Alberti in fron fo the Ufizzi in Florence

Alberti, Leon Battista   (1404-1472), born in Genoa. One of the first Renaissance humanists, Alberti excelled as an architect, sculptor, painter, art theorist and writer. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including painting (Della Pittura), architecture (De re aedificatoria), sculpture (De statua) and even family ethics. In his I Libri della famiglia, four books written around 1434 in  a Tuscan dialect, Alberti discussed education, marriage, wise household management, family prosperity, and friendship in the work place. Book Three reveals beautiful excerpts on meals such as: “…but let there be a proper table for good citizens, so that no well-disposed member of your family would want to eat elsewhere in hopes of assuaging hunger better than at home. Let your table be a good domestic spread, with no lack of wine and plenty of bread. Let the wine be pure and the bread, too, good enough, and let there be fine and sufficient condiments for the bread.” And let’s not forget the cheese!

Our favourite cheese shop in Pienza, Tuscany. Here the Pecorino di Pienza.