Toscano Style

I never smoke to excess - that is, I smoke in moderation, only one [Toscano]cigar at a time - Mark Twain

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Signs of (creative) smoke

The Toscanello Grand Tour has stopped off at ‘Segnali di Fumo’ (Signs of Smoke), an exhibition at Rome’s MACRO Testaccio Museum, exploring  the concept of smoke as “an alternative state of perceiving reality”.

Nine artists have used smoke in their work, exploring its creative flexibility. Gavin Turk plays with smoke spirals, capturing entities, faces, figures and flowers within. Giovanni Ozzola, the youngest, explores its psychological relationship with landscapes and elements of nature; in this case, a cloud of smoke, whose dramatic aspect is highlighted through the use of black and white.

The exhibition also features a cloud of smoke crossing urban space, as “seen” by a mechanical object, the camera, through the non-human vision of Laurent Grasso. Pae White works on the elegant and sensual spirals of smoke, which seem to escape from the canvas. With Claudio Parmiggiani, smoke becomes an artistic language, creating a symbolic dialogue with writing, eventually developing into an abstract idiom.

Reynold Reynolds immerses a family in flames, who seem undisturbed by the smoke as they go about their daily lives. Cyprien Gaillard leads us into a Samuel Beckett-style wait for a train that will never come. By way of contrast, the work of Ann Veronica Janssens experiments with light, wherein a vacuum acquires physicality.

Finally, there is Paolo Icaro, the biggest Toscano fan. He showcases a work aimed at preserving the memory of a private, fleeting gesture, at times both hidden and forbidden, and the unforgettable aroma of the Tuscan cigar so beloved by the ninth artist.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Maccaferri Foundation, together with the Roma Capitale association, the Cultural Growth Department of the Capitoline Cultural Heritage Superintendency and in collaboration with the Giuliani Foundation.

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Joe Bastianich and his tie with the Toscano Cigar

We dedicate this post to a "modern hero" who is distinguishing himself on the social networks, also showing a strong bond with Toscano cigars. We are talking about Joe Bastianich, a global Italian, a culinary and television myth and growing Instagram influencer. How to sum up all of these skills and achieve such a "digital echo"? Amongst possible analyzes of his willingness to post ironic, unconventional and irrevernt photos, in our opinion, you should never forget that it is sometimes too easy to reduce someone’s digital behavior, even if the person is undoubtedly famous, to a pre-printed model.

What kind of engagement does Bastianich develop with his followers? To what logic and marketing strategies does his irreverent style go back? Joe does not look afraid to "tease" his closest show-biz colleagues, such as neapolitan commercials “giant” Antonino Cannavacciuolo.  We believe, at this time, you should mark Joe’s digital strategy with the "spontaneity" tag. It is not so obvious that there is a social guru behind Joe and we do not honestly believe that digital marketing experts are settling those posts. As well as Joe’s connection with Toscano cigars - nowadays an inseparable partner of our chef - Joe’s digital transposition leaves much room for refinement and sophistication: a fundamental part of any digital architecture studied by industry professionals.

There are no special filters or shots, no particular poses or angles in his Instagram timeline. In short, nothing comparable to other "VIPs" strategies. Think of world’s Instagram top-3 in terms of earning: Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian and Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter "only" earns the bronze medal with over $ 300,000 for each post! Amazing figures, nothing comparable with the true and genuine Bastianich, often publishing shots with his beloved steaming Toscano cigar. And, finally, we have also discovered which specific cigar he usually extracts from his leather case: Toscano Del Presidente, one of the most appreciated products of Italy’s top cigar manufacturer. A sincere cigar, perfectly fitting with the sincere personality of our international Italian chef, born and raised in Queens. A "true" cigar for authentic people who, even in fame, manage to leave the taps of spontaneity open.

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The historical nexus between Toscano cigars and the Moka coffee pot

When the coffee, slowly, starts to ascend through the pipe of a Moka coffee pot, it emits a soft and velvety sound that sometimes can remember the "puff" of our beloved Toscano Cigar. Maybe, this is one of the reasons why coffee and Toscano Cigars are so frequently matched together in social media pictures. For example, if you dig through your Instagram feed and search for #toscanello, surely you will note a significant number of shots portraying people smoking Toscanos while drinking an “espresso” Less frequent is the combination with more common and popular kinds of takeaway coffee. “Italianness”, we might say, joins together espresso coffee and Toscanos. But this does not fully explain this fun selfie habit. There is a deeper, someway sociological explanation to such a phenomenon. And the explanation is that Italian coffee and Toscano cigars eternalize the exact moment in which you are repeating that ritual and repetitive gesture. But the Moka coffee pot has an history, and we like to remember it here. Moka was born, de facto, in 1918, when its inventor, Alfonso Bialetti, returned to Italy after a long time spent in France, where he had been working for a decade in the aluminum industry. He lived in Piedmont, one of the most advanced regions of the country at that time (and even back in the 19th century!). There, one day he noticed women while washing clothes in a boiler which had a funny, central pipe. This pipe was used to pour boiling water over the dirty fabrics. Only such a genius like Bialetti could think of bringing this technique to the coffee world. Prior to that day people used to drink coffee only in public shops, where complex and bulky machines were used. Sometimes, making use of steam in order to extract the flavors from the coffee powder. But such machines could not be brought to the household level. This is why the very first Moka, which comes to life in 1933, marked a revolution in the coffee world. The Bialetti Moka Coffee pot, since then, has really changed little of its appearance. While Bialetti’s son, Renato, set up a marketing campaign where, for the first time, the original Bialetti trade mark was publicized. It looked, somehow ironically, like the mustache of the inventor. You may believe it’s a sign of destiny that the very first idea of “Moka” blinked to the mind of Alfonso Bialetti in 1918, exactly a century after the foundation of the first cigar manufacturing, grounded in Tuscany by Grand Duke Ferdinando III.

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Finding “La Stanza dei Sigari”, Boston

6 thousands kilometers separate Italy from a hidden jewel that deserves some attention: La Stanza dei Sigari in Boston, a deeply rooted cigar lounge in the heart of Boston.

Boston, this is known, is the most European amongst American cities. Every corner is breathed in the Old Continent, and it is no surprise, then, that there are lots of pubs, restaurants, tea rooms and businesses directly inspired by European tradition.

In this short article we want to talk about a hidden (but not too much) jewel, which we care a lot about even though we weren’t lucky enough to step into it. This jewel, unfortunately, remains hidden in the virtuality of the network and we have not been able to reach the owners in person for an interview for ToscanoStyle. Maybe you can :)

We are talking about “La Stanza dei Sigari” Cigar Room, in Hanover 292, Boston.

The name itself is italian: “La Stanza dei Sigari”. From Google Street View you can admire the funny cigar exhaling smoke to signal the existence of the "cigar room".

The photos of the interiors, the only ones we can look at from their website, www.stanzadeisigari.com, give a certain sense of welcome. It has something aesthetically pleasing to Irish pubs, but the armchairs and the most intimate atmosphere of the fumeur resemble the classic cigar bar: low and soft lights, aged polished leather armoires, ideal setting for conversations and maybe secret confidence.

We bet the owners are italian too…such a name cannot be picked casually! We will try to contact them personally to get to know something about the tradition of this place: how did the founder come to such an intuition? How the italian community relates in Boston with cigars? Is there some space or special taste for kentucky hand-rolled specialities? What are the favourite combinations in terms of alcoholics, wines or beers? The Bostonian Cigar consumer surely has specific taste and habits. We will dig further to get to now his intimate cigar experiences! 

Amongst ToscanoStyle's goals there is to become a meeting point for the community of Italian cigar lovers around the world. La Stanza dei Sigari has so many points of contact with the italian cigar tradition and it would be an incredible chance to lay down a “bridge” to communicate reciprocally our experiences across the globe. With the Toscano cigar being the perfect fil rouge.

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Toscano Cigar history: within the church of the Cigar-rolling ladies

An unmissable stop for those who want to "get lost" in the Tuscan lands is the church of Santa Caterina di Lucca, also known as the Church of the female cigar rollers. A remote corner for too long forgotten, recently reopened after more than forty years of closure, thanks to an extensive restoration work financed by Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

Unlike Caribbean cigars, Toscano Cigars are manufactured by women. It is an ancient but valuable tradition, certainly unique in the world and extremely respected by the local communities. Becoming a cigar roller requires long training and dedication. Although the majority of Toscano Cigars is now produced with the support of machines, Manifatture Sigaro Toscano keeps handcrafting its premium cigars, like the “Originale” or the “Il Moro”. And the female cigar-rollers church is a pearl that brings us back to the history of the Toscano Cigar tradition.

The structure is now secure and, thanks to the consolidation works, it is possible to admire what we might define the "special effects" of the Baroque époque (the church dates back to the middle of 1700). For example, the curious solution that allows, from the bottom, to observe a "suspended" fresco through an opening on the center of the dome. The fresco is fixed on wooden beams, within an interspace between the dome and the ceiling of the building.

The external façade is, on the other hand, sober and does not pay particular attention. This does not mean that the church was not an important place in the Tuscan society. Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Santa Caterina was a prestigious gathering because it offered to the cigar-rollers of the nearby manufactory the opportunity to observe their religious ritual during the lunch break.

In order to honor the memory of the ancient cigar rollers, the modern colleagues of the Manifatture Sigaro Toscano, Italy’s top cigar producer, have pushed for the State to make the resources available in order to bring this forgotten jewel back to life.

It also seems to us a positive fact that the restoration has not attempted to hide the restoration itself. Although mainly "original" materials were used, the seismic securing of the building involved interventions on the masonry, the soles, the wooden trusses and the dome, which provided also the use of stainless steel elements.

The philosophy of the interventions was not to substitute, to replace the original structures with new arrangements, but to support the whole building, placing innovative materials to “help” the aged ones while maintaining the historic value of the church unchanged. Just as technological innovation broke into the world of Toscano cigars, which, however, keep valorizing a centuries-old tradition with the precious hands of the female cigar rollers.

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Inspired by Toscano cigars: Marco Sonzini, at the heart of the US’ music industry

Marco is a young sound engineer. Born in Piacenza (a small town in the North of Italy), today he spends most of the time between his hometown and Los Angeles, where he works at the heart of the music industry. We discovered him thanks to a brilliant episode of “US Generation” (click here for the streaming). Toscano Style was able to reach Marco and…here’s the interview!

On your social profiles there are many pictures of you while smoking a Toscano cigar. In the interview that you issued to Rai News the Toscano Cigar seems almost an object of worship, a liturgy! Where does this passion come from and what does it mean for you?

 - My passion for Toscano cigars goes back many years now, I can't even remember exactly how it started. At the beginning (almost 15 years ago) it was more of a celebrative nature than a daily ritual: I used to have a Toscano Extravecchio for my birthday, Christmas or New Year's Eve.Today the Toscano cigar represents a connection to my beloved Italy and a daily reminder of my journey here in the US - my very own way to disconnect from the rest of the world.

We know that in the Los Angeles area there are a few cigar shops selling Toscano cigars. Have you ever bought “Toscanos” in LA or you just bring them back from Italy?

 - I always pack lots of Toscano cigars in my luggage whenever I'm in Italy, I've never bought them here in LA for 2 main reasons: they're almost impossible to find (especially the Originale), and more important I have my special routine where I always go to the same place in my hometown a day before taking off. Keep in mind that LA’s weather is very dry compared to the north of Italy so it’s crucial to have cigars that have been stored properly at the right humidity otherwise they won’t last long here.

Do you always keep cigars at hand or wait for “special” moments to smoke ‘em?

 - I always have two halves of some kind of Toscano in my leather case that a dear friend gave me few years ago. Depending on the schedule I have that day I might smoke Garibaldi cut in half (or something else pretty fast, like a Toscanello Speciale) in between studio sessions, but I rarely have enough time so I usually save a Toscano Originale for the end of the day after dinner in my backyard. Also because in many areas of Los Angeles smoking is prohibited even outside in the street, so finding a place to peacefully enjoy a cigar is not as easy as it might seem.

In the USA when you say “cigar” people think at caribbean or cuban cigars. What do you think are the main differences betweet caribbean and Toscano cigars?

 - I occasionally enjoy Cuban cigars too, but I usually save them for a special occasion also because their smoking time is always fairly long. I don't know them very well, all I can say is that to my taste they are all always less strong and way sweeter than aged Kentucky tobacco. They also usually come as gift from friends that know that I like cigars: recently Kevin Bacon was so kind to give me one after a recording session ;)

Did you ever bump into a smoker of Toscanos or you are a quite unique case?

 - It just never happens, especially on the west side. Every time I pull out a Toscano the reaction of whoever is around me is pretty much always the same: ‘what the hell is that?!?’ They look at me like I’m an alien. I have to say though that it’s always a nice way to start a conversation with random people.

You are a “serial” Twitter and Instagram user. What do you love to share on social media? We poked around in your profiles and found out that Joe Bastianich is a friend of yours. He is pretty famous in Italy thanks to MasterChef. Is it true that he loves Toscano cigars?

 - My posts are usually about audio stuff, studio life, recording gear and music in general. Since I spend most of my life in a recording studio I like to share the process of making records, recording and mixing songs because I feel it’s something that people might be interested in, especially these days where everything is very digital and laptop oriented. Speaking of music, I met Joe few months ago at the Speakeasy Studios is LA while I was working on one his project and he is the only exception to the previous question: the first and only american that I’ve ever met who knows and LOVES Toscano cigars!·         

We want to thank you for the time you have devoted to this interview. And since your electric-blue Mustang looks – unfortunately – close to its final stop…we would like to suggest a perfect combination: Toscano cigars with a Shelby Cabriolet!

 - I’ll definitely forward the idea to my wife ;)Thank you guys it was my pleasure! 

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How the flow of time has changed the perception around Toscano cigars

“My uncles were not like the uncles of my childhood friends -- tall, blond, smiling men who taught their nephews how to toss a baseball. My uncles were short, dour men in shimmering sharkskin suits. They smoked crooked Toscano cigars and taught me, from the time I was 6, how to palm the ace of spades, how to spot shaved dice and how to pray to God before I went to bed that the Bears would beat the Packers by at least a point and a half.

They weren't really my uncles; they were my father's gambling cronies. Italian men with names like Schiama (the jabbering one), Freddy the Welch and Tommy the Blond (not really blond, just not as dark as his cronies). Their wives, my aunts, were big, peroxide blondes in the habit of saying ''kinks'' for kings, as in, ''I got three kinks, doll.”

Here you go, Pat. Thank you for this amazing description. By the way, ToscanoStyle readers will be able to read the full version here. The piece is amazing – and quite long, take your time, it is worth reading – as pretty often the literary style of American journalists is. Especially for us, Italians, accustomed to a completely different way to describe politics, sports, whatever, on the traditional media.

Pat Jordan is a sports reporter in the U.S. In the quoted article he gives us a fresco of his youth, an intimate story of affection where he retraces his fathers’ journey through the sin – albeit virtuously lived, somehow – of a life: gambling.

Baseball, scoreboards, playing cards, distillates and cigars are found together in many chapters of the Great American Novel, but this is not the case. Conversely, the brush strokes which describe the old man’s peculiarities take great care not to leave any doubt: Pat’s father was not used to exceeding in alcohol or smoking; unlike his Italian short, dour, picturesque "gambling cronies”, he steadily sticks to a self given etiquette, underpinning impassable boundaries however indulging to the game.

But what strikes the reader is the mention of “crooked Toscano cigars” as a hallmark of people the author wasn’t exactly proud of. In this case, “Toscanoes” somehow draw an anthropological boundary between social strata, and it is very interesting to note how the flow of time has changed the perception of Toscano cigars: once certificate of social exclusion, while today toscanellos and assimilable brands marketed by Manifatture Sigaro Toscano transmit a set of aesthetic and social values geared to new fashions, innovation and Italian eccellence.  

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300 Years of Chianti Classico

Any exploration of the history of Chianti Classico, the famous DOCG wine produced in certain areas of Tuscany, including the land between Florence and Siena, is a bit like entering a fairy tale set in an ancient world of noble families.

Its birth can be traced back to 1716, when the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de Medici issued an edict specifying the four territories deemed suitable for the production of high-quality wine.  Entitled “Sopra la Dichiarazione de’ Confini delle quattro regioni Chianti, Pomino, Carmignano e Val d’Arno di Sopra”, it was the only document of its kind.

Three hundred years have passed since this edict was issued, and the wine remains in a league of its own.  As reflected in the slogan chosen by the Consortium responsible for safeguarding this prized wine, “300 years and not a grey feather”.

Chianti Classico (which should not be confused with the other DOCG wine, Chianti) is made from Sangiovese grapes (comprising 80%-100%) and other varieties, so long as they are red grapes (up to 20%), such as the native Canaiolo Nero or Colorino, or foreign varieties, such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Of the 100 best Italian wines chosen by the prestigious American magazine, Wine Spectator, this year’s picks inevitably included a number of esteemed labels: Castello di Brolio 2006 from Ricasoli (Baron Bettino Ricasoli is still considered the leading champion of Chianti Classico today); Castello d’Albola 2011, a label that takes its name from the castle that belonged to the noblest of Tuscan families (the Acciaioli, the Samminiati, the Pazzi, the Ginori Conti, etc.); and Bellavista 2007, from the Cantina di Ama Cellar. Of the vineyards used to make the latter, Emperor Leopald II (formerly Grand Duke of Tuscany) wrote in the 1700s that: “They are well exposed, bathed in sunlight, and are excellently tended like gardens: this is the most fertile and renowned part of Chianti”. His comments still hold true today, not only of this area but of other vineyards in the area.

And the Toscano cigar? A glass of Chianti Rosso (you can find vintages for sale that are considerably more affordable than those mentioned above) works beautifully with a Stilnovo cigar. A long-filler guitar with an aroma somewhere between leather and wood, it is handmade by the Lucca sigaraie (female cigar makers) to celebrate 10 years of the Manifatture Sigaro Toscano. It has been aged for four years and boasts an entirely new, Caribbean feature: a double wrapper comprising an interior wrapper of Italian Kentucky, and an external wrapper selected from American Kentucky, which gives it a bitter, intense flavour.

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Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara to the strains of the Toscano cigar

Brief but intense memories of a trip to Turkey: wandering along the banks of the Bosphorus; exploring the Kalesi (castle) of Ankara; or soaking up reflected sunlight in the Gulf of Izmir, which we crossed on an old yet nimble boat that cut, like a razor, through the glassy water, rippled by something that seemed entirely like an out-of-season meltemi wind.

I don’t want to bore you with the twists and turns of how I ended up returning to this corner of Europe. Instead I want to focus on some details of great interest to us: details of habits and, of course… smoking!

I was struck by the penetration of Italian fashion, aesthetics and taste in certain corners of the metropolitan triangle we fleetingly passed through. In particular, it was certainly not uncommon in the more dynamic provinces of the country to encounter high-end boutiques, workshops and tobacconists. And there was certainly no shortage of cigars - even though, from what I understand, they aren’t part of Turkey’s smoking tradition.

Does the old phrase “to smoke like a Turk” still hold true of people south of the Bosphorus? The expression itself dates back to the 16th century when, following the death of a prohibitionist sultan, the entire country reportedly lit up in celebration. Turkey is a demographically young country and Western habits are quick to take root, despite the totalitarian ambience. Moving on from the cigarette, which now seems very 1990s, the new standards of hipster style and a slightly retro aesthetic taste are spreading with ease among people in their 30s and 40s. This is particularly the case at weekends, when cigars and cigarillos (called “puro” by locals) mark out the beat of slow walks through Middle Eastern scenery.

We tried to smoke something local but everything seemed somewhat light to us. But I was very proud to find Toscanello cigars from Italy’s Manifatture Sigaro Toscano, which, it would seem, are spreading like wildfire - just like the craft of Italian fashion which, in terms of values, traditions and aesthetics, shares so much with the Toscano cigar. Who knows when we will next end up in this part of the world but I wouldn’t be surprised if, in addition to Toscanellos, other more “important” cigars were also to find the space they deserve in Turkey.

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A journey through the summer of autumn

Whether you call it an Indian summer or an Estate di San Martino (‘St Martin’s Summer), as the Italians do, it refers to a time of year between September and November characterised by an episode of mild weather following the first period of cold. This time of year gives us the opportunity to continue our Toscanello Grand Tour, through autumnal delights that can be summed up in a single word: foliage.

We will follow an emotional map, comprising the range of colours from gold, through orange and red, to chestnut brown, with shadings of plum and violet, en route to a smoking space where we can exhale the essence of the Toscano cigar.

The first stop is Villa Peyron, also known as the Bosco di Fonte Lucente (or Woods of the Shining Spring), located in Fiesole (Florence). The first record of this site can be found in the so-called ‘Maps of the Captains of the Guelph Party’, dating back to a period between 1580 and 1595. The current layout is the work of the Peyrons, a family of textile industrialists, who acquired the site in the early 1900s. The garden was the result of a passion on the part of Paolo Peyron. It is home to many plants traditional to Italian-style gardens, including boxwood, oak, cypress, cedar and osmanthus, a flowering evergreen shrub that perfumes the air in September and October, as well as to lemon and citrus trees, and flowers. In fact, one botanical study recorded the presence of almost 300 species, of which at least 13 were extremely rare or threatened.

Our other stop is in the more eccentric Bardini Garden in Florence, located between the Costa San Giorgio hill road and the San Niccolò quarter, offering a splendid view of the city and its monuments. It is no coincidence that the 17th-century villa was also known as ‘Villa Belvedere’, meaning ‘Villa of the Beautiful View’. The building brings to mind the ‘Casini di Delizia’ (‘pleasure palaces’) in fashion in Florence between the late 1500s and the mid-1600s, which were designed to entertain nobility, and which were surrounded by both agricultural crops and ornamental plants. The Bardini has no fewer than three gardens: an English-style wood, an agricultural zone and a monumental park, home to a Baroque staircase.

Let’s just say it: after a walk through the open air, with the autumnal colours still clear in your mind’s eye, a relaxing smoke is more than deserved. I would head for the smoking space at the Fuori Porta wine bar at Via Monte alla Croci 10, opting for a versatile Garibaldi, cut in half, which is well suited both to structured white wines or to beer, very much in vogue at this time.

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Was Emilio Salgari a Garibaldi admirer?

Unless you’re a fan of adventure novels, a patriot of bygone days or a die-hard music lover – a group that is certainly home to many Toscano cigar aficionados – you will no doubt be wondering what on earth Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Garibaldi has to do with the Italian novelist Emilio Salgari, renowned for his swashbuckling adventures.

Well, in order to find out, we need to travel back to a late summer’s evening in the 19th century, to 30 August 1891 to be precise. On that date, Salgari, working as a reporter, attended a concert hosted by a Veronese amateur dramatics society, the Società Filodrammatica Alfieri, where his future wife Ida, was among the performers.

At a certain point, the brass band of another company, the Società Speranza, performed the so-called ‘Hymn of Garibaldi’, All’armi! All’armi! (To Arms! To Arms!), whose lyrics were composed in 1858 by Luigi Mercantini, and which was set to music by Alessio Olivieri, head of music for the Savoy Brigade Second Regiment.

Despite the fact that this piece was still played in most places at the end of the 1800s and for much of the 1900s, a public security official deemed it improper, and summoned the head of the Società Speranza for a reprimand. This incident surprised Salgari so much that he wrote an article published in L’Arena newspaper entitled ‘Garibaldi’s Hymn Forbidden in Verona’.

The article gave rise to a heated dispute between L’Arena and a rival daily, L’Adige, in which various Salgari scholars have recently identified the Garibaldian sympathies attributed by many to the famous novelist, particularly in one of his letters.

Perhaps Mario Soldati - visiting the Cava de’ Tirreni factory in 1982 where he had the idea of dedicating a cigar to Garibaldi on the anniversary of his death - might in fact also have been thinking of Emilio Salgari, as a fan of the Hero of Two Worlds, as Garibaldi is sometimes known due to his military exploits in two continents.

Perhaps Mario Soldati, visiting the Cava de’ Tirreni factory in 1982 where he had the idea of dedicating a cigar to Garibaldi on the anniversary of his death, might in fact have also been thinking of Emilio Salgari, as a fan of the Risorgimento hero!

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Ribollita and the Toscano Cigar

In order to welcome autumn, my focus today is on the Tuscan soup ‘ribollita’, as part of a series of posts dedicated to combining traditional Italian dishes with Toscano cigars.

Photo by rosaeregina.veg

This is a Tuscan peasant dish par excellence based on an anti-waste philosophy, as suggested by the name itself, which literally means ‘reboiled’. Ribollita is a soup made of greens that incorporates traditional wisdom on using up leftovers – waste not, want not! – such as stale bread, which is one the soup’s main ingredients.

This recipe has spread far and wide, crossing first regional and then national boundaries. This is in part due to publishing successes such as Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well - a collection of 790 recipes by gourmand Pellegrino Artusi, first published in 1891 and later translated into numerous languages - and in part by the narrative skills of chefs such as Fabio Picchi, who ‘stages’ traditional plates at his Teatro del Sale restaurant-theatre.

Ribollita is not only a delicious soup, it also has high nutritional value because it makes use of brassica plans, such as savoy and cavolo nero, vegetables that are rich in anti-oxidants, mineral salts and vitamins. This is exactly what you need to fend off seasonal ailments without sacrificing taste. In fact, it is so delicious it has veggie fans in every latitude – there is even a restaurant named after this dish in Portland, Oregan!

In order to complete this most popular of ‘MeatlessMonday’ menus, I would personally recommend a good glass of medium-bodied still red, and a mid-intensity Toscano cigar such as the Extravecchio with its herby, spicy aroma, perfect for an after-lunch or after-dinner smoke.

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Winners of the 2016 Cigar Trophy Awards Announced | Cigar Journal

Cigar Journal votes the Originale Toscano cigar as the best Medium Filler of 2016.

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At the seaside with the Toscano Cigar

I am often asked, above all by newbies, if slow smoking is well-suited to a seaside experience. My answer is: Of course! Although it needs some careful planning to ensure the care of the Toscano cigar, which is sensitive to sun exposure and damp. Before leaving, I would recommend choosing a manageable size container that will fit in your suitcase and which is sufficiently large to hold your supply of ‘stortignaccoli’ (or ‘crooked cigars’).

From my point of view, there are two ideal times to savour our beloved Toscano cigar while at the seaside.

The first of these is in the morning, when the sun has not yet reached its peak, with a good Italian coffee. Here, I would recommend a light cigar, of which there are several in the Toscano range. Examples include the Garibaldi (the Grande I would keep for other moments) and the Toscanello, including the Toscanello Velluto. This is one of the most recent Toscano cigars, designed to cater to newer smokers as it is made with a softer, lighter tobacco, produced prevalently in the Benevento area, which has gone through several fermentation stages in order to mellow the Toscano’s typically more pungent notes.  

The second occasion is at nightfall, watching the sun set over the sea, with a cocktail, either fruit-based or a more classical Negroni or Martini. The elegant, delicate Soldati Cigar is the traditional accompaniment. Alternatively, you may wish to step up the intensity with a Classico, an Antica Reserva or the more aromatic Modigliani, which is also recommended for female smokers.

If on the other hand you’re a bearded, restless soul, in search of the latest trend, then I would recommend the mermaid ‘beardflip’, the recurring hit joke of the American summer, which has become an Instagram sensation

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Miracle on Lake Iseo

Only an artist, and particularly only one named Christo, could replicate the miracle of walking on water, transforming it into a unique experience for many. The ‘miracle’ occurred in July, at the Italian Lake Iseo, an enchanting site spanning the Lombardy provinces of Brescia and Bergamo.

For 16 days, the shimmering surface of the lake was transformed into an artist’s canvas, on which Christo traced a floating line of dahlia yellow. Swathed in yellow fabric and entitled The Floating Piers, his walkway linked up the sites of Sulzano, Peschiera Maraglio, Sensole and the private island of San Paolo belonging to the Beretta family, where the Toscano Club Amici offered cigar tasting.

Around 1.2 million visitors participated in the land art event, as well as swans, ducks and other birds who live in this uncontaminated spot. It quickly became a social phenomenon, with more than 3 million likes on Instagram and mentioned in 100,000 pieces of content on the various networks.

It was the perfect opportunity to re-discover how well the Toscano cigar can be combined with fish from the lake, such as baked tench with polenta and Lake Iseo sardines. The latter in particular represents a speciality unique to the area and has received Slow Food Presidium protection. This is partly because, according to oral tradition, it is dried using a technique dating back at least 1,000 years and partly because there are now very few professional fishermen left working on the lake. To follow, I would suggest an Originale or Extravecchio cigar, off-set by a good glass of Franciacorta DOCG sparkling wine.  

For those who missed out on this magical moment, you can visit the Water Projects at Brescia’s Santa Giulia Museum until 18 September. The exhibition, curated by Germano Celant, brings together all the projects devoted to water of Christo and his deceased wife, Jeanne-Claude, where the artists worked in close connection with landscapes shaped by sea, lakes, oceans and rivers.

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A Toscanello's Italian Journey | Spoleto

The Romanesque-style Cathedral, known as the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta in Italian, was built in the 12th century. The facade has a mosaic showing an enthroned Christ between the Madonna and St John the Baptist. The interior hosts a cycle of frescoes with stories of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi.

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Italian holiday with a Toscano Cigar

A few posts ago, when launching the Toscanello Grand Tour, I spoke about Wolfgang Goethe’s ‘Italian Journey’.

Now summer is in full swing. The cities, small towns, beaches, peaks and valleys of our splendid mountain sites are alive with Italian and foreign tourists. It is not easy to find places dedicated to the Toscano cigar, where you can meet other aficionados and experience a genuinely Italian atmosphere.

As a result, I have decided to suggest a selection of smoking spots in key locations, visited by tourists from all over the world, some of which were stops on the trip that Goethe made between 1786 and 1788, fuelling the tradition of the Grand Tour.

It was therefore essential that I start with Verona, the city where Goethe grasped the Italian national character: “A man who lives here in actual life cannot go wrong, because all the enjoyments of his existence are regulated not by the nominal hour, but by the time of day”. A concept that is a bit like slow smoking, which cannot be hurried along by the incessant ticking of the clock. An ideal locale in which to take refuge is the Hotel Due Torri, where Goethe himself stayed, as well as Mozart. The Hotel is located near the Gothic basilica of the Church of Sant’Anastasia, and was already being used as an inn by 1674. From its terrace you can admire the Verona Cathedral, the Torre dei Lamberti tower, Castel San Pietro and the four towers known as the Torri Massimiliane, or the ‘Torricelle’. The internal courtyard is home to a winter garden that can be used as an outdoor smoking space, where tasty snacks can be sampled in combination with a good cigar.

The Locanda del Prete, on the other hand, in the Perugian town of Gualdo Cattaneo, is home to Umbria’s first cigar club. This is a good spot to relax in the evening, perhaps after having explored some of the Strada del Sagrantino tourist route and immersed oneself in the historical sites of this small town, located in the foothills of the Martani mountains – for example, a visit to the fortress of Rocca dei Borgia, which hosted Galileo Galilei in 1624, one of many castles scattered around this stretch of land.

The last stop on this unique Italian holiday is Venice. It was here that Goethe had the opportunity to discover Venetian theatre, as well as a fashionable pastime among ladies of that era: having a profile portrait created in black upon a white background, in other words, a silhouette. This style of portraiture was named after a French financier, Étienne de Silhouette, who apparently replaced paintings in his castle with these portraits, reportedly out of greed. On this Venice stop you should also take time to linger in the Caffè Florian under the porticos of the Procuratie Nuove buildings, whose elegant smoking room has survived through to the present day.