A Taste of Tuscany

Alison Webster
P&O Cruises - Port Presenter

• Are you calling into Livorno this summer?
• Have you been to Florence and Pisa before?
• Would you rather avoid the masses and go off the main tourist track?

If you can answer "yes" to these questions, I can highly recommend an alternative trip into the countryside for a real taste of Tuscany...





I was lucky enough to join this fantastic excursion in April 2014, and here’s my account of what myself and 48 passengers saw, heard and tasted along the way...

'Mamma Mia' Moments

 
Our local guide Luca really got us into the Italian mood before we left the quayside. We were greeted with a rather loud exclamation of ‘Mamma Mia!’ (best read in an Italian accent) as he approached our group. The expression translates literally as ‘my Mother’ but he explained that despite all regions of Italy having their own dialect, ‘Mamma Mia’ is universally recognized throughout the country's cultures. Luca told us that it's akin to saying "oh my gosh" in English. Now I don't know about you, but I can't really remember the last time I spoke those precise words.
However, Luca used the expression quite a lot - much to the amusement of the (largely British) tour party! The Urban Dictionary definition of "Mamma Mia" reads "an Italian expression, denoting various kinds of emotions: surprise, fear, rejection, joy". With that in mind, Luca's outburts began to make much more sense! Soon enough though we left the huge, sprawling port and were passing through the glorious Tuscan countryside.

Despite a few morning clouds the views from the coach window were gorgeously green, and en route to our first stop we were educated, informed and entertained about what we could expect from the day ahead.

Lovely Lari

 
Tucked away in the Tuscan countryside - somewhere near Pisa - is the small, ancient hamlet of Lari. It's a medieval town. famous for being the home of the Martelli family and their ‘Artisan Pasta’ business. And incidentally ‘Artisan’ means ‘a person or company that makes a high quality or distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods’- and that’s true enough here!





The town is very small and quaint - think peaceful, rural and almost empty...

I had a quick look round and found that the local cafe doubles up as the local shop. There’s also a little theatre, a small church, a huge fort and a number of wonderful viewpoints...





And asides from those of us on the Taste of Tuscany tour, there was barely a soul to be seen. I spotted a couple of locals going about their daily business, but not another tourist in sight.
It’s the sort of place that features on the TV programme ‘A place in the sun’- and the sort of place where you dream of having a holiday home...

Perfect Pasta

 



The real purpose of our visit to Lari though was to visit the local pasta factory, which has been in operation since 1926. The current workforce stands at just seven employees, and all are part of the Martelli Family. Each and every one of them can do any of the jobs required and they work long, 12 hour shifts every day. There are just two rooms to view at the factory - one where the pasta is created and another where it’s dried. There's no "exit through the gift shop" here.

The Martelli pasta factory is a small, rustic operation that harks back to traditional values and techniques. It’s almost hard to believe that such a place still exists and manages to survive in this modern day
world, but it's certainly impressive.

They produce just five types of pasta here; spaghetti, spaghettini (a skinny version of spaghetti) fusili, maccheroni and penne. But what is it that makes their produce so special? Well unlike the mass produced stuff that you might find lining the shelves of your local supermarket (which we learnt is typically dried in about five minutes by huge blasts of furnace hot air), Martelli pasta is carefully hung out to dry strand by strand. It hangs, like washing, for an average of 50 hours in a carefully controlled temperature. There are racks and racks of it everywhere and it's testament to just how much careful thought and precision goes into the making of this pasta.




One of the family members, Luca, explained (with the help of an interpreter) the painstaking process that creates their perfect pasta. Firstly, they take the finest durum wheat, grind it into semolina, and then knead it with cold water. But the key to perfecting their pasta lies in a bronze disc, through which the dough is hand fed to create the perfect shape and texture. And it’s the texture that makes this pasta different, resulting in a far superior product. Rather than being smooth, to the point that your bolognaise, ragu or sauce of choice slides off the pasta when you twirl it with your fork, it’s actually quite rough to the touch. Pushing the pasta through the magical bronze disc makes it porous, and that means that the sauce will stick rather than slide, as it absorbs into the pasta.




After 30 minutes or so at the factory most passengers headed back to the only shop at the village to make their purchases. Among them, I heard murmurs of determination - never to buy cheap pasta again! Many decided to stock up on the excellent Martelli pasta and at 4 euros per kilogram, it's hard not to.

Wine o’clock

 
 A 20 minute drive took us to our next stop;  the estate of Torre A Cenaia, a local vineyard, farm and agriturismo site in the countryside of the Valdera hills. Once owned by the noble Pitti family who explored and exploited the potential of wine production - which they did pretty well -  it’s still the Pitti family’s coat of arms that adorns the bottles here.





A quick tour of the cellars, with its stainless steel vats and oak wood barrels, was followed by the tasting session. On this occasion we sat in a lovely spacious room indoors. You can also opt to sit outside in the Tuscan sun, however. First a cool glass of white, followed by a red, and another blended red, and then a sweet desert wine – it has to be said that our hosts were more than generous, much to the delight (hic!) of their guests.

However a taste of the Tuscan wines wouldn’t be complete without copious amounts of tasty local produce too...

Buon Appetito

 
A long table was laid out with plenty of plates of cold meat cuts. Including delicious local salamis, Italian cheeses, and a variety of bruschetta and crostini drizzled in different oils. Delicious! Suddenly however, roughly cut slabs of rustic style pizza made an appearance, followed by large steaming bowls of the much anticipated (and now famous) Martelli Pasta. On our visit we tried fusili in a white ragu sauce and macaroni with vegetables. There was ample opportunity to try whatever took our fancy, with the chance to go back for seconds or even thirds if we had room.




 
Sadly we did have to leave. But not before the chance to purchase some wine, which was reasonably priced and made for a fantastic souvenir.

O Sole Mio

 



Back on the coach and travelling back through the gorgeous countryside (which was now basking in glorious Tuscan sunlight) there were a few more ‘Mamma Mia’ moments from our guide. As we trundled along he pointed out the signs to Lajatico, which is the home town of the world famous Opera star Andrea Bocelli. We learnt that Mr Boccelli will be performing in Madison Square Garden, New York later this year. If his concert in his home town was anything to go by in July of this year, it'll be a sell-out affair! By co-incidence (or was it?) our coach driver had a copy of one of his CD’s. So our journey back to Livorno was spent soaking up some wonderful views, with the relaxing sounds of Signor Bocelli serenading us in the background.

Fall in love with Tuscany

 
Bocelli’s new album (due for release in October 2014) is entitled ‘Love in Portofino’, but in April 2014 it was a ‘Taste of Tuscany’ that a coach load of P&O Cruises passengers fell in love with. Aided (of course) by our young, fun and gregarious guide, who helped us appreciate his homeland, and adopt the Italian expression ‘Mamma Mia’!

Each sight, sound, smell and taste that we experienced could be good enough reason to enjoy this trip alone. But combine them all together and it creates an absolutely fantastic experience that would be difficult to recreate independently. So if you’re visiting the industrial Port of Livorno this season but want to avoid the more obvious tourist hotspots of the Tuscan cities - then maybe you should try and fall in love with a Taste of Tuscany instead.

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