Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Is Cinta Senese the World’s Tastiest Pork?

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This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
 of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

By Walter Sanders

Daniele Baruffaldi is a man’s man: bald, barrel-chested and strong. He’s as quick to laugh as he is to roar. Daniele is one of only 60 farmers certified to breed and raise the famed cinta Senese pigs. Cinta refers to the white “belt” marking around the shoulders of their otherwise black bodies. Senese means from Siena. This noble breed has deep roots. It is identifiable in Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s 1348 fresco “Effects of Good Government in the Country” still viewable in Siena’s Palazzo Communale.

Daniele Baruffaldi proudly shows off his heritage breed hogs.

Daniele Baruffaldi and his cinta Senese hogs.

The breed became nearly extinct over the last 40 years when Italian farmers imported the large white breed from the United Kingdom. These hogs grew to maturity quicker and produced leaner meat which was in marketing vogue at the time. The large white was crossbred with the cinta Senese to produce the grigio Senese. It made economic sense: faster growing meant less feed, quicker to market, leaner. “But it doesn’t have the flavor of cinta Senese,” declared Daniele.

Before long, the global population of pure-bred cinta Senese had been, according to Daniele, reduced to only two males and 20 females.

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Golf in Tuscany

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Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the Bagnaia course in the gentle hills south of Siena.

This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

By Walter Sanders

What could be more fun for a 15-year old ragazzo than to play hooky and tee it up for 18 spectacular holes at the newest golf course in Italy? I provided the perfect excuse for Giacomo Donati Clarke, son of one of the owners of Villa Pipistrelli, to experience the Royal Golf Club Bagnaia.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and opened in 2012, the course is a short 8-minute ride from Pipistrelli. It plays to a sporty 6,101 meters (6,672 yards) from the back tees and carries a course rating of 72.1 and a slope rating of 137 from the tips.

Despite the recent success of the Italian Molinari brothers on the PGA and European Tours, young Giacomo, a smooth-swinging lefty, said his favorite player is South African Ernie Els.

We had a blast. I had packed a couple of sleeves of Titleist ProV1 golf balls and shared them with Giacomo. He beamed! But his eyes got even wider when I asked him to pilot the golf cart all day. Italians can’t get a driver’s license until they’re 18, so he jumped at the opportunity to drive.

Giacomo and Luisa Donati.

Giacomo and Luisa Donati.

The course is challenging, the greens are fast. Water hazards feature prominently on five of the holes and it is easy to get distracted by the view of Siena in the hills.

Neither of us threatened the par of 71. I struggled to an 88, and new player Giacomo came in at 109. But I doubt that anyone else on the course that day enjoyed golf as much as we did.

At the end of the round, I gave Giacomo my orange, Titleist-branded golf cap. The last time I saw him, he was still wearing it.

To be continued in our next post: 

An Encounter with Prized Cinta Senese Pigs

At Home in Villa Pipistrelli

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This article first appeared in the October 2012 issue
of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy

Peaceful Pipistrelli.

The sound of silence is sweet at Villa Pipistrelli.

By Walter Sanders

I finish my meal of prosciutto, salami, pecorino, pane e olio. I grab a notebook and pour another glass of Chianti Classico to bring outdoors. It’s a sunny September afternoon and I choose a spot under a wisteria-covered pergola.

I have Villa Pipistrelli all to myself because I have arrived earlier than the other journalists in my group. Perfection. I become aware of the quiet. No man-made sounds. The silence heightens all my senses. Even the occasional dove calls her mate in sotto voce.

I began to write…focused by the silence.

A bee buzzes by. The sound is almost shocking, electric. I have to stop and write about that glorious interruption.

I linger and watch the valley change muted colors as the sun sets.

I marvel at the surroundings: such places exist only in movies, romantic novels, in dream states after a pleasing Italian dinner.

But Villa Pipistrelli—the country house where I am—does exist. In the days to come, I will learn how intense and liberating Tuscan country life can be.

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My Husband Is In Tuscany

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Is Tuscany a state of mind? It has to be when your husband is there without you.

Mio marito è in viaggio in Toscana. My husband is traveling in Tuscany.

Am I envious that he is in one of the most desirable destinations on earth without me? Or that his last email so exquisitely described a day in Firenze that it seemed surreal?

No. Truly, no. It’s not that I’m that selfless. But I am glad that he’s in a place that gives him so much joy. And—full disclosure—every time I’ve traveled alone on a media trip to Italy, he has been totally supportive. To not reciprocate would make me seem really petty.

The grape vines after harvest at Tenute Silvio Nardi near Montalcino, Tuscany.

Walking this morning, I felt assured that my Inner Italian is always available to transport me. The crystalline September light took me back to my visit in Toscana a couple years back, on a trip sponsored by Donna Franca Tours. The air was crisp and the sun warm even though it was November and the weather had been chilly and drizzly. My group was visiting Tenute Silvio Nardi, a highly regarded wine producer near Montalcino. The grapeless vines shimmered with tinges of gold and burgundy.

We enjoyed an early lunch of salume, formaggi, e focaccia with the elegant Nardi Rosso di Montalcino. It was tasty but the aroma of simmering ragù cinghiale (wild boar sauce) coming from the kitchen was distracting me like crazy. On my way out, I stuck my head in the cucina to briefly meet the cooks Lucia and Marizia who were preparing tagliatelle to accompany the robust meat ragù for an event that evening. (That time, I was envious!)

The Nardi cooks with their hand-rolled tagliatelle.

I purchased a Rosso di Montalcino from a good year as a gift for my husband. One of my trip mates, noticing the price, asked if he’d appreciate the value. “Yes,” I replied with certainty, “he will.”

And he did.

Max, Wally and Lampredotto

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C’era una volta. . . once upon a time. . . Max (Massimo Melani) met Wally (Walter Sanders) in Firenze. Here’s the story in their own words.

The Basilica of Santa Croce holds priceless artistic and historic treasures.

Massimo
First, a few words about the Leather School: Workshop, Laboratory and Show Room of the finest leather goods situated in the old Franciscan monastery of the Santa Croce Basilica in Florence. It was a marvelous place, as were the splendid people working there.

It all started with the Patron Marcello Gori, the owner and director of the Leather School.

Those years in the early 1970s were characterized by a kind of elite tourism. And the Leather School attracted many of these well-traveled, wealthy tourists from around the world. Marcello Gori ensured that his sales and service personnel were first class as well. The staff was multilingual, elegantly dressed, rather good looking and with long experience abroad. I was one of those.

One day in 1972, the owner presented us a colleague, an American boy from Chicago—a certain Wally Sanders, very smiling person, who looked like a survivor from Woodstock or San Francisco–absolutely the first foreigner who was going to work with us.

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Botticelli Comes to Bucks County, PA

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Sandro Botticelli, (Florence 1445-1510), Madonna with Child (Madonna della loggia), circa 1466-1467, oil on panel, Collection of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

By Walter Sanders

So how, you might ask, did the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA manage to snag “Offering of the Angels,”one of the most prestigious exhibitions of the new millennium?

The triumph involves the Association of Museums Conference, an empty bus seat, and a fortuitous question.

Bruce Katsiff, the Director/CEO of the Michener related at the media launch event, at the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia, how a chance meeting with a representative of Florence, Italy-based Contemporanea Progetti led to this exciting exhibit coming to Bucks County.

“There was one empty seat left on a bus going to a special event at the Getty Museum in LA three years ago,” said Katsiff. “I introduced myself to the woman next to me and we talked a little. I eventually learned that she was seeking four U.S. museums to host a spectacular exhibition of Italian art from the Uffizi in Florence. She told me that she had already booked three of the museums.”

“Does the exhibit include a Botticelli?” Katsiff asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

Katsiff jumped at the opportunity and the brilliant result is the Michener hosting the exhibit which will run from April 21 through August 10, 2012. This will be the only venue in the northeastern United States. (Look for a future post about the works in the exhibit after SimpleItaly attends the preview.)

From left, Bruce Katsiff, Director/CEO of the James A. Michener Art Museum, Dottore Luigi Scotto, Italian Consul General, Philadlephia, and Jerry Lepping, Executive Director of Visit Bucks County, announce the "Offering of the Angels" exhibit.

Renaissance Italian art lovers, rejoice! An incredible exhibit and value priced at $15 per ticket which includes the exhibit, an audio tour and parking.