BY SIMONE BANDINI “(Europe) is a bourgeois and individualistic continent preoccupied with its refrigerator.” Albert Camus, speaking in Athens 28th April 1955. In 1955 Albert Camus was incredibly – and today I add miserably – prophetic. Post-bourgeois nihilism has brought us to extreme consequences in technocratic, rationalist and materialistic thinking. That the […]
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BY SIMONE BANDINI “If you want something, you have the right to take it” Bret Easton Ellis Following an exotic cultural fashion rather popular in the Anglo-Saxon world of radical chic and amplified by the simplistic reductionism of social networks, the capacity to be well (and alone) with and in yourself becomes the archetype […]
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BY SIMONE BANDINI We are with Silvia and Marco Barneschi at the Podere La Piaggia: and around a rugged rustic wooden table we taste their new extra virgin olive oil on a bruschetta, before trying other ‘magic’ bottles of oil flavoured in the old fashioned way. To get to the two siblings we went down […]
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BY GIOVANNI SALVIETTI This morning in Colle di Val d’Elsa we met a very nice ‘type’: his name is Dante and he is a four-year-old bracco Italiano dog. He was visiting the San Marziale Veterinary Clinic for a routine checkup. Immediately at ease, he showed an exceptionally sweet and nice disposition! We were literally enchanted […]
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BY GIOVANNI SALVIETTI We already looked at the Villa Solissimo (See VL Chianti and Valdelsa, Summer 2020) with them; in this issue we are going to learn of a technique that can bring great benefits even on a small scale, in single homes or condominiums. Thanks to a completely natural insulating material an apartment can […]
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BY SIMONE BANDINI Our journey to discover the Radda in Chianti area continues – begun with the Mayor Pier Paolo Mugnaini and architect Daniele Barbucci – and in particular its winemaking tradition. Let’s take a cue from the recent awards that have fallen like rain on local producers: seven vineyards awarded three glasses by the […]
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DI SIMONE BANDINI In order for a real, physical place to maintain its symbolic relevance alongside its architectural shape, its space must be open – with precise exchanges between material and transcendental reality. I realize intuitively and suddenly that here – at the Rocca di Staggia – I am in one of these places. Donatella […]
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BY GIOVANNI SALVIETTI In autumn, when the trees undress themselves, and let their leaves fall, as if they were daughters making light silk dresses for themselves, the olive tree bears its fruits created with difficulty in a long-awaited gestation. Thanks to an ancient process of transformation its liquid gold is distilled: extra virgin olive oil, […]
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DI GIOVANNI SALVIETTI Poggibonsi, early 20th Century, Dei Natale is known throughout the town for its vinegar plant: its demijohns at the ready and also takes care of hardware, guns and knives, all in Via Maestra in the heart of the commercial district of that era. We talk to the current owners of the business, […]
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BY SIMONE BANDINI This story has its roots, it should be said, in the last century, when Amedeo’s grandparents, farmers, bought a farm in the Val d’Orcia, a place which has been chosen as a Unesco World Heritage Site for the splendour of its landscape and the perfect balance there between nature and human activity. […]
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BY SIMONE BANDINI San Conino oil is soft, delightful in appearance and intense in taste. Like a graceful girl whose precocious myth spreads across the grassy slopes of the Val d’Orcia where the sweet song of the ‘two- tailed siren’ rings out – as in the brand symbol Alessio Panarese selected, a perfect koinè of […]
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DI JORI DIEGO CHERUBINI “Tradition is not the cult of the ashes but the custody of the fire” is an admirable phrase of Gustav Mahler, and the more time passes the more it finds meaning and resonance. And the fire in Abbadia San Salvatore has been guarded for millennia during the Fiaccole [Torches]. A festival […]
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