When I got to Lucca, I couldn't wait to try their famous Buccellato, and I knew I had to visit Taddeucci's to get the very best sampling.
You can visit Taddeucci's website to learn more about the history of Buccellato: http://www.taddeucci.com/.
Borrowing from http://www.experience-tuscany.thrifytuscany.com/, "Buccellato is a famous sweet-style bread from Lucca. As the old Lucchese saying goes: “Chi va a Lucca e non mangia il buccellato è come se non ci fosse stato” (Going to Lucca and not eating the Buccellato is like never being there). The Buccellato is a cake shaped like a doughnut or long loaf of bread and has an average weight of approximately 1 pound. Its main ingredients are flour, sugar, anise seeds, yeast, raisins and egg white. The Buccellato is a bread-like cake that stays fresh for several days, even if it eventually becomes very hard. When it hardens, it is usually consumed the Lucchese way, cut up into thick slices and dunked in wine (such as the sweet Vin Santo wine). It can also be toasted and served covered with sugar and strawberries." Read more: http://experience-tuscany.thriftytuscany.com/the-buccellato-di-lucca-pastry
Believe me, your Buccellato will get as hard as a baseball bat after several days, and if you're traveling without a toaster, you'd better get yourself some sweet wine to dunk it in! I recommend getting as small a loaf as they will sell you, or else plan to share it with several people while it is still fresh. :-) The anise flavor is quite pronounced and makes this a very distinctive treat.
