Christine wrote:

> Tuscany is one of the places I want to visit someday, and preferably
> spend some time. I fell in love with the descriptions of it in
> Frances Mayes' books...
>
> A few rfc'ers have talked about maybe doing a semi-foodie vacation in
> Italy somewhe my vote is for Tuscany. The idea was to maybe rent a
> house for a few weeks/month..and make it our base. Plus do a great
> amount of cooking and eating while we are there..shopping from the
> local markets, etc.

The Tuscans appear to be very proud of the traditional unsalted Tuscan
bread, which I don't understand at all. I'm not a salt fiend by any stretch
of the imagination, but Tuscan bread tastes "flat" to me. I suppose if you
only ate it to accompany food which was oversalted, the two might balance
out.

Other than that, I think the food in Tuscany is fantastic. But how could you
*not* want to go to Parma for the food? Or the Amalfi coast, about which
Mario Batali waxes poetic? Or Apulia, from which some of the best and
freshest Italian food is emerging? And let's not forget Venice, which has
centuries of being a major port in the spice trade routes, with a regional
cuisine which reflects that.

Bob