in the hills near Florence (waiting for the plague to abate), was told the story of people from Parma who ate formaggio parmigiano and maccheroni.

Today in Italy it is hard to find elbow macaroni at the market, Italians rarely eat cheddar cheese, and there aren’t any boxes of Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese on supermarket shelves. In fact, it’s a rare to find an Italian who has ever savored the dish and certainly none who understands the expat’s craving for the cheesy comfort food.

Trattoria Zibibbo

Now for the good news! Foreigners in Florence who need a fix of creamy cheese on pasta (or anyone else who just wants a fabulous meal) should head immediately to Zibbibo Trattoria, located out of the tourist hubbub, and try chef/owner Benedetta Vitali’s Spaghetti Pastificio Morelli con Monte 27.

Admittedly, the pasta is not elbow macaroni, but it is one of the finest spaghettis made near Pisa by the family-owned Morelli pasta company. The taste of the fine durum wheat comes through with a satisfying al dente chew.

Monte 27 Vecchio from the Taleggio Valley

The cheese is not Velveeta, or American, or even a fine aged English cheddar, but it is a unique aged yellow hard cheese called Monte 27 Vecchio. Monte 27 is made by a small cheese company in the Taleggio Valley in the mountainous province of Bergamo in the Lombardy Region of northern Italy.

Spaghetti Pastificio Morelli with Monte 27

Benedetta hasn’t shared the exact recipe, but a spy in the kitchen reports that she melts down a lot, but not too much, unsalted butter, with about the same amount of brodo (savory stock from boiling chicken and a bit of beef). She boils the spaghetti until it’s almost done, then adds the spaghetti to the butter and brodo, sautés by stirring quickly and once the noodles are completely coated, she adds a huge handful of finely grated Monte 27.  She stirs briskly again until the cheese melts and serves the creamy pasta immediately, piping hot, garnished with a dash of pepper.

Paired with a glass of elegant, deep berry-red, velvety Barbaresco from the Piedmont region and followed by a fresh fruity sorbet, such as one made of fragolino grapes served in a tall crystal flute, makes the perfect light meal.

Benedetta Vitali

Benedetta is celebrating the tenth anniversary of her modern-designed, but cozy, trattoria. The menu changes frequently, reflecting both what is fresh at the market and Benedetta’s eclectic taste, especially of her love for the dishes of southern Italy. Look for appetizers like octopus salad or a flan of cauliflower and Parmesan cheese. The pasta to choose is, of course, Morelli spaghetti with Monte 27 sauce, but a good second choice is pasta with shellfish like clams, mussels, or shrimp. Main-course selections may include braised lamb chops, pigeon stuffed with liver, and squid stewed in spicy tomato sauce. Seasonal vegetables are not to be missed, especially if there are fried zucchini blossoms. Desserts have been Benedetta’s specialty for thirty years, especially the torta di gianduia (creamed chocolate and hazelnuts) and candied orange peels topping creamy cheesecake.

To get to Zibibbo, either take the 14C bus from Piazza San Marco or the train station all the way to the last stop in Careggi or ask the taxi driver to be dropped off at Piazzetta di Careggi. From that little square, Zibibbo is only a few doors up Via di Terzollina. There is a sign, but the name ‘Zibbibo’ is not immediately evident.

Zibibbo Trattoria

Via di Terzollina 3/R, Florence; telephone: 011.39.055.433.383. Reservations necessary.

About $40 a person, not including wine.

Dante after all of the celebrations

SUNDAY (October 25, 2009) Dante was worn out after all of the “A Passo Duomo” celebration around the cathedral.

Balloons for all of those young or not so young

The new mayor of Florence had decreed that the entire piazza surrounding the Duomo would become a pedestrian mall instead of a busy thoroughfare where over 500 buses and thousands of taxis round the Duomo every day. To mark the renaissance of the city center, the mayor threw a party.

There were balloons and hot chestnuts and free entrance to the Baptistry.

The other Dante

Notable figures from history – Dante, Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci – made an appearance and wandered the square.

Ancient ambulance

A parade of costumed flag-throwers, drummers and trumpeters escorted an ancient bus on one last ride down Via Martelli.

The Misericordia (the volunteer emergency medical service), located near the bell tower, displayed an antique ambulance.

The day ended with  Mozart, Bach and Mendelssohn echoing off the walls of the 600-year-old cathedral to a standing-room-only crowd, courtesy of the Maggio Musicale orchestra and chorus, directed by Seiji Ozawa.

Concert for Florence in the Duomo

MONDAY (October 26, 2009) is a different wonderful life for those wandering the historic center of Florence. For one block in every direction of the cathedral, the streets are filled with tourists (and a few locals), not traffic.

New pedestrian mall on Via Martelli

It has been suggested this will increase shopping in the historic center. It certainly makes it more inviting to linger rather than rush along.

No cars or busses to the Baptistry

Some have tried to quantify the environmental impact, saying that it will reduce the 450 kilos of fine particulate matter and the exceedingly high levels of carbon monoxide trapped between the buildings that line the piazza. Florence is one of the most polluted cities in Italy – so every little bit helps. However, with the drastic changes in the bus routes, there are now over 2,000 bus traveling through Piazza San Marco every day.

Temporary bus stop in Piazza San Marco

Maybe the mayor’s other decision to cancel the clean electric tramline routes throughout the city should be reconsidered. And now that the buses aren’t griming the Duomo, the bishop should consider steam-cleaning the back side of the cathedral.

Outside Santa Croce

As the November 4th anniversary of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence approaches, it’s the perfect time to read Robert Clark’s Dark Water: Art Disaster and Redemption in Florence, which was just released in paperback.

As Angela Leeper writes in her concise review in bookpage.com: “History and art criticism, with a dash of memoir thrown in, Robert Clark’s Dark Water chronicles how the flood of November 4, 1966—in which four million books, 14,000 works of art and 16 miles of documents were either damaged or destroyed—came to define the Italian city of Florence. Clark begins with a history of the city: its literary and artistic greats, its sins, its transformation into a tourist haven, and of course, its centuries of flooding. With each catastrophe, Florence’s residents were quick to place blame on God, their politicians or their immoral lifestyles.

Inside Santa Croce

“Clark continues his layered account with profiles of the residents, artists and volunteer ‘mud angels’ who began to salvage Florence’s treasures that November as the Arno River rushed by, improvising conservation and restoration on the spot. Throughout his evocative, detailed prose, he reflects on the city’s character and the ephemeral nature of beauty itself.”

A more detailed review was written by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post and can be found online.

For those who seeking more information about the 1966 flood, a website, florence-flood.com was created in 2006 on the 40th anniversary, to provide news, archives and photos.

“Il privilegio della lentezza” or “the luxury of going slowly” is the creed of the artisans at the Antico Setificio Fiorentino says director Sabine Pretsch. Seemingly untouched by time, workmanship characteristic of the Renaissance is central to this small Florentine silk fabric workshop.  Any visitor will linger in this unhurried, magical place tucked deep inside a historic garden in the San Frediano district of Florence, Italy, where the looms are centuries old and the detailed patterns for the silken cloth are older still.

The Courtyard of the Ancient Silk Factory

Noble Renaissance families made their fortunes through the manufacture and trade of fine silks.  In the mid-eighteenth century, some of these families decided to create a single workshop to combine their looms, warping machines, patterns, and fabric designs.  Located first on Via de’ Tessitori (”Street of the Weavers”) and then moved in 1786 to its present location on Via Bartolini, the silk workshop has never ceased operation, even when the roof was destroyed by bombs in World War II or when the workshop and storerooms were devastated by seven-foot flood waters in 1966.

Hand-Dying over a Wood Fire

Today, the Antico Setificio operates with eight master weavers and two apprentices — all, but one, are Florentine by birth. The factory obtains raw spun silk primarily from Brazil. The silk is hand-dyed at the workshop, wound onto spools on a machine built in the 1850s, from which the thread is then transferred to quills for the shuttles or onto an orditoio (warping machine), one of which was designed by Leonardo di Vinci and the other is an 1872 Benninger orditoio – both are in perfect working order.  Six handlooms from the eighteenth century and six mechanical nineteenth-century looms are used to create fabrics from patterns dating back to the Renaissance.

Built from a Design by Leonardo Di Vinci

Today, the production of the Antico Setificio Fiorentino is rarely made into fashionable clothing.  Instead, the fabric is used for the interior decoration of private homes and public buildings or the restoration of historic costumes, drapery and furniture.  Visitors are welcome in la sala di vendita (salesroom) where rolls of richly colored and patterned silks vie for space with finished products made of the supple fabric.

Renaissance Patterns Are Still Woven Today

Recently the workshop began working with modern textile designers to develop new patterns using the antique handlooms to create unique fabrics.  The skill of Setificio artisans and the use of the eighteenth-century handlooms assure the superior quality of the modern fabric — a direct result of “the luxury of going slowly.”

For more information, contact Antico Setificio Fiorentino, Via Bartolini 4, 50124 Florence, Italy (tele. 055/213861; fax 055/218174),  web site: anticosetificiofiorentino.it

An excellent book,  published in Italy, entitled “Antico Setificio Fiorentino” by Sabine Pretsch and Patrizia Pietrogrande, published by Le Lettre, Firenze 1999, has English translation included.