Cooking with nonnas

An authentic Tuscan experience

“To really learn how to cook like a Tuscan, you must cook with a Tuscan nonna”, I said to Susan Van Allen, an American writer, whose interests are focused on Italy and women travels. Susan was born with Italian genes (her maternal grandparents came to the USA from Molise and Potenza). She grew up eating like an Italian - smelling lasagnas and listening to family dramas, which ignited a passion in her that inspired her to travel to Italy in 1976. Since then she has continued to explore the country and write about it in a popular guidebook 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go.


In fact, when travelling around Italy, you do not need to be trained or work out, but just to open your senses wide and breathe: to listen to women chatting and arguing over ‘too-much-less-salt-in-pasta’, sniff the air as it fills with garlic, pepper and olive oil sizzling in the pan, contemplate gestures as simple as throwing a pinch of salt in water, to savour the outcome of such dramatic process… Susan approached me with such enthusiasm asking about a cookery class to arrange for her group of ladies. They were spending a week in the Chianti area in a luxury country resort enjoying visiting Florence and small towns, as well as olive picking during the harvest. There was not much to be unveiled to her around Italy and Tuscany, therefore I cast my card betting on ‘authenticity’ and ‘spontaneity’: cooking with nonnas like Italian do! Read on Wall street International journal

Pietrasanta: the cradle of art

A bohemian borough in northern Tuscany

I sit on a crimson sofa while Sofy is preparing some coffee before we start our interview. Sophie Ricard, in art “Sofy” is a sculptor and a painter now living in Pietrasanta and managing a Bed and breakfast activity, although she prefers referring to it as a GuestHouse,“Maison d’hôtes”, a charming 17th-century building, inviting to beauty and contemplation.

From the large window, I can see roofs and terraces finely decorated with stuccos and marbles and I feel like I am in Paris…when Sofy starts her story. "I sat on a comfy chair sipping a ‘spritz’ and contemplating some terrific art pieces of contemporary artists…the bells of the Duomo toll and the air filled with inebriating scents of time, olive trees and freshly cut grass… I found myself in Pietrasanta, a small medieval town set on hills of northern Tuscany Riviera of Versilia, enjoying the typical Italian relax in piazzetta… After living in Paris and travelling the world, I would not expect myself to feel so at ease in such a small place." Go on reading on Wall Street International