It is difficult to avoid a torrent of superlatives in appraising Tuscany and her contribution to the culture and beauty of this world. The list of her famous sons is even now electrifying, centuries after they were horn. How much richer is mankind for the genius of Dante, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to consider only the pinnacle of human achievement. They all belonged to Tuscany, as did Galileo, the mathematician, Boccaccio, the father of Italian prose-and the racy yarn, and Machiavelli, the unscrupulous statesman whose name has become a synonym for sly plotting and malevolent schemes.
Tuscan painters and sculptors have no peers in the realm of art. From Giotto, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, the della Rohbias and Donatello to the boastful Benvenuto Cellini, the majesty of Florentine genius remains unrivaled, and puts the earthy, camera-toting twentieth-century traveler in a mood of awe and wonder. Confronted with such splendors of the past, the mere needs of the present seem insignificant. How does one dare think of food? Why not live on ambrosia and a still life in the Pitti Palace?
Today's very finite visitor, however, is obliged to come down to earth every few hours, if only because his rebellious feet remind him that he can look at pictures in the Uffizi Gallery just so long, and no longer. The normal desire to sit down and relax must have its turn. Only because such mundane phenomena as thirst and hunger unfailingly assert themselves do we come to the relatively minor art of Tuscan food. True to Tuscan supremacy, it is probably the noblest in Italy. And if this art failed to produce culinary geniuses on the lofty plane of a Dante or a da Vinci, it has the distinction of being the most ancient in Europe. It dates from Etruscan times, a full millennium before the Christian era.
This is admittedly a remote boast. Florentine gastronomy can claim another honor which comes right down to the present: It was the forerunner of French cuisine as we know it today. It was Catherine de' Medici, a Florentine name deeply etched in French history, who started a new era of French cooking. When she became the wife of Henry II and Queen of France, she brought her own Italian cooks with her. Their new culinary techniques, their sauces and their sweets, revolutionized court dinners and launched a wonderful new trend. French ingenuity has done the rest down through the ensuing centuries.
Tuscany, whose name is derived from its ancient Etruscan origin, is one of the larger Italian regions, containing ten smaller provinces. It has a long coast line along the Mediterranean, and includes the Isle of Elba, made famous by Napoleon's enforced stay. Aside from the flat valley of the Amo, most of Tuscany is either hilly or mount a if urns. The higher stretches of the Apennines can be grim, as veterans of the Fifth Army who spent the winter on Futa Pass can tell you. But most of this region is picture-book stuff-bills carpeted with olive trees and umbrella pines and crowned with regiments of solemn cypresses, villas with wide roofs and formal gardens, fortified hill towns, remort monasteries. Its scacoast is seductive to the vacationist, particularly in the region of Viareggio. But its cities, in the long run, exert the strongest appeal upon travelers. Florence, Pisa, Siena. Lucca, Pistoia, Arezzo-these and a dozen smaller cities have for centuries fascinated visitors, especially the Anglo Saxons. Some of these have been famous-Lord Byron, Keats and Shelley, for example. Robert and Elizabeth Browning could nor be separated from Florence, once they came to know it. Many another English expatriate feels the same way. coming there for a week and remaining a lifetime.
The charm of Tuscan speech and manners has much to do with the popularity of this district. There are laughter and animation and industry here, and, if there is less singing of operatic arias in the local streets than in Naples, the penpie are unfailingly gay and gracious. This is a stronghold of Italian arts and crafts, and few places produce as many interesting things to buy for your friends back home. The shops have an intoxicating effect upon the wide-eyed visitor, and especially upon his wife. What skilled Florentine workmen can do with leather, silver, gold, precious and semiprecious stones, colored marble and silk, is almost beyond belief.
The keynote of Tuscan gastronomy is furnished by the fertile hillsides, tapestried with the good things of life: olive trees, vineyards, green gardens, and pastures dinted with plump young cattle. The ancient culinary maxim that the best dishes are often the simplest couldn't claim better proof than in Tuscany. Taking advantage of the excellence of his own meats, vegetables, fruit, oil, and the soul-warming wines of Tuscany, the famous Chiauti, the good Tuscan chef presents them with simplicity and good taste-and a minimum of manipulation. There are a few succulent specialties, however, especially in the field of pastry, where the city of Siena has produced delicacies prized all over Italy.
The most celebrated meat dish of Tuscany is bistecca alla fiorenlina: a junior size steak broiled only with olive oil, salt and pepper, and served with a quarter of lemon. It is good young Tuscan beef, somewhat sophomoric in comparison to the ponderous steer one encounters in Midwest county fairs. A Florentine beefsteak falls somewhere between a porterhouse and a veal chop, but is much closer to the latter.
The Florentine variant of the famous Italian dish fritto misto contains sweet breads, calf's brains, sliced artichoke, zucchini and small cutlets of lamb, all dipped in flour and beaten egg, and deep-fried in Tuscan olive oil. Fragrant and surprisingly light, this dish goes well with a cool white Chianti. Some restaurants add a few sweet fruit fritters-apple, apricot or orange-thus obviating the need for a dessert course.
Enthusiasts of tripe-an excellent but unloved-by-many dish-will find that young Italian tripe needs less aromatic disguise than tripe d la mode de Caen. Trippa alia fiorenlina is thinly sliced, cooked lung hours in a casserole with meat gravy and tomato. Usually it is served with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and with white Tuscan beans.
Wild hare with a sweet and sour sauce is an autumnal allegory in Tuscany. The strong flavor of the hare is balanced by a brilliant sauce made with the pan juices and vinegar (this on the sour side), and a combination of sugar, Smyrna raisins, pine nuts, chocolate, and candied fruits on the sweet side. The combination must sound appalling to some ears, and it has to be tasted to be appreciated. It doesn't call for a distinguished wine, however! This specialty is best known in Grosseto, a large city in the southern part of Tuscany.
Lepre Dolce-Portc
Skin, clean, and cut a wild hare into serving pieces and put the pieces in an earthenware terrine or casserole. Bring 2 cups red wine almost to a boil with ½ onion, chopped, 2 cloves. 1 table. spoon chopped parsley, 1 bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, and a few peppercorns. Cool, pour this marinade over the hare, and let the hare marinate for 6 hours.
In a saucepan saute 1 onion and A slices of fat bacon, both chopped, until the onion is golden and the bacon is crisp. Dry the pieces of hare, roll them in flour, and sauté them in the bacon fat until lightly browned on all sides. Strain the marinade over the hare, bring to a boil, and cook until the liquid is reduced to half. Add about 2 cups hot chicken stock, or enough to barely cover the pieces of hare, cover the saucepan, and simmer for I hour.
In a small heavy saucepan heat 2 tablespoons sugar with a few drops of water until it begins to caramelize. Stir in ½ cup vinegar and add this to the sauce with 1 tablespoon each of chopped candied fruits and finely chopped bitter chocolate, and 2 tablespoons each of raisins and pine nuts. Simmer for about 5 minutes longer.
Firm Florentine favorites which you will see in most rotisseries in the less luxurious streets of the city are uccelletti. These arc little lavender-brown birds. usually larks, well plucked. With their heads still on, a dozen or more of them are strung neatly on a skewer, with a small slice of crusty bread, cut on the bias, and a leaf of laurel between each. They arc roasted on a revolving spit over charcoal, and are absolutely delicious to anyone who doesn't belong to the Audubon Society. Sausages and other selected fragments of the pig are harpooned between crusts and similarly served to munching Florentines. One variety is culled fegatelli di maiale all'uccelletti, and makes a good democratic noontime stuck for the more adventurous gastronome.
Another delightful dish, light, original and satisfying, and a true Tuscan specialty is tortino di carciofi. It is a sort of artichoke omelet, if you wish. but the cooking procedure is original. Small tender artichokes, sometimes precooked but more often not, are cut in thin vertical slices and sautéed in oil in a small two-handled pan. When the slices arc cooked, two eggs are beaten and added to the pan and stirred. The omelet is rushed hot to your table. Any good Florentine restaurant can turn out this dish with dispatch. Chefs use the same procedure with eggplant and the pale lavender truffle from Piedmont.
Needless to say, plenty of fish are pulled in from Tuseany's coastal waters, and from the Adriatic not far away. One of the regions most individual fish dishes is cacciuccao, a fish soup par excellence. A miscellany of Mediterranean fish is cooked in a broth based on an abundance of onions amplified with tomatoes, garlic, and a good spot of red wine. This dish is the gastronomicglory of Livorno, or Leghorn, and may sometime be integrated into the folklore of American cooking.
Caccincco Leghorn
In a soup kettle saute 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 tiny red pepper, and 3 onions, chopped, in ¾ cup olive oil until the onions are delicately colored. Add ¾ pound of shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped, and ¾ pound of squid, skinned, cleaned, and cut into small pieces. Cover, and cook over a low flame for 30 minutes, or until the squid is tender. Add ¾ cup dry red wine and cook until the wine is reduced to one-quarter the original amount. Add 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 6 cups water, and salt to taste and cook for 5 minutes. Add I ½ pounds of cod filets and ¾ pound eath of scallops and halibut, all cur into small pieces, and cook for 15 minutes longer. Place a slice of Italian broad, toasted and rubbed with a cut clove of garlic. in each serving dish and pour the soup over it.
It is fitting that the Florentines, the Bostonians of the Italian peninsula, shall we say, should be inordinately fond of beans. Let other Italians call the beans. with a hint of disdain, mangiafagiali, the citizens of Florence remain faithful to their white beans, which closely resemble the French soissotts. They serve these beans in soup, or with rice, lentils or game. A wild boar wouldn't be accepted without them. The best known manner of preparing them is
Fagioli allUcclletto
Wash ¾ pound of white beans and put them in a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon powdered sage, 2 cloves of garlic, 4 cups water, and 1 large tomato, peeled and chopped. Cover the saucepan and cook the beans over a low flame for about 3 hours, or until tender. Just before serving add salt and pepper to taste and 2 tablespoons olive oil.
The famous sweets of Siena are known far beyond the boundaries of Tuscany. Cavalhicci are rounded little cakes about two inches across, quite firm and crisp on the outside, but they melt in your mouth. Not too sweet, they arc liberally nuggeted with walnuts and carry a haunting, faint aroma of anis.
Cavallucci di Siena
In a bowl combine 2 ½ cups flour, ¼ cup finely chopped candied orange peel, I tablespoon powdered anise seeds, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ cup chopped walnuts.
In a saucepan dissolve I ½ cups sugar in 1/3 cup water, bring to a boil. and cook until the syrup forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into cold water. Add the flour and nut mixture, remove the saucepan from the fire, and stir vigorously until well mixed, Pour the thick paste on a slightly floured board to cool a little, When the paste is cool enough to handle knead it thoroughly and roll it out 1/3 inch thick. Cut the paste into cakes about 2 inches in diameter and bake them on a buttered and floured' baking sheet in a very slow oven (250° F.) for about 30 minutes so that the “little horses” can dry without becoming brown.
Sweeter, softer, flatter, diamondshaped and delicious are ricciarelli, A cousin to a macaroon, perhaps, but lighter in color and dusted with powdered sugar. They sit on thin rice wafers and arc packed and shipped all over Italy.
Ricciarelli di Siena
Blanch and remove the skins from ½ pound of almonds and put them in a warm oven to dry. but not take on color. Set aside 2 ounces of the almonds and pound the remaining 6 ounces in a mortar, adding ¾ cup sugar little by little. Rub the paste through a fine sieve and work in ¼ cup sifted confectioners' sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Mix 2 egg whites to a froth with a fork and add them gradually to the almond and sugar mixture, beating thoroughly after each addition until the mixture is the right consistency to be molded in the hands. Do not add all of the egg whites unless necessary.
Shape the paste into small ovals about ¼ inch thick and place each on a diamond of wafer or rice-paper on a baking sheet. Let the paste stand for several hours or overnight, then dry the ricciarelli in a very slow oven (250° F.), being very careful not to let them color. Cool on a cake rack and sprinkle generously with confectioners' supgar.
The most famous of Tuscan sweets, and rightly so, is panforte. This is composed mostly of whole tender almonds held together with a spicy binding containing lemon and citron peel. Sugar and the perfume of oranges, cinnamon and anonymous spices.
Panforte di Siena
Combine ¼ pound of almonds, blanched. ¼ pound of hazelnuts, lightly toasted, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ¼ reaspon allspice, ½ cup flour, and ¾ cup each of finely cut candied orange peel, citron, and lemon peel. In a large saucepan combine ¾ cup each of honey and sugar, bring to a boil, and simmer until a little of the syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball. Add the fruit and nut mixture, and mix well.
Turn the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan lined with buttered paper and bake in a slow oven (300° F.) for 30 minutes. Remove the bottom from the pan, and cool the cake before removing the pan sides. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
This gastronomic tour of Tuscany can touch only a few highlights within its limited space, and we are conscious of some omissions. Viareggio. for example, is known to have one or two fine summer restaurants along its radiant shore. Most of the small towns, however, offer small choice, and it is in the larger cities that the prospector for epicurean nuggets must plant his fork. Foremost among them, of course, is
FLORENCE
After that morning in the art galleries and the leather shops, with the first pleasant pangs of hunger just asserting themselves, what a relief to come to a cafe table and a cool aperitif! Where to have a good luncheon? Sitting in the large Piazza della Repubhlica. which was formerly named after Victor Emmanuel, as your aged Baedeker will show, the predicament is a pleasant one, and nor hard to solve. For those who don't cotton to sweetish Italian aperitvi and seek something quieter, by the way, the GRAND HOTEL has recently opened a perfectly charming bar-as svish and handsomely decorated a spot as you will find anywhere. And the Martini cocktails are up to the best standards.
Florence is a city of a quarter of a million and more, filled with hotels and pensiones and a corresponding wealth of dining places. This city is a little like Lyon-it would be difficult to sit down to a really poor meal. If you simply adore your fellow tourist and want to go just where he or she does, DONEY'S at 57 Via Tornabuoni or NATALH. facing the Arno at 80 Longarno Acciaioli, will bring the sweet music of American speech to your ears, accompanied by perfectly good food and service. There is a most agreeable outdoor place, LA LOGGIA. on the Piazza Michelangelo high above the city, where one can sit in the garden in summer and enjoy the skyline of Florence It is the captive of the tourist also. Mind you, we don't decry the great American tourist, being precisely that ourselves. Bur you may share our belief that the most obvious places arc not always the answer to a gourmet's prayer.
There is another category of Florentine restaurant which exerts a picturesque appeal and attracts visitors in droves. These are the buche, the “holes in the ground, '' vaulted cellars with a somewhat contrived atmosphere and decor. The BUCA LAPI, in the cellar of the Palazzo Amnion, and the BJCA SAN RUFFILLO near the Duomo arc the best in this category. The lights are soft, the food is good and there is always music at some time of the evening. With a bevy of school girls on my hands (and if bus happened) I would Choose one of these without question.
When the gentle art of gastronomy is uppermost. however, we would suggest a different selection. which follows. It doesn't sparkle with originality. All of these ristoranti are familiar to Florentines, and each has its quota of foreigners. Hut the names represent a few weeks of poking about, and you might like to jot them down in your little black book-or do people carry those anymore?
SABATINI GlNO-IIr Via Panzani: The Via Panzani is an unexceptional street whose tranquillity is troubled by a Toonerville-type tramway, but it happens to have-a special meaning for gourmets. Two unassailable shrines of good food are here, and their names arc worth remembering-Sabatini and Baldini. We will stick our necks out and state that there is none better than Sabatini in Tuscany. As proof, we would not submit the menu first, but the clientele, many of them single gentlemen, Solitary and content at their individual tables. There you will find goateed professors, plum-faced industrialists with rosy complexions, aesthetic, thin-faced men in yellow sweaters and riding boots who live in outlying villas. All of them are serene, munching their bread sticks (grissini) and tipping their Chianti fiasco from its silver cradle. They smile benignly over their coffee and pay slight attention to the conto.
Sabatini is a prime favorite with the better-upholstered Florentines and it is not always easy to get a table. The answer: get there before twelve-thirty and you're in. As for the menu-it glitters! There is a noble silver chariot loaded with antipasti if that is your mood, or a different pasta specially every dayfirst agnelatti (a half-moon type of ravioli with scalloped edges), then foricllhii (small stuffed rings of pasta with a meat and tomato sauce), then green lasagne. then cannelloni and so on down through the week. For the piece de ré sistance Sabatini offers so many good things that we're speechless. One of the best is petti di pollo al burro con irifold frescba, chicken breasts sautéed in butler, then covered with a stuffing of rice, mushrooms and ham and masked with a delicate sauce, then sprinkled liberally with paper-thin slices of lavender truffle. They leave a fragment of bone on each chicken breast, so that the client won't think it is a veal cutlet. That gives you an idea of the tenderness of Tuscan veal! Or maybe, come to think of it, the toughness of Tuscan chicken. At all events, it is delightful. Besides the usual cheese and fruit, you will find an extraordinary dessert here, Saini Honoré alla panna. If I'm ever caught using the word “yummy.” it will be in describing this voluptuous pastry! The wine list is filled with good things, but most guests seem happy with the palatable and inexpensive Chianti of the house served in carafes. A trilingual maitrc d'hôtel in a pin-stripe suit handles the linguistic problem well, the service is able and the prices fair. Sabatini is worth a wide detour, but if you are near the Duomo or the Church of Santa Maria Novello. it won't be necessary. It's between the two.
BALDINI-57r Via Panzani; A few steps down the street, and quite unostentatious behind its narrow doorway, is another praiseworthy place. Baldini is located in a long, high-ceilinged room with a half-hearted tapestry as its principal decoration. Nobody wastes time admiring the decor or listening to soulful singers here. Baldini is all for fine food, and its standards are high. We like its simple dishes in particular, and jotted down a very satisfying luncheon; fettucine alla bologncse, followed by tortino di carciofi, that light and fragrant Tuscan dish described a few paragraphs back, then a green salad, a beautiful full-ripe persimmon and caff'd aspresso. Nothing pretentious in such a menu, but our neighbors were indulging in a bécasse flumbée which was unmistakably the product of the higher realms of cooking. Baldini's waiters are cheerful and they struggle along fairly well in English.
OLIVIERO-18r Via Tosinghi: This is far more intime than most Florentine restaurants, and quite reminiscent of Paris, with a faint touch of Fifty-second Streel thrown in. The rooms are small, with banquettes against the wall and, if the atmosphere achieves a faint horsiness, it is due to a series of fine colored aquatints of English race horses which are the only decoration. The clientele is very discriminating and well-dressed. We have Counted three monocles there. at various times. We have also encountered a sad-faced and persistent little man who demonstrates mechanical animals at your table. There is a place for this, of course, but not in a good restaurant. Or am I becoming a fussy old fuddyduddy? I don't like having a mechanical bear clap his silly cymbals at my table!
All of this has nothing to do with the quality of Oliviero's cuisine, which is very good indeed. The menu is a rich one, and the prices a little higher than usual. Our large sogliola frilla was equal to a fine sole from the English Channel, and the aniinellc di vilelh al Madera were very tender and well-seasoned sweetbreads. We asked for a good Tuscan wine for the sweetbreads and enjoyed a delicious Serristori Chianti 1949-a name and a year worth remembering. Oliviero is right near the center of Florence and that cafe table we spoke about in the Piazza della Repubblica. If you heed its siren call, you won't be disappointed.
PAOLI -12 Via dei Tuvolini: This is one of the oldest restaurants in Florence, and certainly one of the most agreeable. Its rooms are vaulted and arched, dressed up with frescoes and escutcheons, but the colors are muted and the effect is restful. Paoli has an unostentatious entrance on a little side street near the Piazza della Signuria. If you have emerged footsore and ravenous front the Uffizi Gallery, this is unquestionably the nearest haven of good food. We like Paoli partly on account of its proprietor, a genial white-haired man of the old school. He is alert and cordial, speaks good French and English, and is genuinely interested in the contentment of his guests. This is one of the best places to come for authentic Tuscan specialties. They cur your Florentine bisivcca at the front counter here. weigh it, and charge you by the weight only. Countless Americans will back up the statement that this is one of the more restful places in Florence.
PONTE VECCHIO-64 Via dei Bardi: When the Germans were forced out of Florence in 1944. they blew up all the bridges across the Arno except one -the famous, shop-crammed Ponte Vecchio. To block access to this spared bridge, they demolished all streets approaching it. It has taken the Italians years to repair this overnight folly, and the job is by no means finished.
In one of the rebuilt structures jutting over the Arno is a new restaurant which you will probably enjoy. It is named after the old bridge, and the view of the river from its terrace is worth the cover charge alone. As we write, the two upper stories of the building aren't even finished, but the ground floor hums with activity. Coming in, you have a view of the wellscrubbed kitchen, and there is a choice of panoramic tables-for the early comers, that is. Service and wine are good here, and the cooking, which leans toward the rich Bolognese tradition, is very palatable. Our carnivorous sense had been sharpened by a morning of viewing the more comestible Rubens nudes at the Pitti Palace, and our appetite was keen as we confronted the tagliatelle frctchc alla bologntse. They were impeccable! For festive diners-out there is music and dancing at the Pome Vecchio, and one can obtain a meal there at almost any hour.
TRATTORIA SO.STANZA-25 Via del Porcellana: That democratic institution, the trattoria, enters into the life of almost every visitor who stays in Florence for more than a few days. A fundamental difference between a ristorantc (where 'he waiters are leisurely and wear white coats, the menus arc typewritten and the tables individual) and the trattoria is that in the latter the waiters are in short sleeves and hurried to the point of hysteria, the menus are scrawled in pencil and the public rubs elbows at the same cable in a spirit of camaraderie, or better. The prices in a trattori are sure to be lower, but the food is often better, “litis explains their extraordinary popularity. Believe it or nor, there is a TRATTORIA DI BING CROSBY in Florence. Our favorite, Sosranza, is on a little side street near the luxurious Excclsior and Grand Hotels. It is small, consisting of a bar where they sell wine and bread to passing housewives as a side line, and an ice-box stocked with good Tuscan meat. Beyond this is a longish room closely packed with tables for six or more, and a small kitchen with a charcoal grill blazing away and fragrant kettles simmering in the shadows.
Two waiters handle all of the customers, and they arc in a frantic hurry most of the time. When Mario, the more flighty of the two. reaches a truly dizzy pace, the customers call him Mcrcurio, and Mercury's outstretched pose is what he assumes most of the time. To judge by the gallery of post cards in the bar, Sostanza has friends all over the world, especially in America. Departed guests send him views of skyscrapers, and nostalgic sentiments. Their nostalgia is not surprising. The pasta is tender, the sauces are rich. Steaks, chops and chicken sizzle forth from that grill, and they are wonderful. Mario throws it at you, but what of that? A perfect bistveca all Fiorentina, the size of a second baseman's mitt, arrives at your table for just over a dollar. Everyone drinks wine in a carafe, everyone is friendly, but the conversational pitch is low. We recommend Sostanza for the lustier type of gourmet, and for friendly and gregarious people. It isn't necessary to speak Italian either: Mario is working hard on his English!
TRATTORIA CAMILLO - 57r Borgo San Jacopo: This is a somewhat larger trattoria, with a high, vaulted ceiling and a little annex for the overflow of guests who inevitably appear. It is located on a little side street close to the south bank of the Arno. This is a family affair, carefully watched by mother and father Camillo, with white-haired uncle reigning in the kitchen and an indeterminate number of younger Camillos waiting on table and tending bar. Its food and atmosphere are the pure essence of Italy, and most commendable. We liked the husky young waiters, immaculate in their white shirt sleeves and aprons, energetic and polite. A more friendly place would be hard to find in Florence.
SIENA
T'his ancient hill town has a cordial motto: “Siena opens its heart to you even wider than its doors.” Fretful motorists wish there were some way of opening up its streets, too. Few medieval cities are as hopelessly corked up with traffic This magnificent site is dominated by two structures, the striped Duomo and the immense tower of the town hall. I'm heathen enough to think that the multicolored marble façade is vulgar and not beautiful at all. The tower is better, and the interior, of course, is matchless.
One of the most famous public squares anywhere is II Gimpn, the huge, sloping. shell-shaped piazza where the roughest, most picturesque and bizarre of all horse races is held twice each summer. This is the celebrated palio. as colorful and overcrowded a gladiatorial pageant as you'll ever encounter. Jockeys wear medieval costumes and whip their competitors' horses as well as their own. A fine point-a horse can win if he comes in first, even without a jockey. For those two days II Gimpo becomes the most turbulent spot in Italy, but usually the square is quiet, except for a few shouting chestnut vendors. The shadow of the immense campanile of the Mangia, or town palace, swings slowly around the piazza, precisely like a sundial. The time of day can be gauged by the building on which its shadow falls.
AL MANGIA-Squarely in the middle of the north side of II Campo is a restaurant with an absolutely unbeatable location. Its name is Al Mangia, and its tables are stretched out under awnings and umbrellas in a most inviting fashion. Inevitably it is “touristy,” but the food is above the Sienese average. We asked for the specialties of the house, and received a plate of tortelli alla Mangia, oversized ravioli stuffed with nutmeg-scented spinach, then a veal cutlet with a faintly sharp sauce, subtly seasoned with herbs, and a chocolate cake Sicncsc style, heavily sodden with kifscli - magnificently fattening. and a caffd espresso, and called it a lunch -which it certainly was. Wc have fainter praise for the service.
TRATTORIA TULLIO-1 Via Provenzano: This is probably the mosi satisfying dining place in Siena, outside of the large hotels. It is on ft little side street on the eastern slope of the city. but is not hard to find, since discreet signs point the way. It doesn't have any view to boast of, so it might be a better choice for the evening meal. The first thing you sec is the kitchen, smack on the screei corner and open to all gazers behind its plate-glass windows. Sure enough, it's spotless. The proprietor looks very much like the vice-president of an American steel company, except that the stripes in his doublc-breasicd suit are a bit blatant, and pointed up with saffron yellow. The clientele is dignified and welldressed, most of them jovial bnn viHants. We began with a tempting cannelloni and bad nothing bin praise for it and the parade of good things which followed.
Tullio has bad all sorts of celebrities in bis place, and has extracted a photograph from most of them. Many are cinema stars who have, for good reasons, adorned Italy temporarily-Tyrone Power, Lauren Bacall, Deborah Kerr, Myrna Loy, Danielle Darrieux, Randolph Scott. But a whole generation off Miss lialys have been here too, leaving their Bikini pictures behind them. They Couldn't come here often and keep those lithe figures! Automobile racers, boxers and ballet stars fill out the list. You might as well join the throng! Coine on in, the nourishment's fine!
SAN GIMIGNANO
A favorite excursion out of Florence leads into the hills to the faded orangepink citadel of Certaldo, famed as the home of Boccaccio, and then on to the most dramatic of Italian hill towns. San Gimignano. Of its seventy medieval towers, thirteen are still standing, providing a silhouette which, on a small scale, rivals Manhattan. The streets of this ancieni town retain the atmosphere of the Middle Ages to an astonishing degree. A walk through them at dusk is enough to turn back the calendar five hundred years, quite an experience in anyone's life. The perfection of San Gimignano is due partly to the fact that the whole town is a classified historical monument, carefully restored and supervised by the State.
Most Tuscan towns of this size don't have too much in the way of accommodacions, but this one is an exception. Here in the square by the old Stone well, you will find the HOTEL LA ClSTBRNA, a clean and comfortable hostelry ingeniously built into the old town buildings. The rooms are pleasant and they command .1 breathtaking view of the town ramparts below. We thought the cuisine was unusual, particularly the specialty of the house, pallo alla Masstua, This was a plump young Tuscan chicken sauteed in oil and butter, then bathed in a rich, fragrant SOUCC. We asked the proprietor for the recipe and found that the ingredients were onions, celery, tomatoes, parsley, carrots and white wine. But there must have been a subtle turn of hand on the chef's part as well.
The Hotel La Cistcrna is a bit chilly in winter, but during the other months it promises a pleasant overnight stop.
LUCCA
The road from Florence to Pisa is dotted with wonderful towns: Pratu, Pistoia and Lucca, good for a day's sight seeing each. Only in Lucca, however, did we find a thoroughly congenial hotel and restaurant. This is the Hona L'NIVHKSO on the Piawa Puccini, named for LuCCa's favorile son, the operatic composer. They are almost as proud of him as they are of their olive oil. famed throughout the g.istronomic world This hocel has a pleasant location, and Lucca itself is such a fascinating place that it is worth considering for a stopover.
PISA
Pisa is much more than an Italian city with a phenomenal leaning tower. It is a university town, and its streets are clustered with hatless. talkative, welldressed students. Antique shops flourish in Pisa too, and it is more fun pressing your nose against their windows than against those of pastry shops. Hut nothing is quite as prodigal as the alabaster and marble souvenir shops. The leaning tower comes in all sizes from a pink marble giant two fecr high to a peewee plastic imitation for fifteen cents. You can have the Venus de Milo. Cupid and Psyche or that man hurling the discus in alabaster, too. If you have a Pixie friend who treasures ghoulish horrors. we recommend a pink alabaster lamp mtxielcd on the leaning tower.
The more leisurely Pisans love their unique architectural treasures on the northern outskirts of the city. Knitting matrons, old men and nursemaids with their charges enjoy sunbathing around the bases of the magnificent baptistery and cathedral. The leaning tower is all for the tourist, and few experiences can rival the extraordinary climb up its spiral stairs, alternately too steep and too easy.
Then are two good conventional hotels along the banks of the Arno in Pisa. but the best food is probably found in the least interesting part of the city. This is the newly-restored HOTEL DB) CAVALIBRI, near the railway station in the badly bombed southern fringe of Pisa. Modern, and endowed with considerable creature comfort, this hotel has a spanking clean kitchen which is open to the public gaze through plate-glass windows. The specialties which our scorning party tried-saUimbocca and a filet of beef with Madeira sauce-were excellent.