cantina – Fennyblack

An alternative Saturday night: infusions in Teatro dell’Ozio

Actually, it’s happening even more often to have an alternative Saturday night.

Maybe because now the Saturday night is becoming the Friday night, after a long week spent working..
maybe because things are changing, and you start to understand you don’t always need to go clubbing or dancing to have your Saturday night. Anyway let’s enjoy together this new opening in Florence. I passed several times just in front of it but never stopped there. It looks like a mix of a perfume shop, a saloon, a tea house, a posh Italian bar. And it is.

They said it’s a totally new concept store: they sell perfumes, home fragrances, but also teas, tea cups and coffee pots and all the staff you can have in your kitchen. And you can also enjoy a meal, or a chocolate, infusions and cakes, pies, muffins and go on..

Look at those picture to better understand what I’m trying to say, read what it’s written on the first one, then go on..

Living style. Rooms become the perfect stages for a creative contemporary collection. Taking a new eye to the home.

Teatro dell'Ozio shop - handmade bags — Teatro dell’Ozio shop – handmade bags

The first lines of the picture show the concept of what you can see in the surrounding area of your seat (a comfortable sofa or white comfortable chairs made of wood). Then enjoy the ambient: a mix of ancient arches, romanic tiles, black libraries and branches that seem to be the dark touch of this place:

Teatro dell'Ozio - Florence — Teatro dell’Ozio – Florence

And then, it follows the bathroom area (?!) – well I’m joking, this is the privè:

Here it follows the shopping area:

We finally went for a set of infusions and a chocolate muffin with pistachios cream:

Infusions in Teatro dell'Ozio — Infusions in Teatro dell’Ozio

..really hard to remember their ingredients, but their taste and flavor were very palatable and helped feeling relaxed for this alternative Saturday night.

Traditional Tuscany: fiorentina? Chianina? Cantina? what else?

Yes here we are, the second part of out tour in the countryside of Tuscany (near Arezzo) going until the upper side of Umbria. Enjoy for example, this little fiorentina, fresh meat from poor Tuscan-rooted beef:

Then, it comes the best hamburger you can find in this area: Crispi’s Chianina hamburger. It looks like a classical McDonald’s one, but it isn’t, I swear it.

let me also add this picture, it’s the one I prefer. It’s named ‘Lo sfondo’ that is to say you will have that sense of happiness while eating it and stomachache just after it 🙂

Chianina burger: 'Lo Sfondo' — Chianina burger: ‘Lo Sfondo’

And now let’s stop thinking about food, and have a look to some souvenirs you can get while going all around: magnets representing those landscapes and fields you can find on your road, sign about famous films run in those areas (as the one shown in the picture below: New Moon, Twilight), postcards about cantinas (the place where wine is produced) and historical monuments…

Tuscan souvenirs: postcards, magnets, posters

and then the most particular picture: a poster about the different kind of glasses, with different shapes and glass: generally they are linked to a particular kind of wine. Wine experts always say that there’s a only kind of glass for a specific wine, have a look here:

poster about wine and glasses: the kind of glass you use is related to the kind of wine you’re going to drink

Finally, let’s have a good Italian coffee, together with some special chocolate becoming exactly from their best production known all over the world: baci perugina frim Perugia

Italian Coffee in Montepulciano (La Briciola restaurant)

chocolate from Perugia ('baci perugina' are the most popular in the world) — chocolate from Perugia (‘baci perugina’ are the most popular in the world)

Ending with a wonderful panorama

Escape: Tuscan countryside

Yes I was escaping, flying away from the city, just for a brief wend.

But it was like going back home, in the countryside of a wonderful area as Tuscany.

That’s why I want to share some pictures with you, to offer you an escape, going deepen in the fields and trees and sun and weird moments of life.

Let’s start the tour from a little town near Arezzo, named Civitella Val di Chiana (exactly where the popular ‘chianina’ is made). Here you are some little snapshots of a huge landscape: