DOCUMENTS PLEASE!
In italy the Police can stop you any time and you must have with you your driving license and an identity document (passport, id card). If you fail to show them to the officers, you could be required to report to the police station for id check and/or be fined. 

SEAT BELTS
Seat belts are compulsory in Italy and in additional is compulsory for children until from 4  to 12 yo to be seated in the back of cars and wearing a seat belt. 

ROAD TYPES
Autostrada                                                         Motorway, marked by green signs
Superstrada                                                        Fast dual carriageway marked by blue signs 
Strada Statale/Nazionale                               Marked SS and SN, these are secondary roads also marked by blue signs 
Strada bianca                                                     Local road, generally signed and marked in white. These are usual  in countryside or in the mountains

SPEED LIMITS
Motorways/Autostrade                                   130 Km/h  
Superstrada                                                         90 Km/h
Built up areas/town                                          50 Km/h 

Good to know : Police speed checks and speed cameras have become more frequent in recent years; when cameras are in place there are signs warning that you are entering into a monitored area.

ROAD SIGNS AND REGULATIONS
Italian road signs are standardised to European norms. Circular signs are used to announce restrictions and the end of them. Most road signs are self-explanatory however below is a glossary of some less familiar terms:

Accendere i fari in galleria                              Switch lights in on a tunnel
Caduta massi                                                     Falling stones
Divieto di accesso                                            No entry 
Divieto di sorpasso                                          No overtaking 
Divieto di transito                                            No right of way 
Rallentare                                                           Slow down 
Rimozione                                                          Removal 
Senso unico                                                       One way street 
Pedaggio                                                            Toll 

There are few secrets to Tuscan cooking. Most dishes need no adorment or special seasoning but rely on the quality of the primary ingredients: fresh fruits and vegetables, green olive oil, meat, game, mushrooms, just to name a few. 
Some of these ingredients are prized and expensive but several of the best known and tasties dishes are based on leftovers,  memory of a time when Tuscan housewives couldn't afford to let anything go wasted. 
Consider for example the ingenious use of stale bread:
Bruschetta, for example, is sliced stale bread, toasted, rubbed with garlic and doused with extravirgin olive oil.  Crostini Neri, too, slices of toasted bread with chicken liver patè flavoured with capers. Panzanella, typical poor summer dish that combines stale bread soaked in water and crumbled with fresh red tomatoes, onions, cucumber and basil, dressed with extravifìrgin olive oil. 
Maybe the most famous of all leftovers meal is Ribollita : a vegetable soup with delicious Tuscan black cabbage, carrots, beans, pieces of bread.  It is a typical "poor " dish of peasant origin , whose name comes from the time when Tuscan women  at the beginning of the week cooked  a lot of vegetable soup reinforced with bread and then, the following days, it was "stewed " in the pan, from here it  takes the name of reboiled (ribollita), because the real soup is heated and boiled twice, (otherwise it would be a trivial soup of bread and vegetables !). 
Pappa al pomodoro is based on the same concept except that fresh tomatoes are used in place of the other vegetables. 

​Yummy, isnt't it? 

It's start to feel like Christmas all around Tuscany! 
It's a time of good cheer, streets are full of lights, houses are decorated, kids are writing ( still?) letters to Santa and we, people from Cortona, want all togheter to send our greetings to everybody  that  lives, came or is planning to come in our lovely Cortona.

​May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmas be White!

It happens that our daily routine time is the thing that lacks the most. In our week days we end up making grocery 10 minutes before dinner time, we buy whatever, we spend much money and finally back home.
People like me think that cooking, preparing dinner and the table, eating togheter is a form of love for ourselves and for the relatives and friends with whom we share the table with. In front of a table and a well cooked food we talk, we laugh, we savour, we share opinions, we relax. In a sense it's also inspiring and stimulating: think about how many times you tasted a new ingredient and started thinking about pairings with other foods or wine. 
All these emotions and feelings related to food and eating, make me suddendly think about WHAT we eat.
Have you ever enjoyed a dinner with a bad cooked meal or terrible choice of ingredients? Me, never.
I never buy a "product" without knowing its provenience, how it was processed, who produced it. It's a sort of nice and fascinating ritual for me getting to know the origin and the makers of an olive oil, meeting the cheese maker that is capable of make that amazing Ricotta, buying seasonal ans savoury fruits and vegetables at the Saturday market where the farmers of Valdichiana come. 
 It's local food, sustainable,  it's surely fresher and full of nutrients, tastier and has an history to share. Do we need any other reason? 

The last Gelato class we organized was really fun, fun, fun! Our 4 guests enjoyed a theorethical lesson held by one of the English speaking Gelatieri in Cortona, Tuscany and after that they were ready to prepare their first Gelato flavour

The Gelatiere Alessandro helped the girls and followed the boys in preparing Strawberry, Chocolate, Ricotta and Figues, Hazelnuts, and others flavours they decided togheter. After the class they served to guests and Cortonesi people their creations!

More than a wine tasting and a simple cooking class.  The experience we lived together with Paola , proud wife and mother of the Baldetti's clan had something unique and truly unforgettable. Some of us made their first hand made Pasta all' Uovo with Ragu' sauce  , following chef's secrets and instructions  and suddendly cooking  from an hidden art known by a few élite  became somenthing easy!  And what about pairing wine with the proper food? I know that many of us have always wandered: can I pair this wine with this pasta I prepared? Can I serve Rosè with a steak? Gianluca helped us with his suggestions, while some of us where tasting Crano wine,  others grabbed in their hands a slice of Tuscan bread to check the Ragù that was simmering. and others went to the garden to choose some tomatoes and basil for bruschetta.  Cooking in winery is celebration of all 5 senses, a top thing to do while exploring Tuscany!