Cositutti was born from a reconnection with our relatives in Milano and the Veneto region of Italy after my husband's mother died. It was her dream "il sogno della mamma" to travel to Italy.
In 1999 we began a series of trips to Italy visiting our family that continued over a decade. On our trips we began to see things about the way Italians live and work,their food and culture and their perspective on life and gradually began I began to feel an interest in researching the Italian lifestyle as we had experienced it and to document what we had learned which I felt was unique and everyone I talked to wanted to learn more. I was encouraged to share the Italy of our family and friends,travel tips,cooking,recipes, products and conversations on Italian living and culture. I began studying the Italian language and taking courses on Italian food and wine and so Cositutti was born.
Click here for a short slide show presentation that includes pictures and product information from CosituttiMarketPlace - a unique on line shopping experience filled with delicious discoveries from Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria }
The Cositutti Group - Chi siamo . . . who we are
"We could not let all that experience slip through our hands and everyone we talked to wanted to learn more"
The Cositutti Group (Gruppo Cositutti) is a travel and lifestyle resource for the Food, Wine, Art and Design of Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria. Founded by Pamela Marasco, group projects and offerings are based on her experiences eating, cooking, shopping and traveling with her Italian family and friends and based on her book Seeing and Savoring Italy - A Taste and Travel Journey through Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria.
Products available at CosituttiMarketPlace (on-line shop) are sourced from producers that are committed to preserving the culinary and cultural traditions of Italy. Each product has been carefully selected to represent an authentic experience and sourced over 10 years and 10,000 miles of traveling and taste testing regional Italian food. Some products are unique and made only in the village of origin. Many are handcrafted in the "zona artigianale" of Italy. With an Undergraduate Degree in the Biological Sciences and a Graduate Degree in Education, Pamela is committed to farming practices and educational programs that ensure the true flavors of Italy are protected and preserved. The Cositutti Group hosts selective small group trips through our travel partner Italy Taste and Travel with lifestyle itineraries through Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria, an evocative eating adventure where you can see and savor the Italy of our family and friends. For more information on upcoming trips e-maileric@cositutti.com
Entering Into Italy
THE JOURNEY BEGINS ... with il sogno
My first experience in Italy was by way of a road trip with my Italian cousins through Tuscany. It was the fall of 1999. Fresh from reading Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, with visions of vineyards and olive orchards dancing in my head, I jumped at my cousin Lidia's suggestion that we travel by car from Milano through Chianti on our way to Siena stopping in Monteriggioni where my cousin's husband Roberto was born. Now after 10 years and 10,000 miles traveling, eating, cooking and shopping in Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria that trip still remains the singular most perfect experience I have in Italy. Not because everything went right. It didn't. We got lost (repeatedly). I fell down in a vineyard and got car sick a few times (the roads of Chianti are winding). The experience was so memorable because this is where I first discovered the heart and soul of Italy with my Italian family and began to see that Italy was far more than I imagined. This is when I began to follow il sogno della mamma . . . a mother's dream.
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES . . . and becomes so much more
Traveling in Italy now means time spent visiting my Italian family and friends and selecting new and interesting products for CosituttiMarketPlace. Staying in villas, farmhouses, castles, country homes, hotels and estate properties that were once home to Medici princes and Machiavelli. Visiting Etruscan tombs and buying elixirs from ancient farmacia where Caterina d'Medici bought her herbs and essences. Grilling my own bistecca alla fiorentina over a wood burning fire and visiting the COOP (local supermarket) to bring salumi, salame, salsiccia and cheese to our farmhouse table to make panini. Seeing and savoring Italy from the Sud Tirolean Dolomites to the Green Heart of Umbria. Whether I'm traveling with kids and their families to Collodi's Pinocchio Park or enjoying a spritz and cicchetti at one of the wine bars in Venice, I have discovered an Italy that is far more than I expected.
Traveling through Northern Italy, Tuscany and Umbria over 10+ years and 10,000+ miles has led me on a remarkable journey of history, food, wine, art and design. Along the way tasting, eating and cooking regional Italian food and meeting with artisan producers who are committed to preserving the cultural and culinary traditions of Italy. On a recent trip I traveled more than 1,648 km driving throughout Northern Italy and Tuscany visiting cooking schools in Emilia Romagna and Toscana. I spent more time in Milano researching Campari in Sesto San Giovanni (Campari era nato a Sesto!), visited Ferrara again to stay at the Prisciani Suites and made a long awaited trip to Sant' Antimo and an Italian terme. Then stopping again at the estate farm of Tenuta di Capezzano in Carmignano, NW of Florence, a source for one of my favorite olive oils after visiting Florence for the 5th time!
My Michelin Italy Tourist and Motoring Atlas is getting pretty beaten up and I now use a GPS but my focus and intention is always the same . . . to follow a mother's dream. My travels in Italy continue with my Italian family and friends, so I invite you to return often to see where the journey takes me. For more information about our travels, visit our newsletter Archivesand return often to read excerpts from our book about taste traveling in Northern Italy,Tuscany and Umbria.
Read more about our travels that pair the pleasures of eating with the history and art of the region that results in a unique travel experience way beyond a "show and tell" our.
Meet Our Italian Family
Epiphania Marasco
It was a mother's dream to travel to the Italy of our grandmother (Nonna in Italian)) who after arriving in the United States in 1920 kept the connection between her family in Northern Italy and her family in Northwest Indiana alive. The oral traditions of her life in the Veneto region of Italy were kept through wars and liberations,marriages,family beginnings and endings with letters and postcards sent and received. Many of Nonna's recipes along with other Italian food traditions can be found At The Table .
