Uva Pizzutello di Tivoli

A basket of ripe Pizzutello under fresh vine leaves is what Tivoli gives a guest. The berries are long and curved, which is why the town calls it uva corna, the horned grape, pale green, very thin-skinned, crisp and fleshy. It belongs to a small patch of Tivoli, on the pergolas that suit it. Its origin is unsettled: Pliny names a grape of the Tivoli and Pompeii country in the Naturalis Historia that sounds like it, while other accounts have Cardinal Ippolito d'Este bringing it from France in the 16th century.