ArtViva Italy

Espresso in Italy – when a bit bitter is better!

italyartviva — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:37 +0000

Coffee in Italy - a great Italian tradition!

Throughout the day, Italians take their caffeine hits like fast jabs, thrown back in little cups whose handles are pinched between the thumb and forefinger, the rest of the fingers crested in the open air as the cup is hurtled up to the mouth, tipped up and plunked back down on the saucer.

For the uninitiated walking into a coffee shop in Italy, it may seem like there is no order. That is simply because there is not.

The art of ordering a coffee in Italy does not lie in the virtue of patience. Rather, it is whoever manages to catch the attention of the café staff first!

Locals casually walk into the coffee shop (called a ‘bar’ in Italian) and with a confident wave of their index finger, call out their order to the multi-tasking ‘barista’ who magically manages to recall not only the orders being yelled out but also knowing what those regulars mean when they simply say, ‘the usual’.

There are actually many ways to order an espresso, the coffee standard which is locally referred to simply as ‘un caffè’ – a coffee, but also an Italian tradition.

You can have your coffee ‘lungo’ (long – about 2-3 centimetres high in the cup instead of 1-2), ‘stretto’ (short – as in, most people’s dregs are longer!), ‘macchiato’ (literally stained with milk, so just a drizzle of foamy milk is added on top), ‘corretto’ (coffee ‘corrected’ with a shot of grappa, which in most parts means you take your espresso with a shot of grappa added to the coffee, but in Venice they drink the coffee first then swish out the coffee cup with grappa for an added punch!).

Then there are the fussy coffee takers of Italy who ask for their coffee in specific kinds of coffee cups – be it a request for a coffee in a larger cup usually used for cappuccino, a glass mug or in a shot glass.

In the mornings (and only in the mornings!), Italian coffee may be served with milk. This can be in the form of a cappuccino – served warm so as to be drinkable immediately – or perhaps ‘caffè latte’, coffee with milk. If you simply ask for a ‘latte’, you are asking for a glass of milk! Ask however for a ‘latte macchiato’ and you are requesting a cup of milk ‘stained’ with a shot of coffee, as opposed to the caffé latte which sees the milk poured into the shot of coffee.

Yes, there is a difference!

This coffee ritual takes place standing up at the counter, with the friendly chit chat of the ‘barista’ a sure sweetener to the bitter brew.

Should you need additional sweetener however, artificial sweetener – as with almost any artificial foodstuff in Italy – is not common. Sugar (‘zucchero’), cane sugar (zucchero di canna) or honey (‘miele’ – pronounced like me-ell-eh) are on offer, as is a small jug of fresh milk should you wish to add cool milk to your hot espresso.

As to the milk, some locations will have soy milk (latte di soia) but skim milk is not common at all.

Many take their espresso with an accompanying glass of water, either ‘naturale’ o ‘frizzante’ (if you can’t remember – or pronounce that – you can also just say ‘con gas’).

Decaf is available (decaffeinato) too, as is tea (tè – which can also be without caffeine, but in this case would be ‘deteinato’) and hot chocolate (‘cioccolato caldo’). Orzo is another popular coffee shop beverage of choice.

You can be in and out of the bar in a few minutes, although many locals may hang around chatting outside and enjoying the Tuscan sunshine, chatting about the local goings on.

Should you prefer to sit down to order a coffee, expect to find a ‘coperto’ (cover charge) on your bill. The ‘a tavola’ prices are also higher.

Most coffee shops you have to pay upfront for your coffees, going to the cash register to hand over your change and obtaining a receipt that is then presented to the barista as you order.

And over time, going back time and time again, these brief exchanges between barista, cashier and coffee-drinker accumulate, slowly forming into a friendship – the best pick-me-up there is!

To learn about Italian food and have fun learning discovering tasty ways to use seasonal Italian ingredients to make delicious, typical dishes before indulging in a delicious meal made by you, we have hands-on cooking classes in Florence and Cooking Classes in a Tuscan Villa.

If you would like to immerse yourself in the Tuscan culture, we have a small-group Best of Tuscany tour visiting Siena, San Gimignano and Monteriggioni too, as well as stopping for lunch and wine tasting at an award-winning wine estate. See the highlights of Tuscany in one spectacular day tour from Florence – Best of Tuscany small-group tour.

Join us to have fun on an exhilarating bike ride from Florence to the Tuscan countryside, whizzing up and down the rolling Tuscan hills that form the stunning Tuscany countryside as you tour to a great Tuscan villa wine estate to visit their wine cellar for a Tuscan wine tasting, and dine at an award-winning Tuscan restaurant. During the warmer months, you may want to add a splash of extra fun to your Tuscany bike tour with our unique Tuscany Bike Ride with a Villa Swim. Should you wish to skip the Tuscan bike riding altogether and head straight pool-side, we have our Wine Tour and Villa Swim with lunch or simply enjoy a Villa Swim and Lunch in Tuscany.

Visit a Tuscan villa on the Taste of Tuscany at the Villa wine tour. Explore historic wine estates before undertaking a wine tasting. Tread through the terrain, enjoying spectacular views of the Tuscan countryside up-close and personal.

Stroll through the Tuscan countryside, join us for a Perfect Morning in Tuscany small-group walking tour. Leaving from Florence’s city centre and heading to the surrounding countryside, this small-group walking tour includes, well, walking in Tuscany, as well as lunch with wine at a stunning Renaissance Villa Estate, accompanied by an expert tour guide.

If you would like to have a private guide accompanying you, we have private tours that cater to your every desire. From Florence (and Tuscany) to Rome, Venice to the Cinque Terre and beyond, we are at your beck and call.

To explore other areas of Italy, can check out our Artviva Walking Tours website to read more about the tours we have to offer in Florence, Rome, Venice, Cinque Terre, Umbria, Naples, Pompeii and more.

Tuscany 2012 – just like fine wine and good women

italyartviva — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:06:16 +0000

Yes, just like fine wine and good women, Tuscany just gets better and better with each passing year.

After the massive eat-fests of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we decided to spend the first days of 2012 in Tuscany on our feet!

Luckily for us, we live in the land where stunning Tuscan hilltop towns abound and going for a walk in Tuscany is a delight.

The cobbled medieval walkways have little changed since, well, medieval times. The land is still charmingly sectioned into town, residential, farmland and unspoiled riverside.

Food still revolves around the seasons, just as nature intended, and families still gather on Sundays to enjoy traditional Tuscan recipes lovingly prepared just as nonna’s mamma’s mamma made them.

And that is exactly what makes Tuscany even better – that ‘La Bella Toscana’ remains unchanged; so stunningly beautiful and she has not even had any work done!

It’s the Slow Food defiance against fast food and faster lifestyles, instead maintaining the simple things in life that bring happiness and health to all who are lucky enough to enjoy them.

But the is one other very important reason to get out walking in Tuscany: New Year’s Eve marks merely the centre point of the Italian foodie calendar! We still have another feast to go and we wanted to ensure we’d well worked up our appetites for another great meal in Tuscany!

As any Italian child will inform you, there is still the eagerly awaited visit from La Befana to come on “La Festa dell’Epifania” – the Epiphany Feast which falls on January 6, celebrated by yet another great meal made of traditional Italian dishes!

To learn about food and have fun learning discovering tasty ways to use seasonal Italian ingredients to make delicious, typical dishes before indulging in a delicious meal made by you, we have hands-on cooking classes in Florence and Cooking Classes in a Tuscan Villa.

Tuscan Christmas Feasts!

italyartviva — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:56:57 +0000

Gathered around a round table, places were elaborately set for the entire extended family.

Our napkins were rolled up to look like crackers on the elaborate spread, with the tablecloth a traditional one made by the host’s grandmother and used at every Christmas lunch for generations.

One wall of the dining room was taken up by a gigantic window that faced out into the rolling Tuscan countryside, spread out like a gift before us.

But as soon as the food started arriving, the view was forgotten as all eyes, and forks too were on the great traditional Tuscany recipes lovingly prepared in the days leading up to Christmas in Italy.

Food in Italy is great at any time of the year so you can imagine that at Christmas time it is even more wonderful – traditional Tuscan recipes passed down through the generations, prepared in days passed in the kitchen, cooking in Tuscany in the lead-up to arguably the greatest food day in the year.

On this special day, we enjoyed a traditional Tuscan Christmas menu featuring a starter of crostini breads and some fresh prawns (shrimp), peeled all bar their tales and coated in extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice with salt and pepper.

At Christmas time in Tuscany, the entrée is usually tortellini served in broth, with a sprinkling of freshly-grated parmesan cheese.

Our wonderful host and passionate cook decided to go for a lighter traditional starter, which given we had three (yes, three!) main courses, we were very happy about the menu decision!

As such, our wonderful Christmas menu included a delicious dish by Tuscany’s most famous cookbook author, Artusi, of home-made Minestra di Mattoncini di Ricotta – Soup with little ricotta ‘bricks’.

Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) lived most of his life in Florence’s city centre, where he penned his famous cookbook, ‘La Scienza in cucina e l’Arte di mangiar bene’ - Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well, first (self-) published in 1881. Over time, it became one of the most loved and famed cookbook in Italy and is still much in use even to this day – so much so that there is even an iPhone Artusi application!

Following on from our starter, we enjoyed the first main course of Tuscan meatloaf and ‘Bollito’ served with sides of home-cooked artichokes, sundried tomatoes and pickled onions, as well as the accompanying green sauce and mayonnaise.

Bollito is the most popular Christmas recipe – a mix of various boiled meats served with the a variety of sauces, the favourites being ‘salsa verde’ (green sauce made with parsley) and home-made Italian-style mayonnaise which is creamy but not tangy.

When a dish of Cinghiale in umido – wild-boar stew – was presented, one family member piped up that this dish was just what we needed to cleanse the palate after such an extravagant meal!

With each course, the wine changed to be perfectly paired with the dishes. We started with a light Chianti, followed by a Rosso di Montalcino (the Brunello’s baby brother) and the big-daddy of wine, Barolo for the mains.

Dessert was home-made mousse with candied orange peel, followed by vin santo sweet wine and home-made biscotti, before concluding – some 4 hours after the meal began! – with a bitter espresso coffee.

As we put our coats on to leave, giving ‘baci’ – a kiss on both cheeks – it was nearly time for dinner but we felt like we may never want to eat again (well, at least until tomorrow!). The sky was already darkening, the air crisp around us as we went home for another wonderful Christmas tradition – a nap!

Here is the Artusi recipe:

Minestra di Mattoncini di Ricotta
(Soup with little ricotta ‘bricks’)

200 g ricotta cheese
30 grams grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
salt to taste
lemon zest and a dash of nutmeg

Pass the ricotta through a sieve. Add the other ingredients – the eggs one at a time. Mix well and pour the mixture into a buttered mould, with buttered paper lining the bottom. Cook in a bain-marie. When cool, remove it from the mould, discard the paper, and cut it into cubes of approximately one centimetre square. Place the cubes in a soup tureen, add boiling broth, and send to the table. These amounts serve five to six people.

The Artusi recipe we enjoyed as part of our extravagant Tuscany Christmas menu calls for the ricotta bricks to be placed inside a soup tureen and then served. Our host was a little more theatrical, placing the bricks on our plates first, then ladling the broth over the top before us to a wave of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ with each steaming spoonful.

Great Italian Christmas Traditions: Il Presepio

italyartviva — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:20:49 +0000

The Presepio of Rome's must-visit Pantheon (church of Santa Maria dei Martiri)

In many parts of Italy, particularly in the south, you will not find a Christmas tree as the symbol of Christmas, but rather a ‘Presepio’ – a nativity scene.

One of our wonderful Rome tour guides, Chris, who has a PhD in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Angelicum University, Rome, writes, ‘Originating centuries ago in Rome, extant documentation places the earliest evidence of commemorating the Christmas story in this manner to 432 A.D., when Pope Sixtus III reconstructed a “cave of the Nativity” similar to the Bethlehem stable in the ancient Liberian Basilica (founded by Pope Liberius (352-366) and known today as the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore). A festive celebration was then introduced to commemorate the occasion of the “Infant Savior’s birth.” This devotional reconstruction resulted in what can be termed the building of the world’s first Presepio.’

However, it has also been said that St Francis of Assisi is responsible for the wonderful Italian Christmas tradition.

Florence's city centre Presepio near Florence's Duomo (Cathedral) in the historic city centre

Chris states, ‘In 1223 Saint Francis of Assisi commissioned Giovanni Vellita from the town of Greccio to build a large-scale manger scene for the faithful to venerate on the anniversary of the Christ’s birth. Vellita therefore constructed a three-dimensional nativity scene out of straw in a cave of Greccio and Saint Francis had Christmas Mass celebrated there that year. According to the various accounts, Francis also used real people and living animals to illustrate the revered event.’

St Francis of Assisi is known for being a nature lover who lived a very poor and simple life.

From St Francis’ simple and naturalistic construction honouring the baby Jesus’ humble birthplace, nativity scenes became grew to be very much fashionable and ever more ornate over time.

Florence's city centre Presepio, Christmas Tree and Florence's Duomo (Cathedral) in the historic city centre

Today, the Christmas traditional of erecting a nativity scene has spread throughout all of Italy although the scenery has returned to a more biblically accurate depiction without too much finery.

In the afternoons leading up to Christmas, locals will often take an afternoon ‘passeggiata’ (stroll) through the streets to see their local Presepio.

Many flock to the Vatican where each year, as Christ states, ‘the Vatican constructs two nativity scenes for the Christmas season. The first is assembled inside the basilica of Saint Peter at the chapel of the Presentation, and the second is built in the Piazza di San Pietro in front of the obelisk.’

In Rome, the city highlights in terms of nativity scenes can be found by heading to the Spanish Steps, Scala Sancta Church, church of the Gesù and Santa Maria, Saint Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore) on the Esquiline Hill, the Roman Forum’s basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian and the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli on the Capitoline Hill.

As to Florence, the Duomo has embraced both the Presepio and Christmas tree traditions, being place side-by-side right next to the ornate face of Florence’s cathedral. A must-see sight in Florence at any time of year, at Christmas time it has an extra touch of magic*!

Beyond, the cobbled streets are hung with beautiful Christmas lights, and all the shop windows are decorated and filled with great traditional gifts … and a few wonderful fashion items too being that Florence is one of the best shopping cities around!

The church of Santa Maria Novella (just across from Florence’s central train station, Firenze Santa Maria Novella) also has a charming Presepio to visit in Florence.

The Presepio of Florence's Santa Maria Novella church

It is lovely to wander out into the streets to look at the magnificent decorations that adorn the city streets, taking time to appreciate the beauty, the history and the traditions of the ‘Bel Paese’ at this most special time of year.

To explore Florence’s city centre, we have a great Florence tour discount tour package, Florence in One Glorious Day (or 2).

Comprising the skip-the-line Uffizi Gallery tour with expert guide, our The Masterpieces of The Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour, and our skip-the-line Accademia visit -The Original David Tour.You also have our acclaimed Original Florence Walk small-group guided walking tour in Florence’s historic city centre.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but you can certainly explore its highlights in less than that with our expert guide! For Rome, we have the discounted Rome tour package, Rome in One Glorious Day (or two).

This discounted Rome tour package includes a 3.5 hour small-group walking tour of Rome and a tour offering skip-the-line Vatican entry and expertly guided tour of the Vatican.

* It must be owing to the three wise men, in Italian known as the ‘Magi’ – the plural for ‘mago’ which translates to magician.

Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze: a sneak preview of Florence’s new Opera House

italyartviva — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:19:27 +0000

Florence is a cultural hub rich in traditions of art, artistry, fashion, gastronomy, and music.

Florence is actually the birthplace of Opera, with the first opera to be performed being Jacopo Peri’s ‘Dafne’, performed in Florence in about 1597. This work has subsequently been lost, but the great musical tradition started in Florence, Italy, continues.

The Uffizi Gallery and Accademia Museum house a mighty good share of the world’s greatest art by the best artists in history. To this day, budding artists flock to Florence to turn their hand at artforms that have been near-on perfected right here in Florence’s city centre.

Some of the world’s biggest names in fashion are also here amongst Florence’s cobbled streets, interspersed amongst artisans hand-forging works of crafts including the fine jewellery, leatherworks and paper that Florence is famous for.

And it’s hard to argue (especially with your mouth full!) that Florence and Tuscany generally have not produced some of the world’s best recipes, and wines to match.

It is thus certainly fitting that Florence now has a new means of showcasing its great talent and passion for music.

Just near the great Cascine park, on the outskirts of Florence’s city centre the sleek new Opera House perches.

Paolo Desideri of Abdr Architetti Associati designed the Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze

building, whose final touches will be completed by late next year – hopefully in time for the official opening in November 2012.

5,000 people will be able to be entertained at any one time by performances being held on one of the three stages.

In Florence’s historical city centre, locals consider buildings which date back several hundred years to be ‘new’. Thus the really new Opera House in Florence is a really exciting place to visit in Florence.

The Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze has announced a marvellous sneak preview calendar of events starting this week and culminating in a spectacular spectacular on New Year’s Eve.

The calendar of events for the new Florence Opera House 2011 preview features:

21^st December, 2011 at 8.30pm: Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus performing Beethoven and Sylvano Bussotti, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

22^nd December, 2011 at 9.30pm: Jazz music selection performed by The Stefano Bollani Trio.

23^rd December, 2011 at 8.00pm: Orchestra Mozart and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus performing Brahms and Mahler, conducted by Claudio Abbado.

27^th December, 2011 at 8.30pm: Pianist András Schiff performing Bach, together with the Amici della Musica of Florence.

28^th December, 2011 at 8.30pm: Pianist Radu Lupu and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus performing Matteo D’Amico, Beethoven and Brahms, conducted by Fabio Luisi.

29^th December, 2011 at 8.30pm: MaggioDanza performs a various ballet selections, directed by Franceso Ventrigia and guest starring Alessandro Riga.

31^st December, 2011 at 9.00pm: New Year’s Eve Concert conducted by Zubin Mehta, featuring violinist Leonidas Kavakos, tenor Fabio Sartori, soprano Patrizia Ciofi and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Chorus performing works by Verdi, Beethoven, Puccini, Ravel and Rimskij-Korsakov.

There will also be several opportunities for visitors to explore the Florence’s new Opera House.

Tickets and further information available at www.maggiofiorentino.com.

Looking for great things to do in Florence? We have a wonderful range of Florence Italy Tours to choose from, as well as Rome Italy Tours, Venice Italy Tours and more.

In the Uffizi Gallery, you can see some of the most precious artworks in the world, as painted by some of the greatest artists in history. The Uffizi Gallery houses what is arguably one of the finest collections of Renaissance art. Michelangelo’s David is breathtaking and well-worth visiting too!

You can experience the Uffizi Gallery and Vasari Corridor with a wonderful tour guide on our skip-the-line guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery with our expert guide, followed by an exclusive-entry guided tour of the Vasari Corridor.

To learn more about the fascinating history of Florence, Artviva’s Original Florence Walk, a guided tour of Florence with an expert guide, includes many other must-see sights in Florence in a great small-group guided city walk tour.

Our guided small-group, skip-the-line tour of the Vatican allows you to see some great collections of precious arts as you visit the Vatican Museum with a great tour guide – and skip the line to do so.

To explore must-see sights in Rome’s amazing historical city centre such as The Coliseum, Arch of Constantine, Roman Forum, and the Trevi Fountain, we have small-group Rome guided tours with a great tour guide.

To see the sites and museums of Venice with a great tour guide, we have 4 great Venice tours added into one unique Venice tours discount package.

To explore some charming Tuscan hilltop towns that inspired many a great artist, such as Pienza or perhaps Montalcino and Montepulciano, with a private guide to accompany you, we have Tuscan private tours of Tuscany. We also have a great range of other private tours that cater to your every desire. From Florence (and Tuscany) to Rome, Venice to the Cinque Terre and beyond, we are at your beck and call.

Tuscan Winter: how the seasons change

italyartviva — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:28:19 +0000

Tuscany in December.

If you could taste the way the Tuscan countryside looks right now, it would surely taste like cinnamon.

The leaves and the birds have left the trees, abandoned nests left in full display. The countryside has evolved from its bright spring-time hues of royal purple and burning yellow of the wild flowers nestled amongst the greenest of greens, with shocks of red red poppies bursting out here and there.

At this time, the trees are full of shimmering green leaves that wave furiously in the breeze, as if they themselves were excited by the beauty of the Tuscan countryside around them.

As summer in Tuscany bears its full but delightful weight upon the land, the flowers change, there is more green and the sun is brilliant yellow during the day, but renders the Tuscan sky a lively pink in the early evening.

By the time of Tuscany autumn, all the colours turn to dark yellows, muted oranges, burnt umber. The breeze causes the drying leaves to applaud the coming of the end of season, as they cling to the branches for the final time before they let go. A shower of dried golden leaves sprinkles down onto the water that carries the leaves downstream until they collate, forming a bobbing sea of autumn.

Our dog loves running through the fallen leaves that have landed on the river bank and crackle underfoot (or rather, paw) and kick-up in the air as she runs through them.

Then, later in the season and if the weather permits, it snows. Greta, part mountain dog, loves the snow – she snaps at it, trying to catch it in her mouth as it falls! After the snow, the whole river area glows white, the trees nearly black and totally bare the only contrast. No-one else comes out here then and our lone foot prints press into the snow, circumvented by paw prints that have run joyous rings around us. The water still runs slowly as it does not get cold enough here to freeze the water up, although the puddles do solidify. If you stand on them, they squeak under the pressure as the air squeezes out between the fine rim between the ice and the muddied dirt track that lies below the snow.

But for now, the colours are muted. The sky is less blue, its whited hues bright in the day, and early to darken. In the early morning, when these photos were taken, the sun struggled to rise from behind a blanket of white sky. But as the morning in Tuscany went on, the sun slowly but surely emerged to present a lovely pale blue sky above.

At this time of year in Tuscany, the air is clear and fresh, the trees bare, the birds have all relocated to their summer properties. It is a time of rest for the vegetation, for the animals and the Tuscan countryside itself. And for us, it is a time to enjoy the great food that the cooler weather permits, the slow-cooked meals whose perfumes teasingly intensify over the hours they take to cook, the baked desserts that make the house smell sweet for days on end.

Dinner parties are no longer hosted on balconies but move to the rooms with fireplaces, where grills are set up to cook meat over crackling fires, served after slices of baked pasta dishes or slow-cooked soups and stews.

VINEGAR: simple recipes, simple pleasures

italyartviva — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:49:06 +0000

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar is aged in barrels to create an intense and wonderful flavour.

As with all great things in life (namely, wine and women) vinegar just keeps getting better with age.

We’ve been cooking lots of traditional Italian recipes using vinegar of late, after being recently given a mother of red wine vinegar, to be used to create our very own red wine vinegar at home.

Once you have the mother, you just need to add in a dash of great-quality wine on a semi-regular basis, seal the bottle and let it ferment.

The best news of all is that as with all recipes with wine, the greater the wine used, the better the results – meaning we are practically forced to open up great wine on a semi-regular basis to keep our vinegar mother happy (along with several other members of the household too!).

Vinegar is an ever-present essential pantry ingredient in Tuscany.

Red wine vinegar can be used to sprinkle over just-picked lettuce leaves that have grown in terracotta pots on our balcony, or drizzled over cooked vegetables, and over slices of tomato just-picked from the garden (or bought at the local market at least) is just amazing.

(The cheaper stuff is even added to hot water to clean the pavement, bathroom, and even drinking glasses for a great eco-friendly household cleaner! Note, it is best to use white wine vinegar so as not to stain porous surfaces, lovely as red wine colouring can be.)

Vinegars are also made exclusively with Chianti wines for a great flavour.

However, it is Traditional Balsamic Vinegar or, aceto balsamico tradizionale, which is arguably the best-known vinegar around.

Balsamic vinegar hails from Modena, and is classified as an I.G.P. product. There is a minimum ageing period of 12 years for traditional balsamic vinegar but the most precious varieties can be decades old.

One of Italy’s much-loved and much-used ‘vinegars’, it is produced cooking down liquid from the Trebbiano grapes rather than in the traditional vinegar production method. This causes a must to form and fermentation follows. The vinegar is then stored in large wooden barrels for ageing, just like wine.

It is then used in a range of dishes from starters, mains, side and right through even to dessert.

Crema all Aceto Balsamico d’Modena IGP is a thick, syrupy vinegar product that is simple to use, and gives delicious results. We don’t suggest this list as a menu for one single meal, because you really can have too much of even a really great thing! Below we’ve listed some wonderful traditional recipes with balsamic vinegar and balsamic vinegar cream, often found on Tuscan menus.

For the most simple starter on the planet, and possibly even in the entire universe, take some great Parmesan cheese (which should be broken into bite-sized pieces and never cut or it is said you will ‘bruise’ it), then sprinkle with the vinegar cream and serve.

To make a delicious cream of balsamic vinegar risotto, melt 70 grams of butter into a heavy-bottomed pan. Throw in a finely-chopped onion and let it cook (careful it doesn’t burn) until soft. You’ll also need to add in one or two bay leaves (in Italian, ‘Alloro’ – it is often used as a hedge plant so very easy to find in when out walking Tuscany or traipsing through Tuscan villa estates as we are lucky to do on a regular basis!). While you’re at it, throw in a pinch of freshly-chopped rosemary.

Next, you’ll need 400 grams of risotto rice (such as alborio). Stir, letting the rice toast a little in the pan before ladling in about 2 cups of hot vegetable stock (homemade is always best!). Let the stock start to simmer before you add in about half a litre of strong red wine such as Cabernet or Barolo. Let the wine evaporate, careful the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Once the rice is nearly cooked, add in a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese, mix through and let it cook a moment. Lastly, stir in some Crema all Aceto Balsamico d’Modena and serve!

For a simple but delicious main meal, take top-quality beef fillets, lightly sear on each side so it is still quite rare in the centre. Finely slice and serve with a scattering of grated parmesan and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar cream atop.

As a side dish, drizzle traditional balsamic vinegar or the cream over steamed or grilled vegetables, and finally for dessert, strawberries lightly dotted with balsamic vinegar cream would be worth dying for if you weren’t so desperate to live on to eat them again another time!