B E A N S _ B E A N S _ A R E _ G O O D _ F O R _ Y O U R _ H E A R T

Eating and Drinking

The region that is home to Florence has one of the most versatile and varied-form cooking traditions in Italy, that we have already mentioned in our tourists’ guide to Tuscany. We are going to try and provide a more specific view, limiting ourselves to the city of Florence and the area immediately around it.

Florentine cooking is linked to a tradition of simple dishes prepared with genuine, tasty but plain ingredients, which has recently been reconsidered by the world of more sophisticated cuisine. Cereals, bread, vegetable and oil (which must be extra-virgin) are the basis of many recipes that just have to be tried in one of the many restaurants in Florence.

Simple food, such as cannellini beans and other vaguely repulsive ingredients such as tripe and livers are transformed into pleasant, tasty dishes, served on both stalls and in local inns and also in luxury restaurants. We can therefore find: fagioli all'uccelletto (beans), boiled and then fried in oil and tomato sauce; trippa alla fiorentina, (tripe) covered in tomato and grated parmesan cheese; lampredotto, the darkest part of tripe, used for soups and risottos, but also liked by many locals as a filling for a sandwich; crostini toscani with liver paté. And the unforgettable "fiorentina" a cut of meat from the Chianina cow, famous worldwide, to be tried in any restaurant in Florence.

F I R E _ B U R N I N G

Incendiary

by Vernon Scannell

That one small boy with a face like pallid cheese

And burnt-out little eyes could make a blaze

As brazen, fierce and huge, as red and gold

And zany yellow as the one that spoiled

Three thousand guineas' worth of property

And crops at Godwin's Farm on Saturday

Is frightening---as fact and metaphor:

An ordinary match intended for

The lighting of a pipe or kitchen fire

Misused may set a whole menagerie

Of flame-fanged tigers roaring hungrily.

And frightening, too, that one small boy should set

The sky on fire and choke the stars to heat

Such skinny limbs and such a little heart

Which would have been content with one warm kiss

Had there been anyone to offer this.