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Text: Laurie Olin
Editors: Laurie Olin and Pablo Mandel
Book design: Pablo Mandel
Copy editor: Julia Van den Hout
ORO Managing Editor: Kirby Anderson
Typeset in Lyon Text Printed on 140 gsm Sun woodfree paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition
Library of Congress data available upon request. World Rights: Available is B n : 978-1-957183-83-1
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INTRODUCTION 7
North 11
Veneto 23
FOOD 57
Tuscany 69
Umbria 97
Rome 107
FOUNTAINS 157
Bernini & Borromini 167
TREES 183
Lazio 193
HOME OF THE GODS 209
Campania 223
Sicilia 229
VIVA ITALIA 253
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Quai on the Golfo di Spezia, Lerici
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Library, Piazzetta, Campanile, San Marco, and Doge’s Palace, Grand Canal, Venice
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Piazza and San Marco, Venice
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Italy possesses a wealth of complex and subtle dishes with many regional specialties of consistent quality and thoughtful, often simple, fresh ingredients, found in many markets, large and small. Wheat, olives, grapes, citrus, and a handful of spices have been fundamental in the cultural evolution and physical survival of the population adjacent to the Mediterranean for millennia. Fish from the nearby sea, ubiquitous poultry, acorn-fed swine in northern forests supplying ham and prosciutto, along with sheep, goats, and cattle have been in the diet since the Bronze Age, with the latter as important for milk to make cheese and the production of wool, leather, as meat. Italy is unimaginable without pasta. For a thousand years the Romans and others grew wheat, which was used for bread. Despite old jokes about Marco Polo, and which direction journeying between Italy and China he introduced noodles, East or West; there is no doubt that sometime in, or just before, the Renaissance along with other developments in art, literature, technology, and science, improved forms of pasta, including spaghetti, appeared. Global exploration and trade also added tomatoes, corn,
potatoes, and turkeys from America along with rice and spices from Asia to the palette.
The slow food movement that began in Bologna as a protest against globalization in agribusiness, and the consolidation of corporate marketing, packaging, fast food, and their devastating effect upon farmers, markets, restaurants, and health, has generated significant international response. The ongoing global expansion of interest in local growers, farmers’ markets, regional and historic crops and livestock, traditional and nutritious cuisine has been nothing short of miraculous.
Italy has a variety and hierarchy of places to snack or eat. First is the ubiquitous neighborhood café/ bar, where people pop in for a quick espresso, pastry, biscotto, or panino which can be heated in a large hot press grill (or microwave). Next is the tavola calda (hot table), with cooked, grilled, or baked dishes such as lasagna, and a variety of vegetables—eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, carrots—as well as pizza slices, and grilled meats, where one can step in off the street and be served a hot meal quickly, while standing at a counter or perched at one of a few
Afternoon tea, coffee, and gelato, Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome
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Florence remains the most famous and powerful city in Tuscany, despite the effort and achievements of its arch-rival, Sienna, or the brilliance and merits of Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca, Cortona, and a flock of handsome other communes such as San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Pienza, Pistoia, Prato, Volterra, and Livorno.
This bevy of ancient communities, often possessing elegant architecture, artistic masterpieces, and superb food and wine, populates a region of hills and mountains formed by numerous volcanos with two important river valleys, the Arno and Tiber, and a portion of the Mediterranean coastline. Predominantly an attractive historic agricultural region, with literally hundreds of small villages and hamlets, often on dramatic and picturesque hilltops once occupied by an Etruscan settlement or city. Tuscany also possesses several surviving portions of ancient forests replete with wildlife.
The Etruscans inhabited several regions now comprising Tuscany and portions of Umbria from the seventh century BCE until the third when they were conquered by their aggressive southern neighbors, the Romans. Like many, Rome absorbed a great many things from those they conquered. In addition to culture and commerce, Etruscan technology provided enormous benefits, including sophisticated plumbing and waterworks and an important construction innovation, the arch. Etruria was also an important trading partner with Greece, producing superb ceramics and textiles, which the region does to this day. Superb metal craftsmen as well as sculptors, the Etruscans produced handsome work one can see in regional museums in Volterra and Chiusi as well as in the Villa Giulia in Rome. The region has been so densely settled continuously that artifacts continue to pop up in farm fields and tombs unearthed somewhere every year.
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Grapes have been cultivated here since ancient times, and Tuscany is one of the great wine regions of the world. The most known reds today are Brunello, Chianti, and the “super Tuscans,” while Vernaccia from San
Villa La Foce entry gate
Count Origo’s zig-zag road, La Foce, Val
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D’Orcia
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Above: Abbey Sant’antimo near Montalcino; middle: Donato Bramante’s San Biagio, Montepulciano; bottom and opposite: Bernardo Rossellino’s duomo and piazza, Pienza
