Italy's glowing reputation with wine is due not only to the fact that it produces and exports more than any other country but that it offers the greatest variety of types, ranging through nearly every color, flavor and style imaginable.

Italian producers have moved rapidly to the forefront of world enology, improving techniques to create wines of undeniable class in every region, north and south. Their wines derive not only from native vines, which represent an enormous array, but also from a complete range of international varieties.

In the past it was sometimes said that Italians kept their best wines to themselves while supplying foreign markets with tasty but anonymous vino in economy sized bottles. But markets have changed radically in recent times as consumers in many lands-most importantly in Italy itself-have insisted on better quality. The result is simply better wine! If you would like to read more about the wine please visit this website.

I love mushrooms just about any way you can cook them but one of my favorite preparations has to be to stuff them. This stuffed mushroom is a little lighter than many of the other versions you will come across as the primary ingredient in the stuffing is creamy ricotta cheese. Now you can add or subtract any number of ingredients in this filling to change the flavor, but this version is the one I make most often. Other ingredients you could include would be olives, capers, or anchovies. You could also replace some of the ricotta cheese with goat cheese. Porcini or portobello mushrooms work really well in this recipe as their meaty flavor is complimented by the light, creamy filling but large cultivated button mushrooms can also be used. Serves 6 by Deborah Mele.

6 Large Mushrooms (See Notes Above)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Tablespoons Finely Minced Onion
3 Garlic Cloves, Peeled & Minced
3 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Parsley
1 Red Hot Chile Pepper, Minced (Optional)
3 Oil Packed Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Finely Chopped
1 Cup Full Fat Ricotta Cheese
Salt & Pepper
5 Tablespoons Freshly Grated Pecorino (or Parmesan) Cheese
Olive Oil For Brushing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the stems of the mushrooms and chop them finely. In a heavy frying pan heat the olive oil and then add the mushrooms and onion. Cook until softened. Add the garlic and chile pepper and cook another minute or two. Allow the mixture to cool and then add the parsley, tomatoes, and ricotta cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Lightly oil a baking sheet and place mushroom caps cut side up. Brush the caps lightly with olive oil and then spoon the filling in. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and then bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender when pierced with a knife and the tops are lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Many non-Italians identify Italian cooking with a few of its most popular dishes, like pizza and spaghetti. People often express the opinion that Italian cooking is all pretty much alike. However, those who travel through Italy notice differences in eating habits between cities, even those only a few miles apart. Not only does each region have its own style, but each community and each valley has a different way of cooking as well. Every town has a distinctive way of making sausage, special kinds of cheese and wine, and a local type of bread. If you ask people, even in the same area, how to make pasta sauce, they will all have different answers. Variations in the omnipresent pasta are another example of this multiplicity: soft egg noodles in the north, hard-boiled spaghetti in the south, with every conceivable variation in size and shape. Perhaps no other country in the world has a cooking style so finely fragmented into different divisions. More to come in this subject in the next post! - Rita

Italian is a Romance language, which means that Italian, just like Spanish, French, and Portuguese, is a child of Latin. Latin was once the official language in a large part of Europe because the Romans ruled so much of the area. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today.

If you know one of the Romance languages, you can often understand bits of another. Just as members of the same family can look similar but have totally different characters. You find the same contradictions in the dialects (regional or local language differences) in Italy and in other countries.

If you visit Italy, you’ll hear various accents and dialects as you travel the country. Despite the number of dialects, you may be surprised to discover that everybody understands your Italian and you understand theirs. (Italians don’t normally speak in their dialect with foreigners.

What with all this interest in tall buildings and the world’s highest skyscrapers, I thought it would be interesting to discover how Italy measures up on the tall buildings front. It turns out that Italy has quite a way to go to compete with the Dubai Tower. Quite a long way, actually. If you’d like to find out what the tallest building in Italy is, and where it can be found, then read on, curious reader.

Technically, the tallest building in Italy today can be found in Naples - and it is the Torre Telecom Italia which is 129 meters (423 feet) in height. This 33 floor structure, however, is about to be beaten by a building in Milan, which is already being listed as Italy’s tallest building on Wikipedia. The successor to the Italy’s Tallest Building title will be 161 meters (528 feet) high with 39 floors, and it will house Lombardy regional authority personnel . However, at a measly 161 metres, it’s not much of a threat to the record breaking 818 meters of the Dubai Tower.

Other tall buildings are on Italy’s horizon though, twenty seven of them, including one which will snatch the Italy’s tallest building title from the Lombardy council skyscraper – I Dritto – the Straight (or maybe ‘upstanding’ would be a better translation).

Guests of private or public parties are sometimes entertained with a game called "Tombola", similar to Bingo. The New Year is also celebrated with spumante or prosecco, Italian sparkling wine. New Years parties, whether public or private, will often last until sunrise in order to watch the first sunrise of the newborn year. An old custom that is still followed in some places, especially in the south, is throwing your old things out the window to symbolize your readiness to accept the New Year. So, keep an eye out for falling objects if you're walking around near midnight!

Oh, one more thing, don't forget to wear your red underwear to ring in the new year! They say it'll bring you luck in the coming year.

Cookies have always played an important part in Italian cuisine, whether they are consumed for breakfast with a cappuccino, or nibbled with a quick shot of espresso at a mid-morning or afternoon break. It is at holiday time however, particularly Christmas, when cookies truly shine. In almost any Italian home, whether it be in Italy, or here in North America, most families prepare specific traditional cookies each Christmas, and often those recipes have been handed down through their families for generations.

In Italy, the generic term biscotti, pretty well covers all types of cookies, although biscotti literally translates as twice baked. Here in the US, we know biscotti to be the hard, crescent shaped cookies that have become so popular recently. It is not unusual in Italy, to find the same cookie in many different regions, given a different name in each. Many cookies are given names from folklore, or fairy tales, such as brutti ma buoni, which means ugly but good, or baci di dama, or lady's kisses. Most Italian cookies are either made from nut paste or are butter based, and are in general not overly sweet. Visit any Italian household throughout the holidays, and you can almost be assured of being offered a tasty treat from the cookie tray.

If you are interested in preparing your own Italian cookie tray this year, you might be interested in the following tips for baking cookies, as well as my favorite Christmas cookie recipes that follow.

Cookie Baking Tips:

• Always preheat the oven for even baking.
• Place cookies on cold baking sheets.
• Place the baking sheets at least two inches from the wall of the oven for even baking.
• If baking two trays at one time, switch the top and bottom tray mid way through the baking period.
• Don't depend on the suggested baking time. There are many factors that can affect how long your cookies will bake. Check your cookies a couple of minutes before the recommended time.
• Once cookies are fully baked, remove them from the hot baking sheets to wire racks to cool, because the cookies will continue to cook on the hot trays.
• Do not store cookies until they have thoroughly cooled. Store in an air-tight container.

The Umbrian city of Gubbio has a spectacular way to mark the end of Christmas. 800 water fountains illuminated with thousands of lights form a gigantic Christmas tree climbing the side of Mount Igino. The ‘biggest Christmas tree in the World’ (according to the Guinness Book of Records) is on show from 1-10 January and is absolutely spectacular.

Epiphany (Befana) rolls along on 6 January, a Catholic holiday vying with Christmas for importance. Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the Magi. Legend has it that the Wise Men asked an old woman for shelter. The woman (La Befana) refused, and has been wandering the planet ever since looking for the baby Jesus. Epiphany Eve (5 January) sees a good witch flying from rooftop to rooftop with gifts for children who’ve been good. If that sounds familiar, it’s a variation on the same folk tales that have come down to us as Father Christmas, with La Befana even popping down the chimney.

Travel to the Abruzzo region on 16 January and you can enjoy the Farchia festival. The people of the marvellously named mountain town of Fara Filiorum Petri construct 30ft bundles (fasce) of sticks, stand them on end and burn them like tapers. Songs are sung to celebrate Saint Antonio’s Day, and then it’s open house for a feast of sweets, wines and local spirit.

Carnivals or Carnevale are celebrated all over Italy, strictly speaking it is the lead up to Lent. Venice has a tremendous fortnight-long masked event and the celebrations on the Tuscan seaside resort of Viareggio are world famous. But the little Tuscan city of Foiano della Chiana, near Arezzo, claims its celebration as the oldest in the region, with the first Carnevale taking place on 18 January, 1809, 64 years before Viareggio. With parades of giant floats, colourful masks and costumes, music and dancing, and a feast of good food on sale in the streets, this is great fun for families. And if you’re used to carnivals running over a day or two … not in Italy. The celebrations here run from the last Sunday in January to the third Sunday in February.

Just north of Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna town of Cento is ‘twinned’ with the rather more famous Rio Carnival, with the winning float being shipped off to Brazil. The Cento events make Foiano appear a mere newcomer, with the city proudly pointing to artist Guercino’s painting of 1615 Maschere Folleggianti which depicts the celebrations. This is a serious business, with a guild of float makers training apprentices in the old craft. The spectacular celebrations culminate in 30,000 pounds of sweets being thrown to the crowds. The carnival runs for around a month from the penultimate Sunday in January.

TWVSEES8T9MH