I've spent over 10 years and 10,000 miles traveling and taste testing regional Italian food in Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria with my Italian family and friends. I've traveled from the Alpine ranges of the Dolomites to the fertile plains and rolling hills of the Emilia-Romagna Apennines and from the sun-drenched Ligurian Riviera to the Venetian shores of the Adriatic. All along the way I've tasted the historical landscape of a region of Italy whose food is at the gastronomic epicenter of the world.
Shop CosituttiMarketPlace and read more to learn about the artisan producers and Italian business owners I work with who are committed to preserving the culinary and cultural traditions of Italian foods and family.
Our Partners in Italy
Tenuta di Capezzana The Tuscan landscape of tall cyprus with rows of grapevines and silver green olive trees is the setting for this estate farm that has been producing olive oil and wine since the year 804. Located near the village of Carmignano, northwest of Florence,the olive groves and vineyards of Capezzana are legendary with a history of families including the Medici. Wine produced here is from vines grown in the ancient Medici Barco Reale or "royal property" mentioned in Cosimo de Medici's "Decreto Motu Proprio" in 1716. With this decree, Grand Duke Cosimo III set Italy's first laws establishing boundaries and production standards for quality wines.
Capezzana is on my see and savor itinerary and a source for one of our selected extra virgin olive oils at CosituttiMarketPlace. Every time I visit and tour the frantoio and vineyards at Capezzana I continue to be amazed at the process of converting olives to oil and grapes to wine. Being at the site of production I get to see how state of the art machinery combined with traditional methods produce "my oil". The olives are hand picked by the people in the surrounding villages who have done this type of work for generations and ask only to be paid with the oil produced. There is a one to one relationship between the olive trees on the estate and the oil they produce. One olive tree produces one bottle of oil. So when you buy a bottle of Tenuta di Capezzana Extra Virgin Olive Oil it's like having a bottle made just for you.
Meet the Family - It's always a pleasure and a privilege to meet with the Contini Bonacossi family (the current owners of the estate). Their care and concern for preserving the wines and oil of Capezzana ensure that you are buying the best possible product. Walking through the old 'orciaia' (oil jar room) next to the olive mill, I have a sense of the tradition and history passed down through the generations that makes their oil exceptional. Artisan crafted, it is truly the fruits of their labor.
Besides preserving the historitcal and vincultural traditions of Capezzana, the Contini Bonacossi family are curators of a large private collection of paintings, Tuscan Renaissance furniture, ceramics and statues. Exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, it is regarded as one of the most important known in Europe in this century. It is a delicious experience when invited to an afternoon meal at the table with the Contini Bonacossi family and friends in the dining room of their villa. The food, wine, conversation and company are most agreeable as we ate a Tuscan meal fit for a Medici tasting three of their signature wines. Seeing and savoring Italy can be no better.
Shopkeeper Manola has an Italian sensibility for the beauty of tessuti tradizionale. In her shop the evocative colors of the Umbrian hills and Tuscan landscape are captured by the artful weaving of traditional linens with designs reminiscent of the Renaissance and italian folklore. We always enjoy selecting CosituttiMarketPlace's collection of Italian linen towels with Manola. Featured linens are by Tessitura Pardi well known for quality and design with patterns and styles that will complement any setting from the most formal to casual. These linens are used on a daily basis in the kitchens and baths of my Umbrian friends as well as in many of Italy's most refined hotels and country houses.
Meet the Family Manola Grappi and Paul Terzuoli,after several years of industry experience, have given birth to "ALTROIERI", working with artisan producers in the region. Their studio overlooks one of the most beautiful views of the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany.
Azienda Agraria Luigi Corneli
Molti anni fa the Corneli's introduced me to then undiscovered Umbria. We spent time with the family in Perugia and Orvieto visting the local towns and villages on a memorable road trip, learning about food, wine, linens from Montefalco and the finer points of pasta making. Eating,drinking and sharing stories about the culinary and cultural traditions of their family and the foods of Italy. I had my first glass of sagrantinowith Luca and Luigi, my first taste oflardo, my first bistecca made on a wood-fired grill under the vine-covered pergola in the garden of their home and I returned home with a tin of liquid gold; olive oil from their family farm.
Meet the Family -Azienda Agraria Luigi Corneli now carries on a generational traditionderived not only from the experience gained over the years in the field of processing of olives but, above all, by the love and care that the family Corneli has for the history and beauty of the land. This oilmakes a statement about the land, la storia and a family. Read more
