You might not think of strawberries in winter, but in Italy, the wild strawberries are delicious this time of year!

I know, because I had a bowl for dessert the other day.  With sugar and cream, what could be better?  If something better exists, I haven’t found it yet!

Ciao!

Also a pretty day.  I was walking across the Ponte San Niccolo to the east of downtown Florence and the view of the Duomo was also stunning!  It looks like it is dangling by its massive dome from the crane!

Here comes a paddle boarder into view on the lower left:

I doubt this was a view the architect, Brunelleschi, imagined when he designed the dome in the 1400s!  I doubt they had conceived of paddle boarding!

Almost unbelievably gorgeous!

It was 60 degrees F., the sky was cloudless azure…

 

And the pink, green, and white marble on Il duomo was breathtakingly vivid!

I’ve never seen the pink marble look pinker or the green marble look greener that they did today!

Do NOT drink wine with lunch.  It tastes good and feels fun during lunch.  It ruins the afternoon and evening.  All I want to do is sleep and this frustrates me!

Have an affrogato!  Vanilla ice cream “drowned” in hot espresso.  It isn’t just for Christmas either!

I truly need a break from all the sweets!  But, I want one that looks like a party and is green.  So here ya go!

This beautiful thing is Romanesco broccoli, also known as Roman cauliflower, Broccolo Romanesco, Romanesque cauliflower, or simply Romanesco.

It is the edible flower bud of the species Brassica oleracea.

From where?  Italy of course!

The Romanseco was first documented in Italy in the 16th century.

A lovely chartreuse in color, Romanesco has a striking appearance because its form is a natural approximation of a fractal. When compared to a traditional cauliflower, its texture as a vegetable is far more crunchy, and its flavor is not as assertive, being delicate and nutty.

And it’s good for you! Nutritionally, Romanesco is rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber, and carotenoids.

“Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti,” Sophia Loren.

It is sweet for me to end the day by stopping by my local grocery and choosing something wonderful to make for dinner at home.  There I sip a glass of chianti and gaze across the Arno at the Uffizi.  With white and red candles lit around my home, it a lovely way to spend an evening.

Last night I found this amazing confection in the fresh pasta department:

 

 

The package describes the pasta as “pasta fresca all’uovo con ripieno e caramelle fatte a mano con ricotta e spinace.”  In English: “fresh egg pasta, handmade in the shape of a candy with a filling of ricotta and spinach.”  Delicious!

 

I also purchased a container of sugo con carne, red sauce with minced beef, and came home and had a beautiful dinner in less than 10 minutes.  I doctored the sugo up with some tomato sauce, red wine, and a few herbs.  I can’t resist playing with my food.

For dessert, I enjoyed the local clementines.   A perfect meal!

 

And wait, there’s more: While that was already the perfect day, a few hours later I bundled up and walked to a new yoga studio for a late evening class.  On my way home, I bumped into a classmate from school.

Perfection!  I love that I can be a yoga 10 minutes after leaving my apartment!

What’s more beautiful than a colorful, flavorful clementine?

Nulla! Nothing!

Happy Citrus Season!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the clementine:

A clementine (Citrus ×clementina) is a hybrid between a mandarin orange and a sweet orange, so named in 1902. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance.

Clementines can be separated into 7 to 14 segments. Similarly to tangerines, they tend to be easy to peel. They are almost always seedless when grown commercially (without cross-pollination), and therefore are also known as seedless tangerines.

The clementine is also occasionally referred to as the Moroccan clementine.They are typically juicy and sweet, with less acid than oranges. Their oils, like other citrus fruits, contain mostly limonene as well as myrcene, linalool, α-pinene and many complex aromatics.

Most sources say that the clementine came to exist because of accidental hybridization, with the first fruits discovered by Brother Clément Rodier (after whom the fruit was named in French and then English) in the garden of his orphanage in Misserghin, Algeria. However, there are claims it originated in China much earlier; one source describes it as nearly identical to the Canton mandarin widely grown in the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China.

The clementine is not always easy to distinguish from varieties of mandarin oranges. As such, it should not be confused with similar fruit such as the satsuma or honey sweet orange, or other popular varieties.

 

How about this for a pretty presentation!!!?