Ok, so maybe it's not exactly boring, but Tuscany isn't spectacular. You want evidence? How about a cuisine that has at its pinnacle a barely grilled T-bone slathered with olive oil and dusted with black pepper? Or one in which its practitioners quaff a classic wine (Chianti) made up of a mutt-like blend of whatever grapes,
white or red, may be on hand? C'mon...Think for a moment
of the naturally spectacular places you might know about on the face of the
earth, places where you'd think you can't take a bad picture: Yosemite, the
Himalayas, Pantagonia, the Galapagos, the Amazon basin, the Grand Canyon.
The list can go on but there's one thing that you'll notice: not one place
on it is known as a magnet for cultural achievement.
By contrast, central
Tuscany is a land of rolling hills, some crawling with vines, others swathed
in the waving stalks of grain. South of Sienna is the Crete Senesi,
the sometimes barren, clay hills of Sienna province which are strangely photogenic.
On the coast east of Sienna you'll find the maremma, the coastal
plain of scrub, cowboys, cows, and sad Etruscan tombs. Spectacular? Not a
chance. Provocative, well that's a different story.
The Renaissance
struck hard in Tuscany. Perhaps it was because life was good, but needed
art to be better. Perhaps the same could be said about the geography; it
was human-friendly enough to offer solid sustenance--but wasn't spectacularly
awesome in itself. I classify it as a peasant landscape: pleasing enough
to the eye, but hard working and utilitarian rather then rich. Like Tuscan
cuisine, it's just "ok" at first and then you find that it grows
on you. And no matter how you classify this landscape, it is, as the Italians
often translate, "suggestive."
Now, the word "suggestive" in
American English usually refers to the erotic allure of a scantily clad woman
with a "come hither" look in her eye. But think about it: the hills
of Tuscany do have a sort of erotic sensuality, do they not? The
key is this: Nature's spectacles are complete in themselves and need no human
intervention to hold one in awe, but the rolling hills of Tuscany seem incomplete
without their waving stalks of grain or the rows of vines--just like the
erotic vision of the woman is nothing without the fantasy of interaction
in the mind of her male observer. Humans were required to complete Tuscany's
alluring landscape.
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| Suggestive?
Nature and humans combine to please the eye in Tuscany. |
The Charms
of the Chianti Hills
It is an absolute
joy to motor the small roads and byways of Chianti, a famous area of gently
rolling hills between Florence and Sienna.
Chianti. Those
vines you see tethered to the hillsides were once linked with "cheap
vino in hokey basket-bottles" but now are part of a renaissance in Italian
winemaking. "Super Tuscans," which get their moniker from a backbone
comprised of Sangiovese grapes, are now much sought-after wines the world
over.
Just south of
the town of Greve in Chianti, you'll ascend to a plateau
upon which sits the town of Panzano. What's here? A butcher.
Ok, a famous Butcher, the "Michelangelo of Meat," Dario Cecchini.
Dario runs The Antica
Macelleria Cecchini, a butcher shop that's stood the test of time:
it's been in Dario's family for over 200 years. Guidebooks will tell you
that Dario has run the shop the same way it's always been run during that
time, but I'm not sure.
You see, when
mad cow disease took the Tuscan favorite bistecca alla fiorentina (a
thick, grilled T-bone) out of commission for a while by forbidding the use
of the vertebral column in food preparations, Dario not only celebrated the
event by staging a funeral featuring a Fiorentina in a coffin paraded
through town, but he stepped in with his own innovation, a cut of meat suitable
for grilling in the Tuscan style (seared on the outside, raw or almost so
in the center) that didn't contain the forbidden bones. He then wrote up
instructions on how best to deal with the new "bistecca" to make
it resonate with the old. And in the end his treatise admonished:
"Bear in
mind that the steak would provide not only profound physical enjoyment,
extreme sensations [and] stimulation to drink a 'big' red wine" but
would also "awaken the affectionate senses (with all that follows)." (From "The
maestro and his magic knife" by David Shaw)
Ah, there's that
Tuscan sensuality again, that "suggestiveness" along with the Renaissance
spirit that allows the individual the freedom to take a new and fresh look
at old things and celebrate their spirit with new inventiveness.
A visit to Dario's
shop in Panzano should be required for card-carrying foodies everywhere.
It's like no butcher shop you've ever been to. You'll nibble the local specialties,
often with a bit of the local wine. And Dario will be there behind the counter,
bigger than life in his silly plaid pants, perhaps reciting Dante from memory,
or telling a joke in Italian that even the Americans will laugh at. Dario
is at the heart of what life should be; the crass enjoyment of simple pleasures,
the lust for life lived to the fullest.
And while you're
in the area, stop at one of my favorite Tuscan restaurants: Osteria
alla Piazza. Sitting right along the roadside between Panzano and
Castellina in Chianti--you get there by driving quickly in the Italian manner
on a nicely curvy side road--watch for the signs. When you've had enough
of Tuscan beef, try the Piatto Unico, a huge platter of pasta with seafood.
(Piatto Unico means they don't expect you to order a second course, and with
the seafood pasta you won't be tempted, believe me). Also to my liking was
the pasta with truffles and anchovies. But then again, a discarded tennis
shoe would be good with truffles. Osteria alle Piazza is closed Monday.
Crete
Senesi
Another "suggestive" place
on the Tuscan landscape is an area of clay hills south of Sienna, the Crete
Senesi. Fabulous landscapes to drive through (or better yet, bike or hike
though).
The village of Castelmuzio is
a suggestive Tuscan hilltop village sitting beside an age-old Etruscan road
that linked Chiusi and Siena, two major Etruscan centers thousands of years
ago. Walk along Via del Mattonato until you come to Le Mura, a terrace where
you can survey the surrounding countryside.
Other interesting
towns: Montisi, Talamone, Castiglione, Porto San Stefano, and Buonconvento.
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| The
Crete Senese |
Maremma
The coastal part
of Tuscany was a flourishing region in Etruscan and early Roman times. But
then the Maremma became marshy and was pretty much abandoned in the Middle
Ages because of malaria. That's why you won't see a whole lot of quaint villages
around. Reclamation was begun in the 19th century by the grand dukes of Tuscany
and was continued in the 20th by the Italian government.
Southeast of Chianti
you'll find wheat-covered flatlands as well as cowboys in fedoras, known
as Butteri, riding Maremmana horses herding long-horned Meremma cattle.
Best bet: visit
the Parco Naturale
della Maremma.
Endnotes:
For a
map of the locations of places in this article, see below.
See Tuscany
and Umbria Links for more information about Tuscany and the neighboring
region of Umbria.
Kyle Phillips
of About's Italian Cuisine site describes the Maremma and gives you some
recipes from the wild scrubland in Due
Maremmani.
He also opines
on Dario Cecchini in Dario
Cecchini, La Fiorentina & Carne da Galera, Among Other Things.
Silly
Endnotes:
My spellchecker
offers "hangover" as the correct spelling of Sangiovese. Hmmm.
| Map
of Tuscany |
 |
All
photos and graphics © 2003 by James Martin, licensed to About.
