Offida is pronounced with the stress on the “i”: a name mysterious as it is musical, one that makes an impression and piques your curiosity. You know how Italy strikes you with those explosions of beauty that make your heart beat faster and here you’re aware of it from the moment that you get off the public transport that has taken you to the foot of the town.

You climb the streets, lined with brick buildings, which is the go-to material around here. The light seems warm and ...

Of all the wild herbs in Tuscany, wild fennel has always been one of the most widespread. It grows in fields and along country roads. It’s not a particularly graceful plant, but its yellow flowers have always exerted charm and, once dried, a taste that flavors salads and delicate meats, not to mention herbal teas and calming infusions. Most interesting of all are the countless seeds which, in their mature form, have always been used in finocchiona, the queen of all Tuscan charcuterie. Its domain has now spread ...

One of the most important grape varieties of Italy, the word Sangiovese embodies some of the complexity – or versatility, perhaps – in a character that is as mysterious as its name. Such is the history surrounding this grape that it was cited at least as far back as Pier Soderini in the 1500s, but given the vast job we would have in combing the annals of Sangiovese references, we will limit ourselves to the most common theories regarding its name’s origins.

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Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely cultivated grape in the world. To give you some idea of its popularity, the famous journalist and wine critic Jancis Robinson has described it as the “chocolate” to “Chardonnay’s vanilla”. In the global imagination, this grape conjures up wines, often fine ones, of international repute.

The origins of Cabernet Sauvignon long remained mysterious. Certain theories held it to be a grape that hailed from Epirus and which had found its ...

Pici, pinci, appicciare...what are you talking about?

That would have been the response of any number of Florentines, had they been asked if they knew what pici were, if they had ever tasted pici. Until a few decades ago, this wonderful pasta was completely unknown outside of the Val d’Orcia. My dear Sienese friend Stefano Tesi, a diehard member of the Dragon contrada (Siena’s sixteen districts, or contrade, all have their own symbolic animal), tells me that they were a fairly rare ...