The Vinegar of Spilamberto And Other Italian Adventures with Food, Places, and People

by Muscatine, Doris; Waters, Alice

• ISBN13: 9781593760816
• ISBN10: 1593760817
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-28
• Publisher: Counterpoint

Summary

"In 1958, Doris Muscatine's husband was awarded a Fulbright that required them to live a year in Rome, and their course was set. For more than forty years, they returned to Italy often - as a couple, soon as a couple with children, and of late with grandchildren." "This is a memoir of a happy life, one spent devoted to family, friends, food, and a growing sense of international understanding filled with hope and respect. With the skill of a landscape painter and the ear of a poet, Doris Muscatine writes of the pleasures of the flesh and of the soul. In her loving look back she takes us along on her search for truffles and balsamic vinegar, her visits to Sicily and Venice, her stay with the nuns of Populonia, and her accidental meeting with members of the Slow Food movement. Her adventures are filled with the serendipity of someone in love with the world and willing to allow life to unfold at its own pace."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Doris Muscatine wrote extensively on food, wine, and cultural history for such publications as Bon Appetit and House and Garden, and authored A Cook’s Tour of San Francisco, A Cook’s Tour of Rome, Old San Francisco: The Biography of a City, and Monday Night at Narsai’s. She was recognized for achievement in Literature-Journalism by the American Institute for Wine and Food and received an Award of Merit from the City and County of San Francisco. She died in 2006.

Table of Contents

The Beginnings: Mushkaboola	3	(9)
Rome	12	(21)
New Friends	33	(21)
The Villa on the Via Appia Antica	54	(11)
Positano and Capri	65	(10)
The Giants of Riace	75	(10)
Bacchanal in Rovescala	85	(13)
The Nuns of Populonia	98	(7)
The Vinegar of Spilamberto	105	(14)
Sicilian Idyll	119	(31)
The Medieval Tower of Barbarino Val d'Elsa	150	(23)
Slow Food	173	(11)
The Pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella and Other Tuscan Adventures	184	(13)
Truffles	197	(30)
From Sardegna to Dozza	227	(18)
Venice	245	(34)
Epilogue	279