Lemons and love

Florence is famous for so many different reasons! You really have infinite options when it comes to choosing a theme for a visit: you can have a Renaissance-art day and visit one of the many museums (or just stroll the city and admire the ancient buildings!), you can choose food as your theme and have a culinary adventure tasting your way through morning markets and afternoon shops; you can choose fashion, and enjoy the leather goods sold in beautiful artisans shops throughout the city...the list can just go on and on!

Today I want to suggest a less obvious route, inspired by a less obvious theme: lemons!

Florence is characterized by beautiful villas both within the city center and in its immediate surroundings. Most villas have gorgeous gardens, and one of the features are beautiful lemon trees. One thing you must know about this lovely mediterranean plant is that, despite its long pointy thorns, it is actually quite delicate, so in the winter Florentines put their lemon trees in a special building called limonaia - literally: the lemon building.

One of the most beautiful limonaia can be found in the Boboli gardens that sorround Palazzo Pitti - an incredible Medici villa located right in the city center, just across Ponte Vecchio, the famous old bridge.

The Medici were the first ones to introduce lemon trees in their gardens, and they actually started a real fad! But lemon trees had (and have!) a hard time during the harsh Tuscan winters, so the gardeners started placing these plants, that were considered exotic, in specially-constructed buildings called limonaie.

The Boboli Limonaia is a beautiful building that often hosts exhibits of various types: 

It was built around 1778 in a location where there had been the so-called Serraglio degli Animali, where the Medici kept...the exotic animals they received as gifts from other royalty! Imagine that: giraffes and hippos right in the center of Florence!

If that seems strange to you, then you should know that right behind Piazza della Signoria there's a street called Via dei Leoni (Lions' street)...and guess why it was called like that? Yes. There were two cages with two real lions! They were placed there to signify the power and strength of Florence - and if you pay attention you might notice, throughout the city, lion sculptures and symbols. Now you know why!

If fierce animals scare you, let's get back to reassuring trees: another beautiful Limonaia is in the gardens of Villa Strozzi in Via Pisana 77.

This location is definitely worth a visit, especially in the summer, when concerts, theatrical performances and exhibits are hosted there. And if you need a super-special reason to go there, consider that it is home of  Polimoda, one of the most famous fashion schools in the world!!

Last but not least: a tasty ending. You can do many many things with lemons, but one of the most interesting is the liquor called Limoncello. Typical of southern Italy, where the warmer climate makes lemon trees thrive and produce the juiciest fruit, Limoncello can be found in shops and restaurants throughout the whole nation. But try to identify the nicer Limoncello, and avoid the fake-tastic, way-too-sugary, grocery-store brands!

Limoncello should be tasty, and even a bit creamy, but not overwhelmingly sweet: flavour should win over sugar!

And if you really want to have the real thing, you can try to make it yourself! It actually isn't that difficult: you just need good quality lemons and patience (the liquor must sit for about a month before you can drink it). You can find the best lemons from the contadini at the Sant'Ambrogio market (their lemons will have the least amount of chemicals, so you can be safe and use the skins; read my first post to learn all about this market and its amazing vendors!).

You will need:

8-10 organic, untreated lemons

1 liter of alcohol (90degrees)

600 gr sugar

1 liter of water

You peel the lemons, put the lemon peels in a jar with the alcohol, and let it sit for a week. And by the way: an AMAZING perfume will spread in your home throughout this whole process!!

Then you prepare a syrup melting the sugar in the water, and pour it in the jar.

Finally, you filter the liquid removing the lemon peels, and fill a few bottles.

Now you must be patient!! You should wait a few weeks before serving your beautiful, fresh limoncello: you'll see it slowly change colour...and when it does so you'll know it will be soon ready for you to enjoy it!

And by the way: you can sip it slowly from a small (very small!!) glass after a meal like Italians do, but you can also add it to chilled acqua gassata (sparkling water) with ice and have one of the most delightfully refreshing drinks of your life.

Enjoy!!