Category Archives: FESTAS

What makes a good dinner party?

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Heather Jarman

I read recently that dinner parties are going out of fashion in London. Not in Casabasciana. Last night the boar hunting team from our group of three villages threw one of their dinner parties to which I took some cultivated … Continue reading →

Posted in FESTAS, TRADITION | 16 Comments

How do you find…?

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Heather Jarman

This sounds like a question you type into Google, but it’s what my clients ask me when I’ve taken them to a cheese maker on a mountain top or a handloom weaver in an unmarked house in a higgledy-piggledy mediaeval … Continue reading →

Posted in cheese, FESTAS, ICE CREAM / GELATO, RESTAURANT, SEAFOOD, TRADITION, Tuscany | 6 Comments

Fritelle di San Giuseppe

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Heather Jarman

Today is Saint Joseph’s day and in northern and central Italy we traditionally eat rice fritters. I bought some this morning at the bar-pasticcieria in Ponte a Serraglio. I couldn’t resist taking a couple of bites before I got home … Continue reading →

Posted in COOKING, FESTAS | Leave a comment

The Good Witch Befana

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Heather Jarman

The Befana is a good witch. She arrives on her broomstick on 5 January, the eve of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night. She goes from house to house, accompanied by villagers singing a begging song. In Casabasciana she brings presents for … Continue reading →

Posted in FESTAS | 2 Comments

“Ten lords a-leaping”

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Heather Jarman

Even though most of us are back at work and it feels like life as usual, today is only the tenth day of Christmas, which continues for twelve days from 25 December, ending on the 6th of January, Epiphany, when … Continue reading →

Posted in FESTAS | 4 Comments