Pane Sciocco

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Unsalted Bread.
One of the most interesting Tuscan gastronomic oddities is the so called “pane sciapo” or “pane sciocco”, which means insipid bread, bread baked without salt. A couple of theories try to explain the reason why bread is unsalted. The first one, and the most reliable one, wants this tradition to date back to 1100, when the rivalry between Pisa and Florence was so fierce that the rulers of Pisa decided to cut off salt supplies, thus forcing Florentine bakers to start making bread without salt.
The second theory is linked to the heavy tax that was levied on salt in the Middle Ages. The tax was so high families started baking bread without salt to save money.
What is interesting to notice is that this tradition was already present in Dante’s time. Dante himself used it as metaphor of his future exile from Florence, as we can read in the Divine Comedy, Paradise, Canto XVII:
« Thou shalt prove
how salt the savour is of the other’s bread;
how hard the passage, to descend and climb
by othe’s stairs.»

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