Tuscan Traveler’s Picks – Nonfiction Books to Read Before Going to Italy in 2016

With so many of your friends and family planning to travel to Italy in 2016, this holiday season is the perfect time for the gift of a book or two that will enrich their experience. Or, perhaps, these suggestions will serve as a reminder that you meant to catch up on a little reading yourself before the New Year.

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Tuscan Traveler’s Nonfiction Selection
Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered by Dianne Hales

514yVETXTTL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_Over 500 years after her birth we are still talking about her. A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her portrait. An emperor coveted her. … Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Pick – The “New” Duomo Museum

Florence’s cathedral museum, known officially as Museo dell’ Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (Museum of the Works of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore), hosts the world’s largest collection of Florentine Medieval and Renaissance sculpture. It reopened to the public on October 29, just in time for Pope Francis’s visit, after an expansion and renovation project lasting two years. The 45 million euro project was funded by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, and was design by Adolfo Natalini and Guicciardini & Magni Architects.

The museum is the anchor for what is known as Il Grande Museo Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Picks – When The World Answered

14,000 masterpieces were lost in Florence’s devastating 1966 Flood.

40 women artists, known as the “Flood Ladies”, answered the city’s call for new art.

Their dream was to create a “modern-day Uffizi” and catapult Florence into the twentieth-century…

This did not happen. Florence still lives in the past and the artworks displayed in the city is 99% created by men. But the paintings and sculptures of these generous modern-day artists is still in Florence … in storage … now, after 40 years, in need of restoration.

These little-known art treasures by women artists, housed in the archival rooms at … Read More

Mangia! Mangia! – Zabaione, the Italian Dolce, Rarely Found in Italy

In the mid-1980s, I was sitting at the counter of the newly-opened Jackson Filmore Trattoria in San Francisco. I had finished a dinner that included gnocchi “come nuvole” (like clouds) as the Jack, the chef/owner, liked to say, when the subject of a dolce came up. “Have the zabaione,” Jack said. “Trust me.”

My seat at the counter was only a few yards from the kitchen stove. I watched as the pastry chef whipped up egg yokes in a deep round copper bowl, adding only Masala wine and sugar, and heating the mixture slowly as he whisked. Copper … Read More

Italian Food Rule – Hands on the Table

Centuries ago a table was a loose plank of wood on top of tree stump or a couple of saw horses with boards on top. Putting weight on one’s elbows would unbalance the table, sending everyone’s food and what cutlery there was tumbling to the ground. Not putting elbows on the table prevented embarrassment.

Modern tables are solid enough to support a body’s weight, but children are still taught the rule without the reason behind it. Feeling discomfort with elbows on the table is cultural; where people know what is correct and once understood why. People with manners.

Italy was … Read More

Mangia! Mangia! – Zucchini Flowers Italian Style

My father just posted a couple of beautiful photos of the zucchini flowers from his veggie garden and asked if they were really good to eat. Simple answer: Yes, the flowers are scrumptious! However, Italians have two pieces of advice for my father: 1) pick the male flowers now and cook them up immediately, and 2) don’t let the zucchini squash grow beyond five inches long before harvesting it.

Americans are notorious for growing gigantic zucchini and then searching for ways of disposing of the tasteless watery squash. Garrison Keillor reportedly claimed July is the only time of year … Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Picks – 6 Questions For Susan Van Allen

Susan Van Allen probably never sleeps. She has written three interesting books that are must-reads especially women traveling to Italy. Her travel stories have been published in many media outlets, including National Public Radio, Town & Country, AFAR, Chicago Daily Herald, several Travelers Tales anthologies, and CNN.com. She makes presentations about Italian travel at such venues as The New York Times Travel Show and Museo Italo-Americano in San Francisco. She has a touring business, which introduces women to the joys of various regions of Italy every spring and fall. She’s also been an actor and a television script-writer.

Your book Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Tales – Bellini Museum

Visit Museo Bellini

Getting to view the collection of the Museo Bellini, located along the Arno in Florence, takes a bit of work. To understand its history, having some understanding of Italian helps. But for a new experience, a tour through the Bellini collection is as memorable, as it is fun.

To get in, you start by phoning or ringing the bell. Then make an appointment for a tour and turn up at the appointed time. The fee of 15 euro gets you three visits within a year.

As you walk in to the entry hall a mishmash of … Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Picks – 5 Questions for Kelly Borsheim, Street Painter in Florence

The best bookstore for visitors to Florence, the Paperback Exchange, just got a fascinating new book. The title tells it all—My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy by Kelly Borsheim—and for any visitor to the Renaissance City it sheds light on a little-known artistic lifestyle, that of the madonnari, those who work with chalk and pastels on three large squares of paving stones between Piazza della Repubblica and the Ponte Vecchio, bringing well-loved paintings to “life” for a mere twenty-four hours.

Kelly, a sculptor with a studio in Texas, came to Florence just in time to fulfill … Read More

Tuscan Traveler’s Tales – Women Key to Italian Resistance in WWII

On April 25, 2015, Italy marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the country from Nazi domination. This year much of the focus is on the 200,000 partisans who helped bring about the country’s liberation.

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Over one quarter of the participants in the Italian Resistance during World War II were women (55,000), many acting as couriers (staffette).

In 1943, the Resistance strengthened in Italy as many Italian men chose to join the Partisans rather than capitulate to the German policy requiring the Italian military to be incorporated into the German army or be rounded up and … Read More