Ce’e alla Salvia (Cieche alla Pisana)

The tiny transparent eels which fetch up at the mouths of European rivers in the winter are nowhere awaited more eagerly than in the vicinity of Pisa, where they are regarded as a great delicacy. Cavanna gives a fascinating account of how these ce’e or cieche, as they are known in Tuscany, were fished at the beginning of the century. The cieche fishermen were mostly porters or other workmen, who stationed themselves at night, when the flood tide was due, at ch