• Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Italian Notes
  • HOME
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Abruzzo
    • Basilicata
    • Calabria
    • Campania
    • Emilia-Romagna
    • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
    • Lazio
    • Liguria
    • Lombardia-Lombardy
    • Marche
    • Molise
    • Piemonte-Piedmont
    • Puglia – Apulia
    • Sicilia
    • Toscana-Tuscany
    • Trentino-Alto Adige – Trentino-South Tyrol
    • Umbria
    • Veneto
  • FOOD
    • Antipasti
    • Primi piatti
    • Secondi piatti
    • Dolci
  • PR/ADVERTISING
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Tuscany’s bread without salt

Even though salt tax has long been abolished and the salt supply lines reestablished, people in Umbria and Tuscany still prepare bread without salt.



Booking.com


Generally praised as a culinary stronghold, it is amazing to note that the people of central Italy don’t know how to bake bread. In my opinion, bread from most parts of Tuscany and Umbria is compact, dry, bland and devoid of character, and therefore local housewives tend to camouflage the bread as crostini, bruschetta, panzanella or minestra and other courses that conceal the tastelessness.

In addition or perhaps as a consequence, bakeries in Tuscany and Umbria are hard to find, and when you finally spot a ‘panettiere’, they are either closed (due to the weather, the time of day, the time of week or the time of year) or out of bread. All you can hope to find when the shops reopen in the afternoon is a pound of baked flour so hard that it could be used in self defense as an instant knock out for approaching muggers. The taste is non-existent.

bread without salt

A bakery in Montepulciano

Of course the tasteless Umbrian and Tuscan bread has a perfectly sensible explanation.

The Salt Tax

In the early Middle Ages, the rulers of Pisa cut off salt supplies lines from the coast in retaliation of a fall out with their rival in Florence. This made salt so costly that common husbandry forced people in central Tuscany to prepare bread without the addition of salt, and the inhabitants of Umbria had a similar experience.

In 1540, the slightly corrupt Pope Paul III imposed an indirect tax on salt, which immediately changed the culinary habits. The Pope forced the citizens of Perugia to purchase salt from the pontificates, and this in reality doubled the price, and caused major headaches as salt was a most effective means for the preservation of food. In response the people of Perugia sought to limit consumption and stopped adding salt to bread, and some of them are still willing to swear that ‘filone’ tastes better that way.

Photo from Italian bakery selling bread without salt

There’s a large selection of different kinds of bread on sale from most bakeries in Italy.

How to Serve Unsalted Bread

So even though salt tax has long been abolished and the salt supply lines to central Tuscany reestablished, the consequences live on. Instead of preparing bread with salt, people of central Italy prefer to bury their bread in heaps of tomatoes, onions, basil and olive oil. They drown it in a ribollita with cabbage, leeks, onions, potatoes and beans. Or dissolve it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar before tossing in tomatoes, cucumbers and celery for a bread salad.

That way, stale Tuscan and Umbrian bread gives us a taste of history and becomes edible for outsiders without a share in the medieval salt wars.

Bread without salt and other notes on Tuscany

Orbetello sights – The Spanish mill

Leaning Tower of Pisa facts

Striking clock tower in Montepulciano

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
16 replies
  1. Patti
    Patti says:
    August 23, 2013 at 12:36 am

    Wow! Who knew? One of my dreams is to spend at 3 months exploring Italy and learning to cook authentic Italian – but bread without salt?! Yuck!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      August 25, 2013 at 10:40 am

      Not exactly to my taste either, but you can get used to everything I believe.

      Reply
    • Judith
      Judith says:
      June 25, 2017 at 10:48 pm

      Loved Tuscany, hated the bread!

      Reply
      • Mette
        Mette says:
        July 29, 2017 at 11:17 am

        That makes two of us;)

        Reply
  2. alina
    alina says:
    October 10, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    Very interesting – didn’t know that. Oh well, luckily for everyone they make up for that awful bread with other super delicious local dishes… and the bruschetta is always tasty!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      October 13, 2013 at 2:51 pm

      You have certainly got a point:)

      Reply
  3. Lois casto
    Lois casto says:
    June 13, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    Just got back from Tuscany .,loved there. Bread,will try making my own

    Reply
    • Mette Vaabengaard
      Mette Vaabengaard says:
      June 19, 2016 at 10:06 am

      I’m not too partial to bread without salt myself, but I’m sure it can easily be made at home

      Reply
  4. Judith Adessa
    Judith Adessa says:
    July 30, 2016 at 9:55 pm

    Having spent two weeks in Tuscany a few years ago I couldn’t understand the tasteless, hard bread considering everything else was so good, including wonderful beef, wine and Italian beer. Now I get it!

    Reply
    • Mette Vaabengaard
      Mette Vaabengaard says:
      August 7, 2016 at 10:50 am

      It took me a while as well, but I suppose saltless bread is an acquired taste, as the locals feel very passionate about it.

      Reply
  5. Marcello
    Marcello says:
    July 31, 2016 at 11:47 am

    Oh come on! That’s a bit rough.

    My wife and I are from Orvieto originally, though I grew up in Australia, and we have to fill the car with the local bread every time we visit because we can’t get it as good in Ancona.

    Our local baker in Monterubiaglio makes an awesome “filone” with a crunchy crust and soft nutty centre. And in my opinion it is the fact that it is unsalted that lends it so well to “scarpetta”, crostini, panzanella and all the other ways Tuscans and Umbrians dress up their bread.

    Try a nice mortadella or prosciutto semi dolce di Norcia on unsalted bread and tell me it’s no good! I dare you.

    If the Tuscans and Umbrians didn’t like unsalted bread I’m sure they would have reverted back to salting their doughs when the Papal States bit the dust. Didn’t happen though, did it?

    Buy your unsalted bread daily and enjoy it fresh with properly seasoned food and you’ll learn to love it. :)

    Reply
    • Mette Vaabengaard
      Mette Vaabengaard says:
      August 7, 2016 at 10:56 am

      I’m sure you are right Marcello, and I didn’t mean taunt central Italian baking traditions, but for an outsider the taste is strange and unusual. I look forward to spending more time in Umbria and Tuscany and discover your appreciation of unsalted bread:D

      Reply
    • Taryn
      Taryn says:
      July 7, 2018 at 10:57 pm

      !!! I just got back from studying in Orvieto and loved it! It’s such a beautiful little city. One of the things I miss the most, actually, is bruschetta! Just the plain kind with salt and olive oil. I’ve been trying to make it here at home but all the bread is salted, gosh darn it! That’s why I clicked on this link. I’m trying to find a recipe for unsalted bread that I can make. Sure, I didn’t appreciate the unsalted bread in Italy at first, but then I started to like it once I discovered the glory of bruschetta and scarpetta. Those two just aren’t the same with salted bread. Now, unsalted bread is one of the things I miss the most, probably because it’s so hard to find in the States. Anyways, thanks for your comment, Marcello. :)

      Reply
      • Mette
        Mette says:
        November 6, 2018 at 8:28 am

        Well, you have to start baking. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a recipe and leave out the salt:)

        Reply
  6. Clare
    Clare says:
    October 15, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    I used to take a tiny pot of sea salt out to Italy to sprinkle on the bread in restaurants , sneaky style so as to not offend the waiting staff. I have given up bread these days but had a smile at the memory.

    Reply
    • Mette
      Mette says:
      October 18, 2016 at 5:16 pm

      This is hilarious, and just what I’ve always wanted to do in places with unsalted bread:)

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed
Discover Rome - Italian Notes

Discover Rome

Discover Florence - Italian Notes

Discover Florence

Discover Venice - Italian Notes

Discover Venice

Discover Puglia - Italian Notes

Discover Puglia

Discover Sicily - Italian Notes

Discover Sicily

Discover Piedmont - Italian Notes

Discover Piedmont

Splashes of spring along Ancona hillsArtichoke cream recipeArtichoke cream recipe
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Accept settingsHide notification only