Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespaand Florence and the Best of Tuscany
Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa
Matthew Fort
Ebury Press, £10.99 in UK
For many people the pleasure of pastures new is inextricable from the feast of unusual flavours they can savour. This book is Matthew Fort's ode to Sicily and its gastronomy, featuring the finest traditional Italian elements, the spicy influx of North African flavours and the sharpness of Spanish influence. In 1973 Fort and his brother visited Sicily, spending idyllic days wandering from restaurant to cafe. Thirty years later he returns to hare around astride Monica, his Vespa, savouring the sweetest cannoli, the smoothest ricotta and the finest farsumagru. This is a joyous, sensuous and incessantly greedy account, with language as rich and intense as the flavours it conjures. It's not all doe-eyed nostalgia, though, and Fort's part travelogue, part recipe book touches on the darker side of Sicilian history and the indelible shadow of the Mafia. What we are left with is a country within a country that clings to its traditions as closely as it does to its foodie standards. And who would fail to raise a glass to that?
Florence and the Best of Tuscany
Time Out Guides
£12.99 in UK
Florence: home to the Medicis, Machiavelli and the Renaissance, a city bursting with culture and an excellent choice for a few days away, a lazy week or a luscious month. This book's magazine-style layout
is packed with photographs and reviews of bustling bars, timeless trattorias and restaurants to set your waist bulging. Top it off with a tour of Tuscan towns and you have a great guide for planning the perfect Italian job in one of the country's most appetising regions.