The Chocolate Valley in Tuscany is the ideal destination for a dessert weekend. Here are the most delicious stages not to be missed among the provinces of Pisa, Prato and Pistoia.
Index of Article
Itinerary Chocolate Valley Tuscany
A zone that has become famous in recent years for the growth of many chocolate industries of great quality and the settlement of artisans capable of producing excellent cocoa products and chocolate chocolate.
Pontedera
Among the most famous names, starting from Pontedera the tribute is due to Chocolates Amedei (www.amedei.com) who won this year for the second time on «Golden Bean», the chocolate Oscar, with the product "9": a 75% cocoa blend of nine different plantations, characterized by a fresh citrus scent and a long taste.
A few kilometers from Pontedera, precisely at Cascine di Buti, the stop is due to the roasting Trials (www.impressioni.it) chocolate chocolate it is recognizable among a thousand for the perfect roasting of cocoa beans (present in crushes in chocolate) and the absence of concaggio – procedure that eliminates defects but, according to Trinci, it also disperses the merits.
Pisa
A leap to Pisa is then a duty because there are Paul de Bondt and Cecilia Iacobelli (www.debondt.it), winners of the 2011 "golden table" for the best flavoured tablets and the best founding tablet. And if the prestigious guide "The chocolate companion" has placed them among the 15 best chocolates in the world a reason there will be... it is therefore worth discovering it.
Pistoia
But it is between Pistoia and Prato that cleans the heart of the valley of chocolate. A jump in Prato alla pastries Mannori is a must, before losing in the delights of Company Slitti by Monsummano Terme. For more than 40 years, the Slitti family has been working coffee and chocolate at very high levels.
Love for their work, dedication, careful choice of raw materials are the secret of their success and the local historian is now a must for the most refined gourmets who want to taste the prestigious coffee blends or immerse themselves in the intoxicating scent of a great assortment of chocolate.
Our itinerary in the Tuscan Chocolate Valley then takes us to the pistoiese mountain, where the story begins Roberto Catinari , the pioneer who in 1974 launched chocolate processing in Tuscany. It is due to this artisan, who before returning to Italy worked as a pastry chef for 20 years in Switzerland, if the Tuscany has become the cradle of chocolate par excellence and its shop-bottega, on the Via Provinciale of Agliana, is worthy destination of lovers from all over the world.
Montecatini Terme
Besides chocolate, however, Pistoia deserves a mention for two other typical local sweet specialties with inimitable taste, which they see in Family Wishes (www.cialdesideri.it) of Montecatini Terme the best representative. The first specialty is Cialde di Montecatini, typical dessert of the homonymous spa town that – following a traditional recipe handed down from father to son – sees enclosed between two very thin leaves a filling composed of Apulian almonds.
The second, the Lamp Ear Brigade: a typical product of the Tuscan countryside that is nothing but a crispy pastry of only eggs, anise, sugar and flour 00 and with which the family Desideri, in 1911, won the gold medal at the fair of the field of Milan.
Where to sleep
To sleep in chocolate valley tuscany we suggest two charming addresses: Borgo Antico Fattoria Casalbosco in Pistoia, ancient village of the fourteenth century is today a residential complex in typical Tuscan rural style, immersed in the lush vineyards of the pistoiesi hills, a place of great charm constellated to farmhouses and medieval villages where to make excursions, trekking and horse riding.
And then Demidoff Country Resort a modern property born in 1990, which enjoys a lovely location overlooking the hills of Fiesole and Florence and is surrounded by a private park of 16 hectares. Rooms are vast, furnished in contemporary style and equipped with the most modern technology, all with balcony or terrace.
