Savoring Tuscany
Meet your Instructor/Hostess
&
author of
Zucchini Blossoms
A Culinary Memoir & Recipes from Tuscany
&
Fresh Sage
Italian Recipes & Cooking Guide for Two
available on Amazon
Cindy Harding Nannarelli
How I got here...
Being of Italian ancestory, I wanted nothing more than to be able to 'get in touch with my roots' during my first trip to Italy in the summer of 1978. What I didn't expect was to fall in love, not only with one of the world's most enchanting cities, but with a Florentine! Thus, after a year of snail mail and lengthly long-distance telephone calls, I decided to return to my man and his magical city.
My short term plan was to study my grandparents' native language (at the time I wrote CIAO - CHOW), and dabble in the art of Tuscan cooking. Having grown up with a stay at home American/Italian mother, the passion for preparing good food was always a priority in our house. My hope was to stay in Florence for at least six months. But somehow the time just slipped through my fingers like egg whites. At the end of six month, it seemed as if I had only had an appetizer. I wanted the whole meal! So, here I am, some thirty-five years later, still dabbling!
photo by Gugliermo Bottai
My first twelve years of Italian life were spent in an 18th century farmhouse in Tuscany’s Chianti wine region. It was there, thanks to the mothers and grandmothers of the countryside who took me under their 'culinary' wings, that I developed my insatiable passion for this region’s simple yet exquisitely fresh cuisine. I planted a garden, collected warm eggs alongside the nearby tenant farmer's wife, picked grapes and olives, made homemade jam from figs growing on the tree shading our cobblestone patio... and more. Those twelve years in the countryside were amazingly enlightening.
Then, in 1992, after purchasing and renovating a small property within the walls of a nearby fortress town, we (my Florentine boyfriend now turned husband), together with our two young sons, left our rented farmhouse for life in the village. The next four years were spent soaking up Tuscan hamlet life. Between teaching English at a local grammar school and carting my boys here and there, I loved to mingle with the locals. And they loved sharing their recipes and stories with me. Before long, I, too, became a local.
Then, after sixteen years of country and hamlet living, together with my family, I made one last move. Though hesitant as I was to give up the simplicity of rural Tuscan life, I knew my husband had always longed to return to his beloved city. Besides, I knew we could still enjoy weekends in our cozy hamlet retreat. Something we do regularly, when rental guests are not mingling with the locals and soaking up the pleasures of simple village life as I once did.
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Note: for guests staying in our hamlet property, in-house culinary workshops can also be arranged in the flat's well-appointed kitchen.
