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When winter rolls around, there’s nothing quite like cozying up to a bold bottle of red. And Italian red wines are particularly delicious picks when it comes to pairing them with your warming winter bowls of polenta, pasta or roasted meats. So, grab your plates of braised short ribs, Risotto alla Milanese or orecchiette with greens and sausage, and...

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The first time I visited the Jewish ghetto in Siena was by accident. I’d just stumbled my way out of the Palazzo Pubblico — the civic seat of the Sienese Republic, today a museum — and my focus was singularly on tracking down a plate of pici for lunch. But my tunnel vision was broken by marble plaques I spotted along the street, memorializing, in H...

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Sarteano is a village of almost 5,000, located in the province of Siena, 525 meters along the slopes of Mount Cetona. Narrow alleys and beautifully preserved medieval squares made this small but lively settlement in the Senese hills a fantastic destination for all history lovers, who want to enjoy timeless atmosphere and breathtaking scenery. Sarte...

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This semester, Sophia Caldas ’23 and her classmates worked together to design a café as part of a class assignment. Their classroom? A café in Italy. As they sipped coffee at a bottega in Tuscany, the students discussed everything from the plants that would decorate their hypothetical café to COVID protocols. They were just a short walk from the Un...

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Panforte is a typical Christmas cake from Siena, whose origins go back in time. A parchment attests to the existence of Panforte since at least 1205, but, in a simpler version, it originated even earlier, around the year 1000. Originally, it was a honey-based focaccia and was called pan mielato (honey bread). Fruit was added later, but, during the...

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IN THE PROVINCE OF AREZZO rise the Balze del Valdarno, mountains that were formed after the drying up of a lake during the Pliocene era and, subsequently, thanks to the action of exogenous forces such as water and wind. One striking feature of the Balze is its three distinct layers. The top of these mountains is brown because many pebbles and fine...

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Dear friends, another year ends and looking back we realize how many things we have done (many), how many things we would have liked to do (too many) and how many things we are planning for the future (so many!) A few days ago, on behalf of all of us at We the Italians, I had the honor of receiving at the American Consulate in Florence the presti...

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"I can't rule out that our existence is decided by a few, by the beautiful dreams or whims of a few, by the initiative or the will of a few... Of course, it's an atrocious hypothesis. Even more disconsolate, you wonder how those few: smarter than us, stronger than us, more enlightened than us, more enterprising than us? Or individuals like us, neit...

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The art of preserving pork was firmly established in the Tuscany region by the Middle Ages. This can be seen from the number of laws governing the slaughter of pigs and the preservation of pork already in place at the time of Charlemagne. Prosciutto Toscano comes from an old tradition of Tuscan farmers, who would slaughter a pig fattened for a year...

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It’s hard to find a place not to like in Tuscany, an Italian region rich in food, wine, culture, and picture-perfect landscapes. A region reminiscent of a mosaic, her small borgos and villages coalesce as elements of a stunning big picture yet can be easily overlooked as distinct players. But if we take time to peer closely, these diminutive parts...

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