Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany [Paperback]

Carla Capalbo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

Fertile, sun-baked Tuscany is world-renowned for its food and wine, but it is not always easy for travelers to track down its best traditional restaurants and authentic regional products. The Food Lovers' Companion to Tuscany is a complete insider's handbook that will lead you to hundreds of gastronomic delights, including family-run wineries and trattorias; the finest artisan food makers; village markets offering fresh local produce; out-of-the-way shops stocked with exquisite cheeses and hand-pressed olive oils; and best-bet wine bars and gelaterie.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Would-be travelers' dreams of Tuscany are permeated with visions of salame, bruschetta, gelato, and robust red wine. Gourmands with a taste for the cuisine of Northern Italy may have installed drool buckets by their beds as the Italian departure date nears, but getting their hands on those fabled comestibles once en route is not as easy uno, due, tre. What you want are those family-run trattorias and wineries, those village markets heaped with fresh local produce, those hard-to-find shops laden with delectably smelly cheeses and hand-pressed olive oils. Well, Carla Capalbo's Food Lover's Companion to Tuscany is reason for to rejoice for traveling Tuscan tasters.

After two years traversing Tuscany, testing trattorias, noting markets and festivals, Capalbo has put together a loving tribute to the food of Tuscany. Going region by region, the guide takes you from Lucca and the Garfagnana through Florence, Pisa, and the Island of Elba. It visits Mount Abetone, Livorno and its coast, Chianti Classico and its wines, Seina, Mount Amiata, and the hills and valleys of Arezzo. There's an appendix with Tuscan market days listed town by town, a glossary, an index of wines, and another of wine grape varietals.

A quick flip reveals a Florentine shop specializing in chocolates (available September through May only, alas), the Mansi Bernardini estate with its fine Luccan olive oils, and Signora Renata Ginestri, baker of some of Tuscany's best breads. There's Da Antonio (a fine fish restaurant in the heart of Chianti), Tenuta Fontodi (the excellent and handsome vineyard outside Panzano), and Caseificio Cooperativa Val D'Orcia (a cheese cooperative in the hills of Contignano specializing in Pienza-style pecorini). Perusing is addictive. Just don't read the book when you're hungry. --Stephanie Gold

Review

Going to Tuscany? Don't leave without Carla Capalbo's 'The Food Lover's Guide to Tuscany,' a 383-page paperback crammed with essential and fascinating information, not only on foods, but on restaurants, food markets, and festivals, artisan shops, and olive oil and wine producers. A chapter is devoted to each of the thirteen distinct sub-regions of Tuscany for which road maps, intended to help you plan your trip, are provided. Within each chapter Ms Capalbo lists important cities and towns and their outstanding offerings, be it a restaurant, a wine factory, a cheese shop, or a store in which to buy 'table crafts.' Sidebars discuss native foods, such as Tuscany's famous beans, fagioli de Sorana. An appendix lists market days for every town, and a glossary of Italian terms will help you talk your way through the region, whether ordering from Italian menus or trying to puzzle out labels on packaged foods or kitchen products. The beauty of Tuscany is nicely suggested in the author's brief introductions to each region. -- Cookbook Digest

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081181209X
• ISBN-13: 978-0811812092
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,555,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Culinary detours well worth the effort!, December 15, 1999

By 

loves2cook (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany (Paperback)

Having recently enjoyed eight days in Tuscany, quite a bit of it spent chasing after memorable experiences described in this book, I highly recommend it to other food-driven adventurers. It's a bit heavy to tote about (as were the copper pizza pans from the shop in Lucca it led me right to); but we never left a hotel room without it. The layout (for first time visitors) requires a fair bit of cross-referencing until you get the knack of matching towns, descriptions and maps in the book to more detailed roadmaps that you will find to be an essential extra. There are so many worthwhile destinations in such close proximity to each other that it's impossible to see as much as you would wish. But that said, there's not a chance I would otherwise have found Dai Dai frozen desserts, savoured the unusual taste of lardo di Colonnata (or survived the nerve jangling drive there!), nor experienced the simple 'grand tour' pleasure of snacking on a truffle sandwich in such quiet elegance in Florence. My copy of this book, bought almost as an afterthought, just before leaving home, is thoroughly dog-earred and annotated throughout with huge exclamation marks and wistful 'next time's.' Not one comment lead us astray, although we managed to take a few unexpected detours. I only envy the author the obvious time she spent in completing her research.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for travel in Tuscany, August 3, 2000

By 

Margaret R. Wilson (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany (Paperback)

This is an essential book for Tuscany travel. Not only are the reviews of restaurants wonderful (and VERY accurate) but all the extra places that are recommended - a wonderful beekeeper in San Gimignano, delightful ceramic shops, a place to buy fresh pasta in Lucca (for both man and dog!), farmers markets, out-of-the-way restaurants in busy "touristy" places like Pisa and Florence; we never left home without it. We found it particularly helpful that directions to locate the place described were provided -- very important when traveling in unfamiliar areas. Although it can be bulky to carry, it's worth it. (I would often copy on to a piece of paper all the things I wanted to see and do in one city and leave the book in the car.) One of the best books we took on our trip - I was absolutely lost when we headed from Tuscany for Liguria!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, October 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany (Paperback)

This was the book we used the most in Tuscany. The book provides excellent recommendations on restaurants, wineries, markets, cermamics shops and food shops. It helped make our vacation in Tuscany wonderful.