Airline Tickets To Pakistan - Tuscany Encounter With A Culinary Guidebook

Tasting Tuscany - Exploring and eating off the beaten track by Beth Elon, as I rummaged through the books in English I spotted an inviting title. My primary reason for visiting Italy frequently is to experience the local food and wine culture. But for reading while in Italy I prefer travel journals and other books that might shed light on my impending experiences. To my surprise I found a large section of literary classics in English. I wandered into a bookstore with an enticing display in the window, having arrived at the Pisa Airport several hours before my traveling companion's flight from London.

Would this book reveal new gems I had failed to unearth? I read on with personal interest, having just spent a week in this unknown eastern edge of Tuscany bordering Umbria and planning to return later in this journey. Indeed off the beaten track. " Chapter 6, to my pleasure I opened to a section describing the region of "The Casentino and Tiberina. I cautiously picked the book up and opened it at random; thinking it was probably just another repeat list of highly overpriced restaurants by some unknown English author.

This delicious book is a testament to her efforts. Living side by side with her neighbors she learned to do all things in the traditional Tuscan way. Beth learned to cook using the bounty of local produce and cultivated her own vegetables and herbs as well as the orchard. After restoring a centuries-old farmhouse they set about reestablishing its vineyard and olive groves. Another surprise: Beth Elon is an American who has lived in Tuscany for the past thirty years with her husband and family.

" "made with a rich vegetable minestrone rather than the fairly simple bean soup you find in Florence, da Ventura in San Sepolcro across the valley from Anghiari was certainly my favorite for the local version of ribollita. I heartily agreed with her assessment of two of them, being familiar with three of the five eating establishments featured in the Casentino and Tiberina. Beth Elon's articulate descriptions of the varied topography invited me to explore further.

Da Alighiero Ristorante, not to find my all-time favorite in Anghiari, however, i was disappointed. Thanks to Beth I now have the recipe for Risotto galeotto (Risotto with mushrooms and wild berries) which I had thoroughly enjoyed just six days before. Trattoria La Nena has long been a favorite of mine in Anghiari and Beth's description is right on.

It may be great value for what you pay but not of the caliber of other establishments featured in this exceptional guidebook. Average to say the least in my opinion. Why did she include Locanda di Castello di Sorci on the road from Anghiari to Monterchi, that being the case, but? Maybe Beth just didn't have enough time to try everything in this medieval village.

Her outstanding breads and excellent dishes reflect the local ingredients but are untraditional for the region. Blending her passion for purely good food with creative methods has yielded a style all her own. Traditional foods to new highs, sylvia has mastered the art of taking local. Lunch or dinner with Sylvia and Gianni easily takes three hours to savor. Or it may have been simply a matter of time. Perhaps the omission of Da Alighiero was because her focus for the book is on traditional style eateries.

" With renewed faith in the author I turned back to Chapter 2 "Valle del Serchio and the Garfagnana. We would be spending the next five days based in the hill-top medieval walled town of Barga in the heart of the region. Elon recommended for the Garfagnana Region. I was eager to see what Ms, since my friend and I would be leaving from Pisa Airport and driving east to Lucca and then north into unknown territory.

" A gloomy place, bandits and mercenaries for hire; robber barons, continually occupied by overbearing outsiders, the area was little more than a strategic passage, a few hundred years ago. Skinny roads wriggle their way up through seemingly unsurpassable mountains, where old fortified towns hang over narrow valleys; "The Garfagnana lies in the wildest part of the Apuan Alps.

What were I and my unsuspecting guest about to experience? Oh my goodness!

" It's a special pleasure to head up from Lucca along the twisting riverbank road that slowly winds into the hills. Nowadays the roads are decent. "Agriculture and small industry along the Serchio have given the area a new prosperity.

What is hidden in those dark mountains? Many times I have gazed up into the mountains north of Lucca as I rambled along the park atop the brick wall that surrounds this Roman-Renaissance treasure. It's an ideal place to begin a sojourn in Tuscany, located about 30 minutes east of Pisa Airport. I have spent a good amount of time in Lucca over the past seven years. That's a relief.

" The feeling awe-inspiring, "The silence is penetrable. We believed we had reached heaven. . . With views looking down across the graceful red-tiled roof of yet another medieval church fronting a little piazza, " Our discovery from one vantage point after another. And more, polenta and funghi, savoury sausages, thick farro and bean soup, little did I know that Tasting Tuscany was about to introduce us to the joys and "rich offering of Garfagnana special dishes. I was about to find out.

Heather has embarked upon sharing these traditional flavors and knowledge of Lucca and the Garfagnana through her company Sapori e Saperi Gastronomic Adventures, gaining the faith and trust of the many small food producers in the region. Heather concurred with Beth's jewels of the Garfagnana. Heather Jarman, another exciting find in this area is yet another American-Anglo expat. We also discovered there are many more gems waiting for the unsuspecting traveler, although the highlights of our journey in the Garfagnana were the suggestions Beth Elon shared. Each day we were rewarded with another great example of the abundance available in this hidden corner of Tuscany.

Had we not just stuffed ourselves we would have purchased everything in sight at the nearby food shop L'Aia di Piero. The hours we spent over lunch with the warm and welcoming Andrea Bertucci at Osteria Il Vecchio Mulino in Castelnuovo were hours spent in a gastronomic nirvana.

We quickly realized we needed several more days to thoroughly explore all the culinary features of this region between the Apuan Alps and the Apennines. Heather assured us it was worth a return trip. Although we opted to only eat at the smaller local traditional eateries featured in Tasting Tuscany we did make note of the Michelin-starred Ristorante La Mora in Ponte a Moriano.

We headed up to the top of the Apennines to Abertone where Chapter 4 begins, " Never one to take the autostrada when there are winding back roads available. Bagni di Lucca and others we reluctantly headed for Florence but not before detouring through another region: Chapter 4 "Pistoia and its Mountains, borgo a Mozzano, barga, satiated from our indulgences in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana.

" "I need to eat, my companion's silence was loudly proclaiming! Parking alongside an old stone wall we walked toward what we thought was the town center. Where I had planned a stop to see the medieval walled center of town, we were heading into Pistoia. We realized hunger was now our constant companion, around two o'clock as we descended back down the mountains. The verdant forested beauty of the SS12 route was a feast for the eyes. Taking the high road and the long road can be pleasantly distracting.

" I didn't like the smell of this one. I know there is something wonderful just ahead. Let's go a bit further. "No. My companion steered for an empty table at the first open establishment. Yes! " I could see the market. Surely there will be places to eat. "Let's turn down the next little street. Which is not a small town, i had no map of Pistoia. Deafening quiet. No one on the narrow streets. Stores closed. But I began to fear we might be lost. We are almost there. I thought, just a bit farther.

That is where the smokers now are seated in Italy. . . Please, not outside. The open air market was just in front. Just 30 feet more on the left was the perfect spot. Over the years the gods and goddesses of Wine and Good Food have given me a nose for sniffing out the best places to satisfy my hunger and thirst.

" One ristorante and we were in it! The back door takes you out to the splendid Piazza del Duomo that is Pistoia's grand centre. The front door leads on to the busy market. "This little restaurant just off the marketplace in Pistoia's centre has two entrances. The only entry for Pistoia was La BotteGaia. I suddenly remembered Tasting Tuscany and pulled it out of my backpack, comfortably seated inside.

That called for an extra bottle of wine to celebrate our good fortune. Beth Elon, favorite culinary writer, we were in Tuscany in a highly recommended ristorante of our new. Our lunch was truly excellent and who cared that we might be late in our arrival to Florence.

" We had probably seen her gardens and orchard on our way down the mountain. She lives nearby toward the mountains. "Beth Elon is friend, he explained. " It was an autographed copy. The author has given it to me. No, "No. If she could buy the book, carlo Malentacchi, my companion asked one of the owners. We noticed a copy of Tasting Tuscany by the register, as we were leaving.

" Local ingredients each cook knows intimately and to which is applied his own personal twist. What unites them "is regional food created with the finest seasonal ingredients. She knows and understands what each cook is passionate about. There is no doubt that she has eaten at every establishment. I would be happy with the regional descriptions that capture the passion and admiration Beth Elon certainly has for the ten off the beaten tracks included, were there no recipes in this very readable book.

Its freshness. . . The real secret to very well done traditional food is. This is not complex food. At least one or two from each of the fifty favorite eateries are included. But recipes there are.

This is followed by an informative section on the specialties of the area and concludes with typical restaurants and their recipes. Each chapter offers an overview of the region including brief historical information and sites to visit. Extremely refreshing, in itself, people and culinary delights is, culture, the carefully woven texture of art. You need only this one guidebook in hand, when you head out to explore these off the beaten tracks of Tuscany.

I look forward to more delicious adventures off the beaten track in Tuscany. I am planning my next trip to Tuscany with Chapters 8 "Montelupo Fiorentina and the Truffles of San Miniato" and 10 "The Maremma and Western Slopes of Monte Amiata" foremost in my plans. Superb! The other two restaurants I was not familiar with listed in the Casentino and Tiberina, oh?