GASTRONOMY AND WINES
A stay on the Etruscan Riviera and particularly along Costa Fiorita means good eating and wonderful wine of typical Tuscan cuisine!
Most of the local specialties deal of course with wonderful fresh fish dishes. Gourmets rave about CACCIUCCO, a fish soup made with at least five different kinds of fish served over toasted garlic bread, TRIGLIE ALLA LIVORNESE, local mullet prepared with fresh tomatoes, garlic, parsley and celery, "POLPO BRIACO" literally "Drunk Octopus" steamed in Chianti wine.
For meat lovers, nothing beats a good BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA, T-bone steak cooked ALLA BRACE over hot coals, bruschetta with wonderful Tuscan PROSCIUTTO, and PAPPARDELLE ALLA LEPRE, a wonderful pasta dish with a sauce made with wild rabbit.
Tuscan desserts are light and wonderful, the best known is of course TIRAMISU' but let's not forget PANNA COTTA a heavy cream pudding topped with a blackberry sauce, PINOLATA a cake topped with pine nuts or a hundred and one different flavors of ice cream.
A special mention must be made for wine and olive oil. Tuscany is famous for its CHIANTI produced from grapes grown on tuscan hills since roman times. Make no mistake though, chianti cellars are no longer misterious dark places with years of intense aromas stratified in the walls, rather monuments to modern technology and precision, To ferment the wine, some of the old wooden caskets have been substituted with stainless steel and to age the wine.