Amy Gulick

    Amy Gulick is a freelance writer based in Florence. Follow her at www.thebittersweetgourmet.com.

    Articles by the author

    FOOD + WINE

    Garmugia

    Garmugia is a springtime soup from Lucca, traditionally associated with seasonal transition and renewal, much like a variety of Italian specialty soups at this time of the year. Throughout southern ...

    Lifestyle

    My piazza dei Ciompi

    I have been a contented country mouse for the better part of my 15 years in Italy, tucked snugly away in the ultimate sleepy Tuscan village where fresh air, quiet ...

    THINGS TO DO

    The Tuscan veglia

    Darkness descends on the Tuscan landscape as weary farmers make their way home, ever mindful of dangers both real and imaginary. Ahead, the light from a farmhouse window pierces the ...

    FOOD + WINE

    Recipe: chestnut honey semifreddo

    Chestnut orchards cover extensive portions of the Mugello, a vast, lush valley tucked into northeast Tuscany’s Apennine mountains, yielding the chestnuts and chestnut-based products like flour and honey that are ...

    Lifestyle

    The 15th of August: sacred or profane?

    This month, as temperatures peak and air quality plummets, visitors to Florence may find themselves wandering a city nearly void of Italians. Owing to its particular geographical position — lying in a low-level basin between hills — in late summer Florence becomes an intolerably hot and hazy place. Thus,

    THINGS TO DO

    Cinque Terre

    1. Monterosso 2. Vernazza 3. Corniglia 4. Manarola 5. Riomaggiore   There are those who will testify, cursing certain guidebook writers in the same breath, that not long ago Cinque Terre was a secluded haven known only to Italians and few other Europeans. The five villages, as the tale goes,

    FOOD + WINE

    Summer Sagras

    Summer in Florence means strolls along the Arno at sunset, gelato with friends, and dinners alfresco that go late into the night. But for those willing to venture beyond the city walls, summer also means a world of Tuscan tastes and traditions—at the sagra.   Sagra is the

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