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Taste- Florence’s Artisan Food Fair

This is one of my favorite food shows in Florence. This weekend, February 3-5 at the Fortezza del Basso, over 640 stands on all elements of food and cooking. David Paolini has hand-picked some of Italy’s best.More than just food, there are also speakers and events held off site around town. The show is mostly…

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BREATHE

I don’t know about you, but since covid I feel like I have been holding my breath. We got through the lockdowns and now we are surviving the overtourism which is understandable. EVERYONE wanted to come back to Italy. I just had my last group of the year and this weekend we went to a…

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Summer Pantry- Non cooking meals Italian style

I adore cooking and shopping but not the cleaning up. Luckily my husband Andrea, does that part for me. We function as a team. When the heat arrives in summer, less time spent in our tiny kitchen the better. The King of Summer in our house is the Pomodoro. We love the variety. Italians have…

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Celebrating Sicily

We have had a long wet winter and spring. I recently returned from two weeks in Sicily and was glad I had brought a sweater as well as an umbrella. We actually were pretty lucky to only be rained on one day of touring. But the hills are such a vibrant green and everything is…

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Taste Florence- Trattoria Mario

When you come to visit Italy and are looking for restaurants, people used to read guidebooks and plan their eating and make reservations. Now it’s more often FB or Instagram mentions which make you want to visit a place. When I moved to Italy, there was no internet, just the guidebooks. I tended to ask…

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The Rebirth of the Website- Back to Business

When I first started traveling I found a passion for going to markets around the world to understand how people eat, what local specialties are and what’s in season. In 1984, when I moved here, I went to the market often to listen to how people ordered what they wanted, get some recipes and make…

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Tuscan Summer – The Heat is On

Whenever people mention “Under the Tuscan Sun”, I always think about summer here which can be extreme. This summer is no different, if anything it’s hotter and drier. I grew up in the Bay Area outside of San Francisco. Our summers were also extreme and we didn’t have air conditioning. Now, I am becoming a…

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Welcome Back!

It’s been a long haul. Finally am back teaching and running  my culinary weeklong programs!  Great week to start as we had a huge heatwave! I couldn’t do the grilled steak meat at Dario Cecchini’s in Panzano, but we did hit the panino truck he has down the street. It’s been great to finally be…

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Judy Witts Francini

Originally from California; Tuscany has been my home since 1984. I found the city of Florence to hold all my passions, food, wine, art all in one place. When I am not in Tuscany, I am often found in Sicily, my other favorite place to be. Always searching for recipes to share and exploring for the guides I write to my favorite cities for food and wine.

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Visit Tuscany | Kitchenmate

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