Toscana & Chianti News

Made in Tuscany

Tuscany lands in Miami

The soul of Tuscany in the heart of Miami: this is the slogan chosen to advertise the café-restaurant "Toscana Divino", which opened only a few days ago in Miami, Florida.

Toscana Divino is not only a "cafè" or a restaurant, but a veritable showcase for superior-quality products bearing the Made in Tuscany badge and ranging from food and wine to fashion. It is situated in one of the US’s most important cities in a trendy area, Brickell Avenue, an upmarket residential area.

It is here that "Toscana Divino" will become a new point of reference, also because the plan is to organise fashion shows and events to illustrate and promote Tuscan companies.

The café-restaurant is the brainchild of Wine & Fashion Florence, an eleven-year-old territorial marketing project (developed by the Consorzio Terre del Levante Fiorentino), spearheaded by the municipality of Pontassieve and supported by another ten municipalities (Bagno a Ripoli, Dicomano, Figline Valdarno, Incisa Valdarno, Londa, Pelago, Reggello, Rignano sull'Arno, Rufina e San Godenzo), in association with the Consorzio 100% Italiano, which includes several small and mid-sized Tuscan artisan companies.

The “multipurpose” restaurant is, in short, a unique “visibility platform” in America, also considering that Miami is the fulcrum of the cultural and economic interchange between the north and the south of this continent. "Toscana Divino" is situated in a state-of-the-art shopping centre, the Mary Brickell Village, and has three front windows, which allow passers-by to admire the high-quality Tuscan products.

At its interior, in addition to a "fine dining restaurant", there will also be a wine bar and a large space for exhibiting the top-quality products. There is also a separate section to exhibit the works of contemporary Tuscan artists, who will take turns in mounting one-man exhibitions: more specifically, the Alessandro Reggioli exhibition will be held until April and the Andrea Stella exhibition will be held from April to July.

During the week in which "Toscana Divino" was inaugurated, back at the end of January, a few initiatives celebrating the friendship between Tuscany and Florida also took place including, on Wednesday 25th January, the signing of a twinning agreement between the harbour of Miami and the Livorno Harbour Authority. The event was commemorated with an evocative ceremony held in the harbour of Miami and presided over by the harbour authorities of the two cities.

To mark the occasion, the Leghorn Harbour Authority donated a five-foot bronze reproduction of the "Statua del Marinaio" [Sailor’s Statue], situated in the tourist harbour of San Vincenzo, with the hope of increasingly closer relations between the two maritime cities.

The restaurant’s opening night on 26th January featured dishes by chefs Marco Stabile and Julian Baker, samplings of Chianti Rufina wine, extra-virgin olive oil, typical Tuscan cheeses and cured meats and, to top it all, the exhibition of top-quality handmade accessories and leatherwear representing Tuscan fashion of the highest order.

Soon enough, the special weeks devoted to food will also begin and the oil, wine and cheese weeks have already been scheduled.

During the "Miami Fashion Weeks", which are due to take place in March and September 2012, "Toscana Divino" will invite fashion designers and Tuscan producers with evenings aimed at introducing people to the new leather goods and fashion items coming from Tuscany.