Art and Barb Live in Italy! (House for Sale in Umbria Italy)
In 2003 Barbara and Art moved from Kentucky to Umbria. These are their adventures.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
AT THE FRANTOIO - 2009
I didn't think we were going to visit a frantoio this year. Art helped Giacomo haul his olives to the frantoio, but didn't stick around for the actual pressing, and I didn't even go along. Our favorite frantoio in Pigge didn't have enough oil to sell this year, and it was rainy on the "Frantoi Aperti" weekend. Luckily our friends Larry and Shelly arrived back in Italy to harvest their olives, and invited us along to watch them turn into oil! There were ten of us, so it was a party, especially when the owner of the frantoio brought out the bruschetta, dripping with the new olive oil! YUM! Here are some pictures from our visit to the La Pace Frantoio in Massa Martana, not far from Todi.
Two Franciscan priests stopped by....
And FINALLY Larry and Shelly's oil started pouring from the spout! They had a record amount - 70 liters!
Another weekend, another festa! Really there are many, many choices each weekend, but when there’s a festa right down the road, why go any further? So we visited Marsciano for their “Olio, Vino e Terrecotte” celebration last weekend. We didn’t visit the terracotta museum, but concentrated on - what else? – the food! Olive oil, wine, sausages and more.
There are more photos on our FLICKR PAGE, in the folder entitled “Marsciano - Olio, Vino e Terrecotte”.
On Saturday evening the Pro Loco San Venanzo presented "Olio, Vino e Castagne...I NOVELLI D'AUTUNNO", and evening of education, food and fun. The educational part consisted of a talk about olives and olive oil, along with a tasting of the new oil. Needless to say, I was excited about this part of the program, and quite disappointed to discover that only a select few would actually be tasting the oil! Additionally, the man giving the presentation had the most monotone voice and it was very, very difficult not only to understand him, but also just to hear him. Okay, so I probably wouldn't have understood much of the talk anyway, but it was still disappointing.
When the discussion was over the real fun began: the food! Bruschetta with the new oil of the two producers from San Venanzo, "Tenuta Colli Verdi" and "Zaffera e Farnesi" was available, as well as the new Merlot, supplied by "Tenuta Colli Verdi". There we also pieces of a wonderful bread,, sort of like focaccia, but with small pieces of ham baked into it. This was really, really yummy!
After the bruschetta and focaccia was devoured, the soup with farro and vegetables was served, and it was light and tasty. Next came steaming bowls of spaghetti, and as always, we marvel at how perfectly everthing is cooked, even for such a large crowd. There were quite a few large bags of chestnuts sitting around, and given the name of the festa, I assume that these would be roasted and served as dessert. Since neither of us care for chestnuts (castagne), we skipped this part altogether.
The entertainment - and what would an Italian evening be without entertainment and a little dancing? - was provided by our favorite hometown band, the Erika Mastrini Band.
During the lecture about olives I gave up trying to hear what was being said and took a few pictures of the food preparations. The bruschetta was being prepared - first the bread is toasted, then it's rubbed with garlic...
then it's drizzled with oil....
then finished with just a sprinkling of salt....
And here's the bruschetta (pronounced bru SKET ta)
As I said earlier, we don't care for chestnuts, and normally the new wine doesn't hold much appeal, but the Merlot Ricardo served was really good! For us though the star of the evening was the new oil - don't you just love that intense green color?
Just getting TO the food proved to be a challenge. Making any sort of orderly line is just a concept unknown to most Italians, and it was just a matter of working your way through the crowd...
It seems that no matter how long we've been here there's always someplace new to explore, sometimes places we've never even heard of. Last week we discovered Torre del Colle, just outside of Bevagna, and just a few days later we stopped in Parrano to check out a festa we had seen advertised. We'd been to Parrano before, but never into the centro. There are some caves just outside of Parrano, and the meeting point had been just outside the centro. By the time we'd finished with our cave visit we were wiped out! (You can read about that adventure HERE.)
We arrived in Parrano just before the festa got underway, so we were able to wander through the streets as everyone was getting set up. I haven't done any research to learn the history of Parrano, but one of the stones set over a doorway has the date 1531 carved into it. I'm sure this little fortified town was one of several in the area, used as lookouts and/or stopover points for travelers.
Isn't this window - and the ironwork - just gorgeous?
I have no idea what this little gated area is, or what all the carvings set into the walls are either!
Here are a few more shots:
And if you have the interest or patience, here's a slideshow of all the photos I took that day. You can click on the small square icon in the bottom of the slideshow screen to enlarge the photos to fullscreen size.
We recently visited a new restaurant, Alla via di Mezzo, located in Torre del Colle, just outside of Bevagna. The town itself is one of those medieval gems. It was already dark by the time we arrived, but a visit during the day time is definitely on my agenda. The interior of the restaurant was as charming as the outside - stone walls, beamed ceilings, soft lighting to enhance the mood. Now if they would only get rid of those bunches of artificial flowers that were scattered around! Ugh!
As I understand it, the menu is a fixed price, and for this you get a visit to the wonderfully stocked and beautifully presented antipasti bar, served, appropriately enough, at the bar. Meat, chesses, grilled and pickled vegetables like artichoke, olives, capers and tomatoes are all tempting and delicious. With a slice of bread, this antipasto bar would be a very nice lunch or generous snack.
As we were eating our antipasti, soup was served. It was tepid, but worse yet, it was completely lacking in flavor. I wasn't sure if the broth was supposed to be chicken-based, vegetable-based, or just water. The general concensus at our table was a big thumbs down for the soup.
The service was prompt and efficient, and dirty dishes were whisked away with a minimun of fuss. Our second course, pasta, arrived after the table was cleared of the antipasti dishes: lasagna and fettuccini with some sort of white sauce. The lasagna, although tasty, was just a little dried out, perhaps from having been baked earlier in the day. The fettuccini was as bland as the soup. All I tasted was a bland bechamel sauce; a good dose of salt and pepper would have been a welcome addition, but none was on the table (standard for many Italian restaurants), and I didn't want to upset the apple cart with a request.
After the pasta two meat dishes were presented: roast goose and slices of roast pork. I was going to pass on the goose but the fragrance was so heavenly I took a small piece. Although others said theirs was fine, the piece I picked was rather dry - what a let down! The pork slices were tender and juicy, cooked perfectly! Oven roasted potatoes were served along with the meats, but they were soooo salty they were almost inedible! Several people must have seasoned these potatoes, thinking they hadn't been seasoned, because it's really difficult to add too much salt to potatoes!
A green salad was served with the meats, but I hesitate to call it a salad - there was NO dressing of any kind, not even a drop of oil - just lettuce! Again, a disappointment, and maybe just an oversight in the kitchen.
The dessert tray was beautifully presented, and everything looked just as good as it tasted. The flourless chocolate torte was rich and dense, the apple cake was moist and flavorful, the the last dish, maybe some sort of citrus flan, was light and refreshing. How odd to find such excellent desserts and disappointing pasta in an Italian restaurant!
We were a group of ten, and with wine and water our bill came to €31 per person. Oh, and since the owner's wife is an Antonelli, their wine is featured prominently, maybe exclusively.
Our friends, who'd eaten here before were as disappointed as we were, and said it was the first sub-par meal they'd had here. I'm not sure that I'd make the 45+ minute drive from our house to check it out again, but if you're in the area, it might be worth a try. It's not far from Bevagana, near Cantalupo, in a tiny little borgo called Terre del Colle. Alla mia di Mezzo is only open for dinner and is closed on Monday. You can call them at 074 236 2074.
Finalmente! The new olive oil is ready, frangrant and spicy, needing only a piece of toasted bread and a little salt to enjoy it at it's best. This weekend, November 7th and 8th, is the official Frantoi Aperti
when many frantoi (olive mills) will open their doors to the public, not only to buy the new oil, but also to see how it's made and maybe enjoy a few tastry treats as well.
Trevi, which calls itself the "city of oil" will once again host it's own very special celebration for the frantoi aperti. Click on the link to see what's planned: city tours, concerts, food and a local market among other things. I think I'll pass on the donkey rides, but everything else sounds pretty cool! Hopefully I'll also be able to buy some fresh pumpkin for cooking, and maybe some more of Trevi's famous black celery. It's going to be a delicious weekend!
New this year, the fun of the Frantoi Aperti will continue for FIVE weekends, from November 7/8 through December 5/6. More details on the Frantoi Aperti website.
We'll be picking olives for the next few days - and this years harvest looks unbelieveable! Last year a lot of the olives had fallen by the time we harvested, but this year the trees are loaded, and nothing has fallen to the ground. I'm predicting a bumper crop! While we're gone, here's a slideshow of the raccolta from 2007...
I'd really like to keep this hotel a secret, but because they always do such a good job, I have to give them some public praise. We first discovered the
HOTEL MEDICI about 9 years ago, when we made our first independent visit to Florence. It was January, and we'd requested a room on the 6th floor with a view of the Duomo. Although it was too cold on that visit to sit on the terrace and enjoy the view, just opening the shutters and seeing the Duomo - Giotto's bell tower and Brunelleschi's dome! - right there - almost close enough to touch, was magical.
Although we've checked around for other hotels in Florence, we always seem to end up at the MEDICI. For our most recent trip , which was a very impulsive, last-minute trip, I'd emailed to request a room on the 6th floor, but one around the corner from the Duomo. I did this because the weather was still mild, and I knew there'd be people outside on the terrace, probably later than we'd want to be awake. There's just no way to know who'll be on the terrace, or how noisy they'll be, so I figured it would be better to be around the corner where it was quieter.
When we arrived at the hotel, Gabriele greeted us as old friends, as is his style. He looked so sheepish and said to me "Do you believe it?" I was puzzled - believe what? What was he talking about? After a long pause he finally continued - "Can you believe that the one room you DIDN'T want is the only one available?" Because we'd made our request only a few days earlier, how could I complain? As it turned out, the room he had for us was the very room we'd stayed in on our very first visit, the one at the very end of the terrace, closest to the Duomo.
In the last few years the hotel has undergone a complete renovation. I asked Gabriele if they had added any rooms, not knowing if they had used all the floors previously, but he told me no, they still have 40 something rooms, but now, after the renovation, all but three are ensuite.
We stopped by PEGNA on our way back to the hotel one afternoon, where they carry lots of British groceries. I was hoping to find some cheddar cheese for a special treat, and I was in luck! We bought a few slices of red wax cheddar, some goat cheese, crackers, and a bottle of red wine. We hadn't brought a corkscrew with us, but the cashier at the checkout gladly opened our bottle for us! They also have the smaller bottles of wine, as well as wine in a box.
The HOTEL MEDICI includes a continental breakfast - coffee, tea or hot chocolate, juice, and rolls with butter and jam. They also sell wine, water and soft drinks, and provide wine glasses, should you want to have a snack in your room or on the terrace.
Like all hotels, the staff at the HOTEL MEDICI will be happy to make reservations for you at all the local museums, and to recommend restaurants. They also speak several languages. If you're every looking for a hotel in Florence with location, location, location, then the HOTEL MEDICI is the perfect choice. When we stayed there in October our room, with ensuite bathroom and direct access to the terrace cost €80.
Here are a few more photos of our room with a view:
Okay, I'm a foodie. I love food. I love to cook food, to eat food, to read about food, even to look at food. Because of this, no trip to Florence is complete without a visit to the Mercato Centrale, Florence's large, permanent market with fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, preapred and packaged foods and restaurants. It's a food lover's paradise!
The ground floor of the Mercato features the restaurants and permanent food sellers, while upstairs are the fresh fruit and vegetable stands. The upstairs is currently being renovated, so the fruits and veggies are temporarily located in a huge tent right outside the mercato. Needless to say, I enjoyed looking at the seasonal foods like the porcini mushrooms.
Inside the food hall I saw foods and fish and meats that I was unfamiliar with, but which were gorgeous and interesting to look at none-the-less. While wandering the aisles I did see one familiar site: our good friend Judy Witts Francini, aka DIVINA CUCINA! (You can keep up with Judy on her blog, OVER A TUSCAN STOVE.) Judy was explaining all about porcini to English chef GARY RHODES. Chef Rhodes is apparently filming the standard 'travel around Italy to sample all the regional foods' shows, and the focus of that day's filming was porcini.
After buying a few porcini for ourselves we stopped by BARONI’S, where they always have something interesting - and delicious. Rumor has it that they sometimes have cheddar cheese, but I didn't see any that day, and since we'd already treated ourselves to a few slices the previous evening from PEGNA's just down the street from our hotel, I didn't need the fix.
If I lived in Florence I think my days would go like this: head out to the Mercato Centrale in the morning. Buy something different, somthing new, talk to the vendor about what the food and how to prepare it, then go home and spend the rest of the day cooking and searching the internet to learn more about my new food/ingredient. In the evening I could take a passiagiata, get something simple for dinner like a gelato- and bask in the fact that I lived in Florence.
Anyway, here's yet another slideshow, this one of all the fabulous foods we found in the Mercato Centrale:
Click on the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the slideshow to make the photos full-screen!
In Italy, and I guess throughout most of Europe, building hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old are crumbling away due to years of neglect and now, air pollution. Car exhaust causes marble to soften and leaves an ugly black residue. For these reasons you'll often see buildings covered in scaffolding as they're being renovated and/or cleaned.
I know there's nothing more disappointing than rounding the corner, anxious for that first glimpse of a building you've only seen in pictures before - only to find it shrouded in scaffolding! When that happens, you have to tell yourself that the work-in-progress is necessary to ensure that these building will be around for generations to come.
Here in Umbria, in addition to the regular maintenance, there are still repairs being made from damage caused during the 1997 earthquake. If only I'd had the concession for scaffolding and cranes I could be living the high life by now!
TREVI has been covered with scaffolding and over-shadowed by cranes for well over a year now - maybe two, and who knows how long these renovations will take? In an effort to distract from the plywood walls that separate and protect, Trevi has begun an artistic program where artists can decorate the walls with a variety of subjects.
There was this painting of John and Yoko, among the modern designs, as well as this unfinished piece in a more Rennaissance style.
While in Trevi a few weekends ago we also noticed that many artists had their work on display. One artist who caught our attention was ALFIO TABARRINI. At first we were enchanted by his wood carvings of hilltowns, (Trevi, I assume), but he also had works of a completely different style on display. I'm not usually a big fan of modern art, and maybe the subject matter has something to do with it, but these colorful renditions of Trevi were very, very interesting.
On our recent visit to Florence we were trying to visit some places we'd never been to, or places we hadn't been to in a long time. Santa Croce falls into the second category, and just recently someone told us that the church had been completely renovated and we should be sure to visit it the next time we were in Florence. I wish I could remember who told us this, because either they have Santa Croce confused with some other church, or maybe they thought it would be years before we re-visited Florence. Can you guess where this is going?
Things have changed since we were last at Santa Croce - now you have to pay an admission charge, and you enter thru a side door rather than the main door. LIttle did we know what else had changed.....
As we walked into the church I was expecting an "OH WOW!" moment, but what I got was an "oh dear..." moment. Scaffolding was EVERWHERE! the main altar was hidden somewhere under a wall of scaffolding,
and a closer look revealed people on platforms within the scaffolding doing their restoration work. Who knows how many years this restoration might take, but at least the work is being done! Just in case you're wondering, yes, photos are allowed inside the church.
Of course there were still many beautiful things to see in the church, including Michelangelo's tomb, several side altars and assorted chapels, as well as the outdoor space and the museum.
Our long-overdue visit to the Medici Chapel was also quite a let-down. I hesitate to say that it was a disappointment, because we did get to see part of it's splendor, but the overall effect was certainly dulled by all the scaffolding within the chapel itself. We had been warned about the restoration by a large sign outside the entry, but it really hadn't prepared us for the extent of the restoration works, or how that first step into the chapel would be such a let-down, especially when you could just glimpse the spendors hidden behind the scaffolding.
No pictures were allowed inside the Medici Chapel, so you'll have to take your chances when or if you go to Florence, or perhaps there are some websites that might show everything as it was meant to be.
Here's a slideshow of the photos we took at Santa Croce. Do you like this slideshow option, or would you prefer that I just put a link that you could click to take you to our FLICKR PAGE? Again, clicking on the icon in the bottom right corner of the slidwshow will enlarge it to full screen.
Yes chocoholics, it's that time again! Time to head for Perugia, where from October 16th throught the 25th you'll be able to see, taste and buy more chocolate than you ever thought possible at the annual EUROCHOCOLATE festival. The weekends are waaay too crowded for me, but during the week things are a bit calmer. Buon appetito!
Surprisingly, we'd never been inside the Baptisity in all our visits to Florence. Sometimes we'd been with guests who only had time for the quick tour of Florence, and other times we'd revisited favorite spots like the Bargello and just never made the time for the Baptistry. The goal of this trip was to visit some of the places we'd missed.
As you can see, the mosaics are stunning!
And here’s a short video:
All the photos of the Baptistry (yes, photos are allowed!) are HERE on our Flickr page.
Yes chocoholics, it's that time again! Time to head for Perugia, where from October 16th throught the 25th you'll be able to see, taste and buy more chocolate than you ever thought possible at the annual EUROCHOCOLATE festival. The weekends are waaay too crowded for me, but during the week things are a bit calmer. Buon appetito!
We visited Deruta again, this time with our friend Nedra. Because it was Monday, the restaurant we liked on our last visit was closed, but as luck would have it, we discovered a restaurant up in the centro. I don't know if we've never been in the centro at the right time, if I've just missed the sign, or if the restaurant and/or the sign are new! Anyway, we took a look at the menu, decided that it looked interesting, and stayed for lunch!
After a very enjoyable lunch, we wandered around the centro, stopping in various shops and looking down the quaint, narrow streets. When we'd been in Deruta in August we were anxious to check out the ceramic guitar our friend Adam had told us about. On our previous visit we found the shop with the guitar, but it was closed so all we got was a look through the window. This time the shop was open, so we were able to look at several of the ceramic guitars. I was surprised when I saw that the backs of the guitars were as elaborately decorated as the fronts!
As an extra special treat the owner treated us with a sample of how the guitar sounds. He told us that because it's hollow inside it's not as heavy as you would think. He also told us that he has a patent pending for these ceramic guitars.
Here's the video:
And here's a slideshow of our day in Deruta, including more ceramic guitar photos....
Don't forget you can click on the bottom right hand corner of both the video and the slideshow to increase the video/photos to full-screen. And you can always check out our videos and photos by clicking on the YouTube or Flickr links in the right hand column.
It's not often that the phrase "good customer service" and Italy are used in the same sentence, unless there are a few negative words in the sentence too. Somehow Italians seem to accept poor service, delayed deliveries, broken promises and deceptive practices as normal. It's not uncommon to call a company - a large company like SKY TV, or one of the phone companies - to register a complaint only to have the customer service representative hang up on you! Seriously! Yes, I know that customer service in the U.S. is often sadly unresponsive, but somehow bad - or nonexistant - customer service in Italy seems to be the norm rather than the exception.
Because we too have become used to the lack of concern for the customer, when we do run into a person or company who are really, truly interested in pleasing their customers we have to give them a special mention. In the past I've written about friends who run various tourist services - agriturismi, cooking schools or tour guides who are genuinely interested in provided their customers with an unforgettable experience - and unforgettable in a GOOD way. Last year I wrote about the appliace repair technician who went out of his way help us when our Bosch washer went kaput long before it should have.
This year's customer service award goes to Mauro Spigarelli, the owner of SpigarelliCeramics, with a special mention to DonnaTerrito at Abbiamo Tutto, the American importers of Spigarelli's products. When the olive oil urn we bought turned out to have a defective spout, we contacted Spigarelli through their website. Because the site has both Italian and English, I wrote the email in English so I could explain in more detail about the defective spigot. The reply we received was from Donna, who explained that no one at Spigarelli spoke English, so she would be our go between. This was very generous on her part, since we hadn't bought the urn through her company.
It was a long, slow process, but eventually I began corresponding with Sig. Spigarelli directly, in what I"m sure was terrible Italian, but we managed to communicate. As time went by Sig. Spigarelli told us he wouldn't give up when he had difficulty finding a new spigot - they don't make that particular olive oil urn anymore.
And now, at long last, but just in time for the new olive oil, we have our urn back! Sig. Spigarelli sent us an entirely new urn - I don't know if there was something wrong with the hole in the original urn, but he also returned that one, and we're using it for an umbrella stand!
We were more than willing to pay Sig. Spigarelli for his time and trouble, but in the end he charged us nothing, asking us to accept the new urn as a sign of friendship. For his efforts above and beyond the call of duty, we thank our new friend, Mauro Spigarelli. If you're ever near Gualdo Tadino in northern Umbria, stop by the Spigarelli Ceramic Factory, or check out Donna's website, Abbiamo Tutto.
Yes, I know it' s only a few hours away, but for us this is a big deal! I LOVE Florence, but the last several times we've been there we've been with guests, so of course we hit the 'must-sees' - over and over and over! On this trip we'll get a chance to see some places we've just never gotten around to, plus we'll re-visit a few old favorites.
One treat for this trip will be a guided tour of the Uffizi. Walking through a gallery as large as the Uffizi can be overwhelming, and although it's not necessary to know the history of a painting to like it, when you DO know the history the painting is even more impressive. I'll let you know if I like the tour company we're using.
We'll be staying at the HOTEL MEDICI with it's Duomo-facing terrace. It's undergone a complete renovation since the last time we stayed there, but the prices are still reasonable. I'll also review the hotel when we return, as well as any restaurants we find. I have a list of a few old favorites and few new places to try, just so we're prepared no matter where we are when we get hungry!
Anyone who's been to Perugia has no doubt visited Sandri's the famous pasticceria, known as much for it's beautiful interior as for it's beautiful desserts. Also featured are "Torciglione" snake-shaped bread, based on snakes that supposedly live in Lake Tresimeno.
With EUROCHOCOLATE scheduled to begin on October 16th, the window at Sandri's won't be the only place you can drool over some sweet treets in Perugia!
No visit to Umbria is complete without a visit to Assisi. No matter what your religious leanings, the words of peace and simplicity preached by St. Francis still inspire pilgrims today.
The first stop when visiting Assisi should be in Santa Maria degli Angeli, just below Assisi. It was here that St. Francis founded his order, and the tiny chapel he used in now housed within the larger SM degli Angeli church. This is an impressive church in it's own right and probably gets overlooked. If you get a chance, stop in sometime before you drive up into Assisi.
Assisi is a charming town all on it's own, and the Basilica is just the icing on the cake! There's the upper church, the lower chuch, and the crypt, where St Francis himself is buried. There's nary a hint of the earthquake damage from 1997, and the richness of the frescoes is almost overwhelming.
In addition to the basilca there are other churches worth visiting - Santa Clara, and San Ruffino, where Francis was baptized are two must sees.
In the Basilica you can use headphones (available outside the church, €5 dontation) to hear all the details, and this, combined with the headsets now used by all the tour groups makes the church much quieter and peaceful.
Assisi is another city I never get tired of visiting - there are always unexplored side streets and hidden treasures to be found. Here's another slideshow - remember to click on the icon in the bottom right corner to make the photos full size.
While out guest Annette was here we drove into Perugia to check out the new Perugia City Tour on an open-top bus. We parked in the free lot and took the MINIMETRO up into the centro. Since Annette's from Seattle we had to take her picture in front of the totem pole that was a gift from Perugia's sister city of Seattle.
It was a cloudy day with a few drizzles, so there was a clear plastic covering over the bus. The weather did clear up, and we could have done without the cover, but I guess the driver decided better safe than sorry. The tour, which begins at Piazza Italia, takes about an hour and covers pretty much all of the historical center of Perugia. Because Perugia is so hilly, and because of the iffy weather, this was a great way to introduce Annette to Perugia without walking her to death. We had some time before our tour began so we took a step back in time in the Rocca Paolina, just trying to imagine what life must have been like in those ancient streets.
During the tour the driver stopped for about five minutes so that we could walk up to il Tempio
and the tour continued through the city, weaving in and out of the many ancient city gates. After the bus tour was over we wandered down the Corso Vannucci and ended up at a great pizza place, Pizzeria Mediterrania, just around the corner from the Duomo.
By the time we'd finished lunch the sun was shining and the skies were blue again. We took the MiniMetro back to the car and drove the short distance to the Perugina chocolate factory. We were joining a tour group for a tour in English at 2:30. Eugenia, the woman who took over for our friend Corinna as the head of the museum, led the tour and answered all our questions. After touring the plant several times I have to say it's always interesting. Chocolates were being prepared for the Christmas season, but the most fun to watch, at least in my opinion, is when they're making the huge hollow Easter eggs.
After the tour we sampled some chocolate and I bought gifts for my daughter and daughter-in-law. Although the birthday gifts aren't much of a surprise - I think now they've become almost a tradition!
After eating chocolate, naturally we needed to try some great red wine, so we headed to Vini di Filippo for a mini-sampling. The only thing that could have made this better would have been to have the chocolate and the wine together!
It certainly won't be a surprise when I say that we were all too full for dinner, so we stopped at the grocery for some arugula to make a salad. Annette is a foodie, so she enjoyed looking around the grocery and bought a few things to take home with her.
Here's a slideshow of all the pictures from that day in Perugia, and remember, you can click on the bottom right hand corner to make the pictures full size!
WhyGo Italy - Another Resource For Planning Your Trip To Italy
It wasn't so long ago, relatively speaking, that planning a trip to Europe required pouring over guide books and maps, agonizing over details and itineraires, visiting the the Post Office for a supply or IRC's (International Reply Coupons), then writing several hotels to ask for rates and reservations. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the replies, final decisions had to be made, letters of confirmation sent, and in the end, you hoped for the best.
Thanks to the internet all of that has changed, although now we might be overwhelmed with TOO much information and TOO many choices! I've just found another resource for planning a trip to Italy, and I wanted to share it with you. Jessica Spiegel writes herWhyGoItaly site to share with you her passion for Italy and to guide you through those all important questions like how to order coffee in Italy, or how to find a soccer match, or even how to find the best airfare.
I've added a link to Jessica's site over in the right hand column, so when you're planning your next trip to Italy, check out what Jessica has to offer!
Of course we had to show Annette our favorite town in Umbria: Orvieto! I could be very happy living in Oriveto. I love all the stone, and the medieval feel of Orveito, and as a bonus, it's relatively flat, making it easy to get around. With the direct train to Rome you can be there in an hour, or be in Florence in just over an hour. Unfortunately Orvieto is just slightly (well, okay, a LOT) over my price range, but because it's only 45 minutes away we visit quite frequently.
We usually drive up into town and park at the lot just in front of the funicular, if we can find a parking spot that's free. We then stoll up the Corso Cavour, turn left at the clock tower and enjoy all the ceramic displays until we catch our first glimpse of the Duomo.
Because I love caves, no trip to Orvieto is complete without a visit to Orvieto Underground, the man-made caves that honeycomb beneath most of Orvieto. And although we didn't have time for a visit to the civic or Etruscan museums, both located on the piazza Duomo, I highly recommend both. We had lunch in one of our favorite places, Café Montanucci on Corso Cavour, a simple place where you can eat a great salad, quiche or pasta dish, and after that you can check out their amazing selection of chocolates. For gelato we always stop at Gelateria Pasqualetti, just to the left of the Duomo.
It goes without saying that the Duomo in Orvieto is amazing, both inside and out. If you're there late in the afternoon when the sun hits the mosaics, every fleck of gold sparkles and glows.
Over this past week we've been very busy, which is why I haven't been posting. We've been showing our new friend Annette as much of Umbria as we could in her limited time. One day we visited Montefalco, where we took a peek inside the very new, VERY posh PALAZZO BONTADOSI, which is not just a hotel, but also a spa. Check out their website for pictures of the gorgeous rooms and an extensive list of spa services. Some of the treatments even include Montefalco's famous Sagrantino grapes - leaves for massaging, crushed seeds for facials, and of course the finished product for tasting!
After driving the long and scenic route from Assisi to Spello, we finally arrived in Spello, at the high end of town. We've always parked at the bottom and walked up, so coming in from the top gave us a new perspective. Spello is a wonderful, magical place with new surprises (and arches) around every corner....
There are more photos on our FLICKR PAGE, in the folder entitled “Spello Umbria”.
The city of Assisi is built out of this beautiful pink stone. Late in the afternoon, and especially at sunset, Assisi just glows, thanks to this unique stone.
On our drive from Assisi to Spello, we were still in search of that bar, so we continued on, eventually winding our way back down the mountain until we came to Collepino. The parking lot was loaded with Mercedes and BMW's and we wondered if there was a really good restaurant in town to draw such a crowd.
As we walked into town we were immediately charmed. A woman working in her vegetable garden directed us to the bar just around the corner. Once we'd ordered I asked the barista about San Giovanni and he confirmed what I had guessed: the town had been damaged in the 1997 earthquake and was only now being restored. He told us that only one family was living there now, and we knew we had seem that house - it was the one with flowers at the door.
He also told us a little about Collepino. According to him, everyone in the town is rich, very rich, but those residents number only 37. There was also a very nice restaurant in town, "La Taverna San Silvestro", and although it was well past lunchtime the owner gave us a peek at the menu and the inside. I thought Art had taken one of the menus so I didn't bother looking at one, and it wasn't until later that I realized he hadn't brought it with him. Since Collepino is only 3 kilometers outside of Spello, it's really not that far off the beaten path and would be worth going back to for a meal.
We continued our drive towards Spello, but that will be for the next post. There are more photos on our FLICKR PAGE, in the folder entitled “Collepino Umbria”.
A few years ago we received a book as a gift. That book was the Signpost Guide: Tuscany and Umbria. It's a great guide to all the major sites of both regions, and even better for us, it suggests some out-of-the-way trips that the average tourist just might not have time for.
We have a guest arriving in a few weeks and we've been putting together an itinerary that will give her a good overview of Umbria. Obviously we'll cover important sites like Assisi, Perugia, Orvieto and the Perugina chocolate factory, but we also want to give her a sense of why Umbria is called the green heart of Italy. As you know by now we love the countryside in this region and never tire of the scenery. One of the nice fringe benefits of having company is that we get to do a bit of exploring too, so we decided to follow a suggestion in the guidebook and take the 'back' road out of Assisi, drive along the back side of Subasio, and end up in Spello.
We wanted to check out the road before our guest came, to see how much time we'd need to allow, and to see if there was a good place to stop for a picnic lunch. We invited our friends Larry and Shelly to join us, and the four of us went exploring!
Once we exited Assisi at the top, the scenery changed dramatically. The hills of Umbria become more mountainous, with deep valleys in between. The road, although in fairly good condition, had barely enough room for two cars to pass in some places, but as expected, this was the road less travelled and we met very few cars along the way.
We found several spots with picnic tables along the way, and although none offered panoramic views, we still enjoyed a nice lunch in a peaceful setting. We were amazed at how many agriturismi were located on this road, but with such a spectacular location it's easy to understand why someone would want to stay in this area.
The first real 'town' we came to was Armenzano. We asked a woman if there was a bar in town, and when she said "no", we didn't stop. Perhaps another time we'll check it out, but we were in search of a bar for a coffee and a bathroom break. As we drove along, Mt. Subasio stretched upwards on our right and the deep valley and mountains beyond were visible - when the vegetation allowed - on the left. The guidebook had said that the drive from Assisi to Spello would take about 40 minutes, and although we knew it would take us longer due to various stops, I think this is about right.
The next place we came to was San Giovanni. Although there was a new sign out front welcoming visitors to the tiny village, it looked deserted. Intrigued, we decided to take a closer look. It became apparent quite quickly that the town was undergoing a complete renovation, and I guessed that perhaps this was work that had been put off since the 1997 earthquake. Everywhere we looked there was work in progress, although no one was working while we were there. The walls had all been re-pointed, plastic conduit stuck out in various locations, waiting to carry the new electrical lines, and quite a bit of re-enforcement had been done. It's hard to say how long this project might take to complete, but once it's finished San Giovanni will be a gem - a step back in time with modern conveniences.
There are more photos on our FLICKR PAGE, in the folder entitled “San Giovanni Umbria”.
The other day I wrote about the Festa della Cipolla in Cannara, and last night Art and I just happened to be in the neighborhood so we decided to stay for dinner. A friend had asked if this festa was really all about the onions, since many festas might feature only one or two dishes using the food for which the festa is named. Cannara isn't like that at all. In fact, if you don't like onions you might as well stay home. Everything on the menu (except for the drinks) has onions in it, which was alright with us! Take a look at the menu - and note that even the desserts have onions!
The festa continues through the 6th of September, then again for 6 more days, September 8-13th.
We even bought some onions to take home with us. The squatty mild yellow onions that Cannara is famous for are soooo good roasted in the oven. Now that cool weather is on the way we're ready!
I'm not sure what night we'll be in Cannara for the Festa della Cipolla, but this is a MUST for anyone who loves onions, especially those grown in Cannara!
If you've been reading this blog lately, you've noticed that every week we're going to another 'festa' or 'sagra'. It's not too hard to figure out that these are local celebrations, but I thought I'd explain a bit more.
We use the terms sagra and festa interchangeably, but I think that they each signify a certain type of celebration. I think the festa is really a feast day or celebration of a saint, often the patron saint of the town, or maybe just a saint from the region - Umbria is teeming with homegrown saints - Francis, Clare, Benedict, Valentine, Rita, and more!
Sagras, on the other hand, are usually a celebration of a local food specialty - or at least that's the way it used to be! Yes, we still have the celebration of the local onions from Cannara, the black celery from Trevi, the porchetta from Costano, but we also have the celebration of Nutella, of tequilla and of crepes!
When we first arrived in Italy we thought these festas and sagras would be something like the good ole Catholic Church picnic, complete with games of chance, cake raffles and wine instead of beer. We quickly learned otherwise! First of all, local sagras and festas NEVER begin before 7:30 in the evening. The first time we came across an evening festa we assumed that on Saturday and Sundays the festivities would start around lunchtime and continue all day long, but no - 7:30 p.m. - it's almost carved in stone, just like the Italian lunch time of 1 o'clock.
Depending on the size of the festa and the size of the town, there may be travelling trucks selling a variety of goods - nuts, candy, useless plastic toys. More often than not though, the festa is simply local food cooked fresh on site by the local grandmas, then served by an army of teenage volunteers. There might be ticket sales for a raffle to be held at the end of the celebration, but it's pretty low-key. The point of a sagra or a festa is to get together with friends and family - to eat, talk and laugh, then after dinner to dance to a local band or DJ until midnight or later. Most Italians, including the kids, are up until midnight in the summer because it's just too darn hot to sleep before then. Not only is air conditioning a very rare commodity, most Italians would never dream of having a fan blowing directly on them at full blast like I do!
When we were newcomers it was fun to attend a local festa and peole watch to our hearts content. Once the (traditional) music starts the old people fill the dance floor, circling in unison with a waltz or some variation thereof. If the music happens to be more akin to rock and roll it's a different story - usually everyone just sits and watches! If the music isn't too radical some of the young adults might start a line dance, and eventually the floor will be one large group, stepping and turning as one to the music.
Now that we've been here a while we see people we know at the local festas. We can chat with the mayor or even run into the man we bought our house from! We watch the kids run around with such wild abandon, and marvel at how they've grown since we first met them. A few nights ago one local woman confided to me that we'd paid too much for our house - I told her that was probably always the case with foreigners, but that we'd been happy with the price and were glad we'd picked San Venanzo.
If you're ever in Italy, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city during the summer or fall, check out the local billboards to see if there might be a sagra or festa somewhere near you. Although you don't have to get there right at 7:30, be warned that the later the evening the longer the line, but the less time you'll have to wait for the evening's entertainment. Plan to order the special of the day, and plan to share with your friends so that you can sample a lot of different things.
You've probably seen the YouTube videos I've posted of the various bands, but here's a quick look at mealtime at the most recent festa in San Venanzo.....
There are also pictures of some typical foods we've eaten at local festas on our FLICKR PAGE in the folder named "Food in Umbria".
Art received several bottles of wine for his birthday, and the other night we opened one of the bottles to share with friends. The wine was Poggio Madrigale from the Vini di Filippo winery. We'd never heard of the winery but thanks to Google I found their website and learned that they were just outside of Cannara. All four of us liked the wine so much that we decided we needed to visit the winery to see what other nice wines they might have.
We had a group of seven the day we visited Vini di Filippo. When we'd call to ask about a tasting we were told we just needed to call one day in advance. Elena greeted us when we arrived and after giving us a brief history of the vineyard we were ready to taste! We started with the whites: crisp. light and refreshing, then moved onto the reds. For a relatively small vineyard Vini di Filippo has a nice variety of wines, including a Sagrantino.
Some of us bought the white wine (Grechetto) and some of us concentrated on the reds. For us it was the Poggio Madrigale (2004) (the wine that brought us to the winery) and the Sallustio, a rosso di Montefalco (2006).
If you're in Umbria and looking for an organic winery run by nice people who make great wine, we can heatily recommend Vini di Filippo. The link will take you to their website, available in Italian, English and German. Their phone number is 074 273 1242.
A few short videos from the brush fire started by a lightning strike in Fratta Todina the other night. For the story, scroll down to read yesterday’s post.
I made several short videos from the medieval festa in Rotecastello, and you can see them on OUR YouTube PAGE , but this video was posted by poggiospaccato. This video has edits which allow you to see a little bit of everything, rather than having to look at several of my videos. (I can't edit my videos because they're made with a small point and shoot digital camera) Anyway, it was a great night in Rotecastello, as you'll see.....
BTW, just in case you didn't know, you can click on the small box-within-a-box in the lower right hand corner of the video and it will expand to full-screen size!
When we met with Jane and Ken last week the big question was "where should we have lunch?" We don't often venture far from our own little world, and usually find out about restaurants in different areas from the recommendations of friends. We had lunch back at the beginning of July with Brad and Palma at L’Antico Forziere, but not only was it out of our price range, I just hadn't been that impressed with the food. (I wrote about it HERE.)
I was hoping that Judith, who was also joining us for lunch would have some suggestions, but when she didn't, I knew exactly who to ask: Wendy! Wendy, our guardian angel knows so much about this area, and I should have asked her advice from the beginning. She recommended la Locanda dle Bracconiere, on via borgo Garibaldi,8. If you're on the lower road, (via Tibernia) turn at the only stoplight, towards the centro, and when you get to the next stoplight (just a few car lengths), you'll see the restaurant directly in front of you. You can turn left and park in the free lot that's just beyond the restaurant.
La Locanda del Bracconiere offers a great lunch special - a great antipasto buffet, your choice of pastas and your choice of a secondi (meat course). Water and wine are included, all for €15! What a deal! The antipasto buffet was gorgeous and well-stocked. If you just want to order the antipasto by itself you can order either a small plate or a large plate - the large plate is €7.50. It's a one-time trip, not like U.S. all-you-can-eat salad bars. Judith ordered two large antipasto plates and was quite satisfied.
The special of the day included the small plate of antipasto, but if you plan carefully you can stack things up and get a little of everything - like I did! There was grilled eggplant and zucchini, tomatoes au gratin, several types of bruschetta, tomatoes with mozzarella, arugula salad. onions marinated in basalmic vinegar, cabbage salad and more.....
Our waitress wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Between her confusion and the elctronic gizmo she was using to enter our order on, I think we all gave her our orders at least four times. Eventually she had everything straight and we set off for the antipasto buffet - and it was all as good as it looked. Our pastas arrived just as we were finishing the antipasti - the choices were spaghetti with garlic, pepperoncino and oil, or tagliatelle with ragu. The consensus was that both were wonderful, along with Casey's penne arrabiata.
The meat course was the next to arrive and we'd all selected the mixed grill. I have to say that Art and I were both surprised to find some delicious cuts of beef on the plate - tender and cooked to perfection. Normally we expect a variety of pork and sausage, but the generous servings of beef were a wonderful (and yummy) surprise.
Given the generous servings, and the fact that both water and wine are included in the daily special price of €15, I would certainly recommend Locanda del Bracconiere. I do have to note that our friend Shelly used to visit this restaurant regularly, and the last two times she was there the price had gone up to €20. She questioned the price but was told it was correct. I don't know how long ago this was, but perhaps the higher prices caused such a decline in business that the €15 lunch special was reinstated. Who knows what might happen in the future, but as of this week the daily special is still €15!
Our friends JANE and Ken, along with grandsonCasey are back in Italy for several weeks this summer. We all wanted to get together, and since Jane had never been to Deruta, we decided to meet for some shopping and then lunch.
Jane's mission was to find a ceramic clock that would sit on a shelf - all she'd been able to find so far were wall clocks. Casey was looking for something for his mom, but the fact that he was spending his own money would make the decision very, very difficult.
We met at GERIBI, at the southern end of via Tiberina, the road that runs the length of the lower part of Deruta. We moved across the street to BETTINI and the shop next to it whose name I don't remember. We checked out several other shops within walking distance, and although Jane found a few (very few) table clocks, most were too large for the shelf she wanted to put it on.
We drove a short distance to GRAZIA, one of the oldest ceramic producers in Deruta. Their pieces were exquisite, but probably the most expensive we saw. I loved these purple and lavendar dishes, new colors and a new design.
Although there are many fantastic factories and showrooms in lower Deruta, we decided to drive up to the historical center where the shops are located much closer together, meaning that we could check out quite a few in the limited time we had before lunch. The historical centro of Deruta is quite small, but of course it's charming.
We had to check out this ceramic guitar that our friend Adam had told us about. He played the guitar and said it felt and played just like any other guitar. I wondered how heavy it was, but unfortunately the shop was closed when we were there, hence the photo through the window.
It wouldn't be until after lunch, at the very last shop we looked in, the one right next door to the restaurant, that Jane found the perfect clock!
And just like at several of the other shops we'd visited, the works in progress were clearly visible. Quite often the artist will work on a piece in between customers....
There are a few more pictures of Deruta and ceramics on our FLICKR PAGE, in the folder named "Deruta 2009".
Another weekend, another celebration! Summer in Italy is one big party,and any excuse will do. Our neighbor, Daniele Spaccino decided to throw a party on his farm, showcasing an old wheat thresher and life on the farm (fattoria) as it used to be.
We didn't arrive until about six, and the small gravel road was lined with cars. It wasn't easy getting closer to the farm, and at one point we thought we'd made the wrong decision to drive on. We were afraid there would be no place to park and no way to turn around. Luckily there was a parking lot area roped off in a flat area right next to the old hay-baling machine so we parked the car and began wandering.
Of course there were horses and cows and baby goats. In the barn were tons of porchetta sandwiches, plenty of water and wine, and of course biscotti and coffee to finish. And what would an Italian gathering be without music? Elvio had his accordian, and later there was a band hired to entertain us. Naturally dancing followed!
All the pictures from that day are on our FLICKR PAGE.
The following video was shot by poggiospaccato, a fellow sanvenanese who also posts videos from our area!
You know how it is - you meet up with an old friend unexpectedly and when you part ways each of you says "let's get together and do something! I'll call you!".....and then nothing happens? I guess we're all so busy and it's hard to make the time, but sometimes all it takes is for one person to call, to set a specific date and suddenly you're having dinner with friends and having a great time!
That's how our dinner at OLIVASTRELLA happened. A few weeks ago at the festa in San Venanzo Janine was telling a group of us about the great meal they'd had at a local agriturismo, OLIVASTRELLA. Of course we all agreed that it sounded great and that we should get together for dinner to see (and taste!) for ourselves. But - had it not been for Janine, we'd still be waiting. Janine took the bull by the horns, emailed everyone to ask what days were good for them, settled on one day that was open for everyone, called Salvatore and made the reservation - DONE!!!
Here are a few pictures from our dinner at OLIVASTRELLA. ( You can read what I wrote last summer about Olivastrella HERE, and all the pictures are on our FLICKR PAGE.
We discovered the reason for the mini-festa this weekend: the speech/presentation about tartufi that was given earlier in the evening was filmed for television! The show will air on Umbria TV, SKY (Italia) channel 943 on July 24th at 10 p.m., 25th at 11:30 p.m., and July 26 at 8:30 a.m.
Easting pasta with tartufi (truffles) in San Venanzo
Our SLOW TRAVfriends Palma and Brad are back in Umbria! They've brought three other couples with them and are exploring some of the wonderful things that this region of Italy as to offer. Of course they've visited beautiful cities and seen ancient ruins, been amazed by artwork and crafts that are the same today as they were hundresd of years ago, and naturally, shopped 'til they dropped, but still this IS Italy, and it's all about the food!
Palma and Brad asked us to join them for lunch at L’Antico Forziere, a country inn and restaurant located not far from us, just outside of Deruta. We've driven by this place many times but somehow never stopped, so we were anxious to see what they had to offer. Seeing Brad and Palma again after two years would make the day even more special!
Every dish at L’Antico Forziere was beautifully presented, but in the end the food looked better than it tasted. My main course, pork, was cooked just right: tender, not tough, but there just wasn't much flavor to it. The dessert, a magical display of spun sugar clouds surrounding meringue and strawberries was amazingly beautiful, but I wish there had been more than just a few small pieces of strawberry! I think this restaurant has great potential, but the quality of the food has to come up a notch or two.
Below is a slideshow of the photos I took that day. Palma has more (and better) photos on HER BLOG, and if you want to see more of our photos the link to OUR FLICKR PAGE is always in the right hand column.
The highlight of Friday night's festivities in San Venanzo was The Swingle Kings. Here are two clips of their perfomance, and more are on our OUR YouTube PAGE.
Thursday night at San Venanzo's "In Canto d'Estate" festa we danced the night away to the music of ATMOSFERA BLU. The food was delicious, as always, but once the music started everyone was on the dance floor.
Last night was the first night of our summer music festival, "In Canto d'Estate". The group 4X8 performed and were quite enjoyable. Here are 3 quick videos - the first one shows the menu board and an overview of the park, and the next two are just clips of the band - who sang several songs in English.
Come join us for 5 nights of food, music and fun! The food stands open at 7:00 each night and the music will begin around 9:00 (more or less). Saturday night's dinner will be a moving dinner where we walk from one area to another for each course, and the night's entertainment will be a Beatles tribute band!
Here's the offical announcement:
DAL 17 AL 21 GIUGNO AL PARCO COMUNALE DI SAN VENANZO
2° EDIZIONE DI IN CANTO D'ESTATE
PROGRAMMA
MERCOLEDì 17 GIUGNO 2009 4X8 IN CONCERO
MENU: LE SPECIALITA' CONSIGLIATE Il benvenuto della cucina: Pappardelle al cinghiale – Capriolo in bianco
GIOVEDì 18 GIUGNO 2009 ATMOSFERA BLU IN CONCERTO
MENU Consigliato dalla cucina : Polenta rossa – Capriolo in bianco
VENERDì 19 GIUGNO 2009 SWINGLE KINGS IN CONCERTO
MENU Consigliato dalla cucina: Gnocchi al ragù d’oca – Coratella d’agnello, Cinghiale tartufato
SABATO 20 GIUGNO 2009 LA NOTTE DELLA TRADIZIONE THE BEATERS in concerto
CENA ITINERANTE: serata unica per vivere a pieno le specialità culinarie locali. Antipasto, Trofie alla Sella e Olio del Vulcano, Polenta rossa, Tagliere di salumi e formaggi, Spiedini di frutta e Dolce. Quattro taverne, quattro tappe del gusto accompagnate dai preziosi calici delle cantine della zona. Ingresso unico.
DOMENICA 21 GIUGNO 2009 “AUDIO MAGAZINE”,in concerto il benvenuto all’Estate
MENU Consigliato dalla cucina: Pappardelle al cinghiale - Coratella d’agnello
TUTTE LE SERE GLI STANDS GASTRONOMICI (apertura ore 19,00) OFFRIRANNO RICCHI E MOLTEPLICI MENU: ANTIPASTI VARI, PRIMI SFIZIOSI, CARNE, TORTA AL TESTO, PATATE FRITTE. GLI SPETTACOLI INIZIERANNO TUTTE LE SERE A PARTIRE DALLE ORE 21,00.
As you might expect, I'll be posting short videos over the next few days, just in case you can't make it.
Here’s a slideshow of the pictures I took in Cortona last week. Simply click on the arrow to begin and the slideshow will play automatically. Click on the small box in the right hand corner of the screen to make the slideshow full size.
Last Tuesday, a holiday here in Italy, we drove to Cortona to see the Giostra dell'Archidado, a medieval crossbow tournament. Just as we arrived in the city this group, representing one neighborhood in Cortona, was marching into the main piazza.
Before the crossbow tournament began there was a demonstration of flag throwing, a medieval art that's been kept alive in many cities throughout Italy. Unfortunately I was at the back of the crowd and this is all I could see:
I'll publish a slideshow of all the pictures from that day shortly.
Last Saturday night we gathered with friend and neighbors at the town hall for a dinner sponsored by the Pro Loco association. All over Italy the local Pro Locos sponsor and organize various fun and educational activities. Here in San Venanzo the Pro Loco sponsors bus trips, walks, lectures and even the Carnivale parade. For the incredible price of €7 we enjoyed a huge four course meal, listened to music and watched a slide show of various events held in the past year.
Friends of ours who live and work in Rome have decided to take a year off and are subletting their apartment for a full year beginning August 2009. Have you ever thought about living in Rome for a year? Being able to wander the streets, explore the neighborhoods and become a regular at your 'own' special bar? Imagine what it would be like to be in Rome for Christmas, for the arrival of Spring, and Easter!
For many people Rome is just another box to be ticked off in the grand tour of Italy. Colosseum....check. Vatican...check. Check. Check. Yes, if your vacation time is limited, sometimes that's the sad reality, but for someone who might be able to work from home, or who might work for an international concern, this apartment would give you the opportunity to settle right in and be at home from the start!
You can find all the details about this APARTMENT IN ROME by clicking on the link. It sounds like a spacious apartment, with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms AND a garden! Although we've never seen the apartment in person, we do know the owners, Linda and Steve, and know that this apartment is their home, and that they're nice, honest, hard-working people.
This could be the chance you or someone you know has been dreaming about! Pass it on!
The only remaining Bill and Suzy adventure that I haven’t yet written about is our lunch at IL BACCO FELICE. Located in FOLIGNO, not far from Assisi and Bevagna, this tiny restaurant is well known and it’s fame well-deserved. Owner/chef Salvatore Denaro is Sicilian by birth, passionate about food and a charming if eccentric host.
Bill and Suzy had a copy of a LONELY PLANET guidebook, which listed ILBACCO FELICE as one of the top five restaurants in Tuscany and Umbria. (This sort of surprised me since I thought the Lonely Planet books were aimed at the backpacker/hostel group and featured budget suggestions!) The restaurant had first been mentioned in a 2003 issue of "Town and Country" magazine, which I was pretty sure I still had at home. (I did.)
After driving through the historic center of Foligno searching for a parking spot, we eventually parked in a large lot and walked the short distance to the restaurant, located on via Garibaldi, #73. As is so often the case, the exterior of the building gave no clue as to what we might find inside. What we walked into looked like a bar, every nook and cranny filled with something, photos of Salvatore on every wall, and the odd spaces in between were filled with messages from satisfied customers, written in a rainbow of colors. Most of the messages were enthusiastic to say the least; one said “Thank God you’re here, Salvatore!”, or something to that effect. The bar itself was covered with the morning’s produce delivery of huge fresh broccoli from Calabria as well as other garden delights.
Salvatore greeted our group of eight and led us throught the doorway, past the kitchen, through the tiny dining room and out into the entryway for the building next door. We took the stairs up to Salvatore’s apartment and entered the library, where one wall was full of books, the other full of wine. The loooong table was set of us, and we began with bruschetta, simple but always a treat, and the delicious olives that Salvatore had cured himself. He told us about the process as we ate, and even though I don’t generally like cured olives, these were fantastic!
We then feasted on the end-of-the-season tomatoes, a selection of heirloom varieties and once again Salvatore’s passion for food – growing it, cooking it, eating it, was evident. Oh, and did I mention the huge chunk of pecorino cheese that was our centerpiece? Between the bruschetta, olives, tomatoes and cheese there was more than enough to make a fantastic lunch, but of course this was just the beginning.
We walked back downstairs where our table was waiting for us, and started the ‘real’ meal, almost as if what we’d eaten upstairs didn’t matter. Another antipasto, not one but TWO pasta dishes, then roasted chicken. If there was more I can’t remember it! Of course the wine flowed, and I’ll warn you now: don’t be surprised when (not if!) Salvatore helps himself to a glass of wine from your bottle…this is quality control to the Nth degree!!!
At the end of the meal Salvatore will tell you how much your meal costs - there were no menus, no prices, just the advice of the chef who knows what’s cooking and what’s fresh. Take his advice, don’t be upset if he sits and shares a glass of wine, or even your plate, and in the end I’m betting that you’ll be more than satisfied!
Italians don't celebrate Thanksgiving per se, but you'll find festas in every little town featuring the new olive oil, the new wine and roasted chestnuts. We had just such a festa one Saturday night this November, with music provided by hometown girl Erika Mastrini! In a small town like this, everyone is out for a night of food, fun, and of course dancing!
We recently joined friends at their favorite place to stay in Tuscany, the AGRITURISMO AIOLE, located just outside of Montalcino, and in the gorgeous Val d'Orcia. The setting is incredible, the rooms large and comfortable, but what makes this place really special is the people!
Our friends return to AGRITURISMO AIOLE year after year, and have developed a strong friendship with the owners, Paolo and Noella and their family. Not only is this the third time our friends have traveled to Italy to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with Noella and Paolo, they've also hosted Noella and Paolo when they visited the United States. Obviously this family is special, and now we understand!
Our double room was a large corner room with great views. We had a great night's sleep in the wrought iron bed, and our own ensuite bathroom. There are six double bedrooms, some large enough to accommodate a child or two, and if you have a large group you can rent out the entire facility which will also give you your own kitchen and living/dining room!
Although our friends Paul and Mer took care of most the the cooking for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner, Noella and her sister-in-law Cecilia are excellent cooks. Noella even gives cooking lessons if you're interested! If eating out is more your idea of a great vacation, Noella's sister owns one of the best restaurants in nearby Montalcino, Il GRAPPOLO BLU.
The pictures below are postcards of the agriturismo, and in the lower right hand corner you can see the room we stayed in. You know how much we love Umbria, but honestly, Tuscany's pretty special too, and the AGRITURISMO AIOLE would be at the top of our recommended list!
On Wednesday I posted the first video in this series, and now you'll see the rest of the process in more detail. The crushed olives are stirred then extruded onto fiber mats which are stacked one on top of the other until...
.....the stack of mats covered with olive paste is rolled over to the press
and the mats are compressed to release the oil.
AFter the wheels crush the olives and the mats are squeezed together, the oil and water are separated and the finished product is ready!
From our favorite frantoio just outside of Trevi. Here you can actually see every step in the process, beginning with the giant stone wheels crushing the olives. Next the olive paste is spread onto mats which are stacked up then squeezed together, forcing out the oil. A centrifuge then separates the water from the oil, it's that simple!
Trevi calls itself "The City of Oil", as in olive oil. The city iself is surrounded on every side by thousands of olive trees, and we love the spicy oil that comes from this area.
On a recent visit to Trevi we saw this cute doorknob, complete with a tiny Italian flag. I want one of these for my front door!
You can see more pictures from our visit to Trevi on our FLICKR PAGE in the folder entitled "Trevi For Lunch".
To be honest I think I'm a pretty good cook, with 'cook' being the operative word. I'm not a chef, have never taken any sort of cooking lessons, and learned most of what I know from my mom. Now in the age of technology I also learn from the computer and television. I can Google a recipe, or even specific ingredients to find a recipe. I can watch cooking shows on television and get new ideas, see how other people come up with new twists for old favorites. Honestly, I love to cook, but again, it's just cooking to me, and presentation has never been something I've bothered with. Yes, a beautifully presented plate certainly adds to the experience, but if the food doesn't taste good who cares how good it looks, right?
When we attended GABRIELLA'S COOKING CLASS after our morning of TRUFFLE HUNTING, I was snapping away while she was cooking. It wasn't until later when I looked at ll the photos in sequence that I saw how beautifully she had created the antipasto plate, layer upon layer.
When she began there was only one piece of bruschetta with tomatoes and a bit of lettuce on the plate. This looked quite beautiful to me, and I might have finished it off with a nice drizzle of new oil and served it proudly. But not Gabriella! She had more food to add to the plate, so she continued......
More slices of bruschetta were added, and again, I thought the plate looked beautiful - simple, inviting, pleasing to the eye and surely very pleasing to the palette as well.
But of course Garbiella still wasn't finished....she added this small polenta flan she'd baked earlier (and I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember much about it's origins, other than it involved, eggs, truffled polenta and maybe some parmesan cheese!)
And just when I thought it couldn't get any more beautifuk, she added a drizzle of honey over the polenta for the finishing touch!
What do you think..was it worth the additional work? I certainly think so! I can also tell you that it tasted as good as it looks!
The rest of the pictures from that lunch are HERE on our Flickr page.
Sometimes I can agonize for days, weeks, even months over a potential purchase. I've always been a cautious spender, but sometimes, especially when traveling, I've made mistakes. Sometimes I've bought things I later regretted, or realized were foolish. Other times I'd get back home and wish I'd bought a particular thing and wondered why oh why I'd hesitated!
When we first started looking at olive oil containers for our friend Damon I honestly had no wish to have one for myself. The first one we saw was waayyy too large, but later in Trevi, during the frantoi aperti celebration we saw a simple large glass bottle that would hold about 2 liters of oil. It had a spigot on the front and I thought "hmmmm, maybe I could use something like that." But the moment passed.
Later at one the the olive mills we saw a nice ceramic urn complete with iron stand and a small pitcher on a matching place to catch any drips. I took a picture of it for Damon and sent it to him. I liked this urn better than the first, not only because it was a little smaller, but also because the design was a little simpler. I'm not one for fussy designs, so this simple white urn with olives seemed perfect.
One of the reasons we'd dismissed the idea of buying even the smaller olive oil dispensers was because we didn't have any place to keep it. Yes, we have loads of counter space, but because of it's design, anything with a spigot would have to sit at the edge of the counter so you could easily fill a container for the table. Yes, I know, you could push it to the back of the counter, but I just don't believe in tempting fate with all the back and forth movement....sooner or later something bad was bound to happen!
And then one day as I walked into the pantry I realized that we might be able to sit the container on top of the wine rack. It's still easily accessible but has little chance of getting bumped. Although it wouldn't be in the main part of the kitchen, it would still be very much on display, especially when I'm cooking, so I'd get to enjoy looking at it as well as using it.
I found out the olive mill had simply had this piece on display for the maker, SPIGARELLI. Their website was in both Italian and English, so I wrote to them asking for information about ordering the set. I received a reply from their American distributor, ABBIAMO TUTTO. I exchanged several emails with the president of the company, Donna Marie Territo, who was very helpful. We put our Canadian friends in touch with her since this is the best way for them to order the container, but for us in Umbria, we could just go right to the source!
Because the small pitcher was cracked, I wondered if the GAUDENZI frantoio might sell me just the urn and the stand. The problem with buying the urn directly from SPIGARELLI was that we'd have to have the stand made separately. Lo and behold, yes! Gaudenzi would sell us the complete set, cracked pitcher and all, for the same price as the urn alone. Sold!
And so the other day when we revisited Trevi and Pigge with our Canadian friends we bought the olive oil container and brought it home! I'm still a little scared to wash it, and think I might put it in the bathtub where I can use the handheld sprayer to rinse it thoroughly. I had hoped to be able to salvage the pitcher but it has a hairline crack down the side. Maybe I'll just buy a plain white pitcher, but for now I don't have the room for the pitcher and plate underneath the spigot anyway, so I'll worry about that later.
And here it is......what do you think??? I'm so glad we bought it, and I'm sure this is one purchase I'll never regret!
When I wrote about our lunch in Montefalco, I mentioned PARDI LINENS. They’re based in Montefalco and according to their website are “the only weaving mill in Umbria.” I was confused by this since I knew our friend Giacomo had taken tourists to a mill in Perugia. And then my friend Mary, who’s lived near Montefalco for over 40 years wrote THIS POST (Be sure to click on the link to see the beautiful photos!) about BROZZETTI LINENS. Hmmmm.....
Well, I knew Mary would be able to answer my questions, so I asked her, “What’s the difference between Pardi and Brozzetti?”, and this was her answer:
“There really is NO comparison: Brozzetti is a 100% by hand production with no computer or electric intervention. The technique, the threads, the generation to generation passed on skills and dedication, the exclusive all by hand procedure makes for UNIQUE, one of a kind, exquisite textiles of the highest possible quality. The difference is clear when you have a Pardi in one hand and a Brozzetti in another and compare using all five senses.”
So there you have it, and for those of you visiting Umbria, you can tour the BROZZETTIfacility in Perugia…..think what a great souvenir or gift a tablecloth or runner would be! Additionally they don’t weigh much and there’s no breakage to worry about! For those of you who stay at Mary’s beautiful country inn, GENIUS LOCI, located just outside Bevagna, she has a selection of the Brozetti linens available for purchase there, just in case you run out of time!
Before our day of truffle hunting we visited the charming walled city of Citerna, located on the border of Tuscany and Umbria. It was beautiful when we first arrived but the cloulds rolled in and the rain soon came pouring down. A return visit is definitely in our future, not only to explore the town, but also to take in the gorgeous views.
FUN AT LA FATTORIA DEL GELSO - LUNCH IN MONTEFALCO
During our day of wine tasting with friends Bill and Suzy we stopped for lunch in Montefalco, the epicenter of all things SAGRANTINO. As we pulled into Montefalco, a charming medieval walled city, we could see that the weekly market was just ending. We walked past a porchetta truck, and for me, a porchetta sandwich would have been more than fine for lunch...but of course Bill and Suzy had made other arrangements.
We made our way up the hill into Montefalco, passing the beautiful PARDI LINENS along the way.
Montefalco also has a store selling objects made from olive wood....salad bowls and serving pieices, decorative accessories, even jewlery, and I love every one of them! I recommend both of these as options to everyone who's visiting Italy and looking for a unique souvenier. Both the linens and the olive wood are uniquely Umbrian, weigh very little, and are unbreakable...what a winning combination! Click HERE to see some photos of olive wood I took on a previous visit to Montefalco.
Once we were up in the main square of Montefalco we crossed to the tiny little enoteca/restaurant L'ALCHIMISTA. Because we'd hadn't been able to coordinate schedules with the TABARRINI winery, we would enjoy their wines with our lunch - really a much better way to taste any wine in my opinion.
Bill and Suzy selected our menu, meaning that we didn't have to grapple with that tough decision. Antipasti was simple - bruschetta with various toppings, followed by several pasta dishes, and I have to pat myself on the back here. One of the pasta dishes, made with regular and spinach taglietelle also had pigeon, which is something I've never eaten before. It's fairly common here in Umbria, so I gave it a taste, and honestly, if you had asked me what was in it, I would never have guessed pigeon - and yes, it was delicious!
As you might imagine, the wine flowed, the food kept coming and the conversation was interesting. We all agreed that the TABARRINI wine was delicious. Had we been at the winery I'm certain we would have come away loaded down with cases of wine...maybe next time!
After lunch we visited the Paolo Bea winery where our outgoing host showed us through his work-in-progress, a brand new cantina for making his wine. Although still very much a construction site, we did learn about the passion each winemaker brings to his craft, and the very specific ideas each one has about what makes the perfect wine.
Our tasting at Paolo Bea came with plenty of food, which was a nice touch. Everything was made by mama, and the chicken liver pate was fabulous...and I'm not even a big fan of chicken liver pate! If we had it to do over, I'd recommend that the Paolo Bea winery would have been better in the morning when we weren't all quite so full. Everyone else in our group seemed to somehow manage to eat one more meal, taste one more wine, so maybe I'm just not the trooper I thought I was! All in all, our day in and around Montefalco was one to be remembered. We never did make it to the ANTONELLI winery, but there's always next time!
One of the most interesting things we did when we stayed at Bill and Suzy's villa a few weeks ago was hunt for truffles - called tartufi here in Italy. Click on the link to read about truffles, but basically they're fungi. Unlike mushrooms, truffles grow underground, on the roots of trees, so they're not easy to find.
Because of their sensitive noses (and their love of truffles) pigs were originally used to find truffles, but the problem was keeping the pigs from eating them! Now dogs are used, so we met up with our truffle dog, Asha and her owner one morning in this private, fenced and locked area loaded (theoretically) with truffles.
The dry weather this fall has greatly reduced the mushrooms and truffles in our area, but luckily Asha was able to sniff out ten or so truffles to impress us. The truffles we found, the black ones, are called summer truffles and aren't nearly as expensive as the white truffles...."the precious ones" as our guide Claudia called them.
After the hunt we headed to TARTUFI BIANCONI, a truffle shop/distributor located just outside of Citta di Castello. Gariella and her husband Saverio process and package both types of truffles in more ways than I ever dreamed possible...truffle polenta, truffle mashed potatoes, jarred truffles, frozen truffles, truffle oil....and more. Saverio loves everything truffle so he also has a small truffle museum inside his house.
If you're interested hunting for truffles, or if you'd just prefer to let someone else do the hunting so you can buy some of these yummy delicacies for yourself, check out TARTUFI BIANCONI for yourself!
One of the nicest, and most fun things we do here in Italy is meet with people we've come to 'know' through the internet. Sometimes these are people we've chatted with for months, even years, on various message boards. Quite a few people have contacted us after reading our blog, or after reading about our house for sale. Sometimes we've been able to help someone who wants to move it Italy, or sometimes we just represent the dream of living in Italy. Whatever the case, we always share a love for Italy and 9 times out of ten the people we've met for pizza or a glass of wine while they're here in Italy have truly become friends.
One such 'virtual' friend was Kathy McCabe who publishes the wonderfully informative and entertaining DREAM OF ITALY magazine, available by mail or online. I don't even remember how we first came in contact, but Kathy was so enthusiastic about our house for sale and generously wrote a special post on her BLOG just about our house! (you can read that post HERE.)
When we spent time with our friends Bill and Suzy at their villa, La Fattoria del Gelso, not far from Assisi (and available for rent!), they had a special surprise in store for us: Kathy would be there too!
Kathy, along with her mom Kathleen, had begun her visit to Italy in Turin for the annual SlowFood celebration, then had traveled to Umbria for more good food and wine. Kathy knows Bill and Suzy because they're all in the Washington DC area. I'm sure Bill and Suzy's Italian import store, BellaItalia helps Kathy feel as if she's back in Italy.
Kathy and her mom Kathleen were loads of fun. Kathleen's nickname changed daily depending on the food we were eating....she loved it all and changed from the cookie monster to the truffle monster to the pizza monster!
Kathy also documented her trip on her BLOG, and I'm sure there will be more articles to come in DREAM OF ITALY during the next few months. Not only we did we have a great time at La Fattoria del Gelso, we also got to spend time...real time...with people we considered friends but had never met in person. Once again the internet has made such a dramatic change in our lives! We could never had made the move to Italy without the internet and the advice and support of so many online friends, and now that we're here the internet keeps expanding our circle of friends. It's hard for me to remember the time when I couldn't see any reason why we needed a computer!
(The photo of Kathy and her mom Kathleen was taken by Bill Menard and is used with permission. Thanks Bill!)
Last Sunday was the frantoi aperti, the day when many olive mills invite the public to sample the new oil with bruschetta and other goodies. We started off in Trevi where the piazza was filled with vendors of oil, cheese, fruit, vegetables and other food things to eat. I took the opportunity to buy more celery, and the man told me to use the inner, white stalks of celery as an antipato with the new oil and a little salt. As usual, the simplest things are the most delicious!
As we tasted one of the oils in the piazza a woman walked up and I realized I knew her, or at least knew who she was. I couldn't remember her name, but I asked her "Are you from Philly, and do you have a restaurant in Foligno?" When she answered "Yes", I introduced myself and told her that I read her personal BLOG as well as the one she writes for her restaurant in FOLIGNO. The restaurant is called BASILIKO, and I'm hoping to check it out soon.
I also have Jennifer marked as a contact on my FLICKR PAGE. Whenever one of my contacts posts new pictures the thumbnails are posted on my Flickr homepage. Imagine my surprise I saw Halloween pictures of Salvatore, the chef who's restaurant we'd visited the night before! (Salvatore's restaurant is also in Foligno, and believe me when I say that experience will take a post all it's own!) Jennifer told me she used to work for Salvatore, so the world just gets smaller and smaller!
At one of the frantoi, GAUDENZI, we found this ceramic olive oil container, complete with matching saucer and pitcher for catching all the spills. I'm still considering going back to buy this, but I have to figure out where I could put it. It's so beautiful it needs to be on display, but it also needs to be in a place where it won't be bumped. What do you think....should I buy it? The complete set is €120....quite a splurge for me, but I just keep thinking about it......
We ended up driving to three frantoi rather than waiting for the bus, and in addition to new oil we also bought some of the olive liqueur that Wendy and Art like so much. Loaded with fresh veggies, some cheese, new oil and some spirits we headed home via the scenic route, enjoying the beautiful fall day.
If you're a foodie, the Emilia-Romagna area of Italy is mecca. From this area come such foods as Paremsan cheese, Parma ham, balsamic vinegar and mortadella, just to name a few. For those of you who don't know, mortadella is how we spell bologna here in Italy. Well, maybe that's not quite fair; mortadella is what the perfect bologna should taste like. Italians like to slice it paper thin and fold it over itself for the perfect pannini. Recently the IperCoop near us had this Guinness record holder on display. Next time you visit Italy be sure to try mortadella - you'll be spelling bologna m-o-r-t-a-d-e-l-l-a too!
Wow! We've spent several days with our friends Bill and Suzy, at their villa, La Fattoria del Gelso. The villa is just outside of Cannara, surrounded by farmland and views of Assisi...not too shabby! Over the next few weeks I hope to share most, if not all, of our amazing experiences...we tasted wine....and more wine, and olive oil and went truffle hunting and ate some amazing food.
I'll start this series with a story about something funny that happened as we were leaving the villa this morning. Bill and Suzy had gotten up early to take another guest to the train station in Foligno. The train left the station around 7:15, so we expected them to be back before eight o'clock....but eight o'clock came, then 8:15, then 8:30, and still no Bill and Suzy. We all just assumed that they'd gone straight to Wendy's office for a series of meetings she'd scheduled for them, but we were disappointed that we wouldn't be able to say goodbye.
Bill and Suzy had suggested that we just hang around the villa and wait until the meetings were over, but this being Italy, there was really no guarantee when the meetings might be over. We weren't sure if the technician was going to come this afternoon to service the caldaio, so we knew we'd have to leave sometime in the morning. Just as we were hemming and hawing about whether or not we should go, who should walk in the door but - Bill and Suzy! Needless to say we were all a bit surprised, and when they told us where they'd been (and why), we all practically fell on the floor laughing.
The train from Foligno to Rome had been running late, and when it did finally arrive Bill helped Dick onto the train, carrying one of his suitcases until they found his reserved seat. Bill had checked the train schedule and knew that the stop in Foligno was scheduled for three minutes. What he didn't know was that apparently in an effort to make up for lost time the train wouldn't wait the full three minutes. Just as Bill was putting Dick's suitcase in the overbid bin, he noticed the train was moving!! I'm not sure if he even got to wave arrividerci to Suzy, but he was headed to Rome with Dick!
Luckily the next stop was Spoleto, not too far away, but unfortunately he just missed the train that was pulling out of the station headed back to Foligno. Amazingly there was another train due in about 30 minutes, so he knew he wouldn't have long to wait. Since both Bill and Suzy had their cell phones with them, they'd been in contact and no one was in a panic. Of course they did have to call and cancel that first appointment with Wendy! And since Bill had the only key to the rental car, Suzy just waited at the station until Bill returned a little over an hour later. What a way to start the day!
For us, it was just further proof that when you're with Bill and Suzy you just never know what's going to happen, but you can be sure that in the end everyone will be laughing and having a great time! I can't wait to write about Bill and Suzy, about the villa itself, and about all the amazing things we did!
Although it was a hazy, cloudy day, the vineyards at COLSANTO still looked beautiful
After a tour of the winery and the huge casks where the wine is stored
We sampled some of the wines in this beautiful new facility
After all this exhausting work we then drove to Montefalco for a wonderful lunch at L'ALCHIMISTA, where we drank wines from the TABARRINI winery, another winner in the area! Is it any wonder we love Umbria?
Although I'm familiar with mausoleums, when you say the word "cemetery" to me, I think of large expanses of open land dotted with a variety of headstones. The headstones range from the simplest of bronze plaques and white crosses to elaborate monuments that make the cemetary seem like a sculpture garden. Although I am NOT a cemetery person, when I have visited them in the states I've found them to be peaceful quiet places, perfect for a walk or drive even if you're not visiting a gravesite.
I know there are American-style cemeteries in Italy where soldiers from WWll are buried, but these are the exception rather than the rule. Here in Umbria we see small cemeteries everywhere...small walled areas, usually surrounded by cypress trees. The caskets are interred into family mausoleums that look like little churches.....
Inside are family pictures, fresh flowers and religious objects......
If the family hasn't built their own mausoleum they're interred in a large wall...
and I'd dare to say that 99% of the sites have pictures and fresh flowers.....
I recognized many family names while visiting the San Venanzo cemetery. Not surprisingly I also found it to be a very peaceful place....
As always, more photos on OUR FLICKR PAGE in the folder named "An Italian Cemetery".
Just a reminder....EUROCHOCOLATE starts today in Perugia! The weekends are always crowded, so if you can, visit during the week. If you're only here this weekend or next and love chocolate, then be brave and go anyway! The festival runs through next sunday, October 26th.
The Chianina breed of cattle, which originated in the central part of Italy, is thought to be the oldest breed still in existence. The other day we ran into...not literally, mind you...this herd of cattle moving from one location to another. Here in Umbria we're used to tractors or other farm machinery on the roads, but we usually don't see livestock.
Along the way the cows munched on the few remaining blackberries they found and on the olive trees loaded with fruit! Have you ever tasted an olive right off the tree? If you haven't, just trust me and DON'T! Obviously these cows don't have the same taste buds as humans! The cows moved slowly but surely down the road, giving us plenty of time to admire them.
Did you see this piece on "60 Minutes"? Although Umbria is mentioned at the beginning, most of the emphasis seems to be on the Tuscan locations....not a surprise! If you plan to spend some time in Umbria and would like to sample some of thw wine, a drive along the STRADA del SAGRANTINO, can be a wonderful way to pass the time! The views are stunning and each winery along the way will tempt you with more than one delicious wine!
In case you missed it, here's the clip from "60 Minutes"...
Friends of friends would like to buy a ceramic container for olive oil, complete with spigot so it can sit on their kitchen counter. (Oh, to have that much available counter space!) Since our friend Nedra had never been to Deruta and really wanted to see it, and their famous ceramics, we combined the two ventures. Not only did we find this beautiful urn for oil, Nedra found a gift for a friend and a beautiful bowl for herself. I managed to find a few gifts too, so it was a very successful day.
Because we live in a hilltown. on a winding, curvy road that goes up and over Monte Peglia, we often hear motorcycles, expecially on the weekends. This past Sunday a local ride was organized, starting and finishing in San Venanzo, and promising 90 kilmeters of scenic roads along the way. There was a stop scheduled for breakfast, then a grand lunch once everyone was back in San Venanzo. Here are a few pics I snapped at the beginning of the ride, and 2 videos of the departure.
I didn't hear the return of the bikes, but I was able to take some photos while everyone was eating lunch. Here are just a few, and the rest are in THIS FOLDER on our FLICKR PAGE
Every night of the six day Festa dello Sport promised to be fun, but we were really looking forward to Friday night for many reasons. One of the featured dishes was going to be fresh pasta with truffles (yum!!), Erika was gong to provide the entertainment, and we'd have three Enlish friends with us: Janine from nearby Rotecastello, and new friends John and Sheila. John and Sheila are now retired and live in Avian France, on Lake Geneva, but are here in Umbria for a few weeks, house-sitting. We'd invited them to join in the festivities and were hoping to show off the best that San Venanzo had to offer.
After pre-dinner drinks in our graden we all walked up to the community park where the festa was being held. The weather looked threatening, but we're such pessimists when it comes to rain; it so often passes us by, leaving us with only the sound of distant thunder and the knowledge that someone else is getting our much needed rain. We didn't expect tonight to be any different.
All the tables were set up under the double tent behind the palazzo that houses the comune. Two sides were opne and two sides were closed, giving us a little protection from the wind, but not making it miserably hot like we'd been the other night in Cannara where all four sides of the ten were tightly closed. This picture was taken the next day, but on Friday night the left side and the side opposite it were wide open so that people could easily walk in and out.
We ordered our food and it was delivered quickly. Just as we started to eat the wind really started to pick up. And then it started to sprinkle. And then it rained harder...and the wind blew harder. Someone came to pull the side of the tent, directly behind where Janine and Sheila were sitting, closed. As the wind continued to pick up force the free-hanging side was whipped back and forth until someone else secured the ends to a support pole. We could see outside through a small gap in where the sides of the tent met, and by this time it was raining harder and blowing sideways.
The torrential downpour continued as we bemoaned the fact that we hadn't brought umbrellas, but of course with a storm like this they would have been useless. We were glad we'd already gotten our food! I mentioned the fact that all our windows were open...a fact Art hadn't considered...but without knowing which way the storm had come from, we weren't really sure which rooms would be soaked by the time we got home...IF we got home! It seemed like the storm would go on forever, complete with booming, rumbling thunder and frequent bursts of lightning.
And then the lights went out! I hadn't even brought a purse, so I had no matches, no flashlight, not even a bic lighter! Luckily most of the Italians had their cellphones, and one by one patches of light appeared from the phones. Lightning provided periodic bursts of brighter light. Of course everyone was animated, and there wasn't much else to do but eat, drink and be merry...which we all did!
Eventually, maybe 15 or 20 minutes later, the lights did come back on, and a few brave souls left the tent. Most of us thought it was better to wait it out, but we knew the evening's entertainment would be cancelled. Erika conferred with her dad, and I told her she should just sing in the tent.
A little while later, after several spontaneous songs and increasing joviality, some of the men came around offering complimentary limoncello or grappa. As long as we were stranded there, we figured we might as well make the best of it. Gioberto saluted us with his usual "America America!" toast, and being stuck in the storm didn't seem nearly so bad!
Although the night didn't turn out as we had planned, and even though we never got to hear Erika play, it was still one of those evenings that will stay with us for a long time. Thankfully all our guests were just as philosophical as we were, and despite the stromy weather a good time was had by all. And we did need the rain!
September always brings the religious celebration of Santa Maria del Liberatrice. The 14th century church is only open on special occasions, but it's a tiny jewel. On Monday the church bells rang throughout the day in anticipation, then later in the afternoon the procession marched through town in it's usual order: all the men, followed by the priests and the town band, then all the women and children.
Once the circuit was complete a few prayers were said inside the larger, more modern town church, then the band played.
After that it was porchetta sandwiches, drinks and crostata for all. When we first arrived here we simply looked on at these events. Since we don't subscribe to their religion it didn't seem right to join in the gatherings or partake of the food, but over and over again the townspeople have invited, no encouraged us to attend. Ah! the true meaning of Christianity! How refreshing!
Inside the parish hall were tables filled with various household goods and trinkets, donated I'm sure by the local shops. For €1 you could stick your hand into a large glass vase filled with tiny scrolls, all secured inside a piece of tiny, round pasta. We bought two chances; the first translated into a pen, but the second was a lovely glazed baking dish, perfect for a side dish. Father Jerry, the Irish pastor (yes, we are ecumenical here!) told me that the proceeds will benefit a church in Brazil, a church where our local priests have worked, so it's more than just a theoretical friendship.
Next door at the Bar Centrale a man was singing, accompanied by the modern wonders of a karaoke machine. The kids ran around with swords made of balloons, the adults danced, or watched, or just gossiped and enjoyed. A wonderful summer evening in San Venanzo.
Tomorrow we'll begin a new festa, the Festa dello Sport, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the town's soccer team. Every night we'll have fun, food, music and dancing. One night we'll have fencing demonstrations, another karate demonstrations, all in keeping with the sports theme. Not surprisingly, we'll be there every night! The cooler nights will make it even more enjoyable.
NESTOR'S PIZZERIA - COMING SOON TO A LOCATION NEAR US!!!!
Last spring I wrote about the sad last day at Nestor'sPizzeria, and the one good thing about that night (other than the pizza!), was that Giuseppe and Mara told us they'd be re-opening in a new location right across from the hospital in Marsciano.
We ran into Giuseppe not long after we got back to Italy in May and he told us that the bureaucracy was taking longer than expected, and taking into account the fact that nothing happens in August, he thought they'd be open sometime in September. And then one day we drove past the storefront that was to have been the new pizzeria and there was an insurance agency there! Of course we had no idea what had happened, but we were still concerned.
I knew that eventually we'd run into someone who'd know what was going on, but today we had all our questions answered by Giuseppe himself. As we drove through Marsciano today we spotted his truck parked near the hospital and looked towards the site that was now the insurance office. We didn't see anything going on there but we did notice some work going on where the florist shop used to be, right next to the Arab butcher shop. And then we saw Giuseppe! And then we saw a big sign in the window, announcing that Nestor's Pizzeria was opening soon! Hurrah!
Giuseppe told us that they couldn't get the necessary permits for an oven at the now-an-insurance-office location, but that today was the first day of work at this location! We're so happy for all concerned....Giuseppe, Mara and their family, and for all their distraught customers who've been anxiously awaiting the grand reopening! Great pizza is on it's way back to Marsciano!
LA LOCANDA DEL BORGO, the restaurant in nearby ROTECASTELLO, celebrated it's one year anniversary this past weekend. A fixed price buffet-style menu was offered for the amazing price of €10 per person, includingwater and red or white wine! The owners, Lucia, her aunt Mariella, and her grandmother Genoveffa showed us once again why their restaurant is getting rave reviews and is busy every night! If you're in central Umbria we highly recommend LA LOCANDA DEL BORGO. Click on the link for more information including their phone number to make reservations. You can thank me later.
Or even those of you who are slightly squeamish...or who think all that meat in the grocery store just magically appears on styrofoam trays! This post is about the reality of life in a farming community, and about the entire circle of life, which is sometimes just a little gruesome for some of us!
Living here in Umbria, and specifically in San Venanzo, we know that almost everything we eat is fresh. So much of our food is locally grown, and what was on the vine this morning will often appear on the dinner table tonight, even for those of us who don't have gardens. In addition to the fruits and vegetables, animals are also grown here...chickens and ducks, pigs and sheep, cows and....pigeons.
We all have our comfort zones, and our ideas of what's edible and what's just gross. I'll eat pork all day long (and my oh my do they know how to do pork in Umbria!), but don't even think about asking me to eat something that was inside that little piggy! No to liver and tripe (stomach lining...ugh!) and tongue and brains. No to testicles from any animal for sure! No, I don't eat bunny rabbits, but I will eat lamb. I can't give you any logical reason for any of it, but that's just the way it is.
Our neighbor Armando raises pigeons, and not to carry messages. He raises them to eat. Seems like a lot of work for such a small meal, but that's okay with him. The other day he brought some pigeons back from the coop and was cleaning them in his garage. I don't know (or want to know) how he killed them, but I do know that just like chickens, and all other fowl, you have to dip them in boiling water to loosen the feathers. After that it's just pluck pluck pluck until the feathers are gone. The finishing touch is the blow torch to singe off the remaining feathers, or stubs of feathers.
Armando said that Giulda (his wife) would clean out the birds and bake them in the oven like chicken, and that each bird would serve two people.
Here are some pictures of the process, well down the page, giving those who don't care to see the pictures plenty of time to click away.....
Once again we combined friends and food with stunning views and mild temperatures for the perfect summer's day in Umbria! Although JANE, Ken and Casey have been in Italy for two months (as opposed to last year when they spent a full twelve months!), we hadn't yet had a chance to get together with them. We were so glad when we found out that their last few days would be spent in Umbria, and best of all, at the GENIUS LOCI INN, run by our good friends MARY, Maurizio and Michael.
JUDITH drove down from Citta di Castello, RITA and LINO drove over from Tuscany, and including Michael's friend RHIAN who was visiting from London, we had quite a diverse group. Lunch was simple....fresh tomatoes, sliced meats and cheeses, eggplant, bread, more tomatoes, great wine from Tuscany, then more great wine from Genius Loci (good work Maurizio and Michael!), finished off with some all American treats for dessert.
The time seemed to fly, and just watching the sun change the hills in the distance was fascinating. Art said if he lived at Genius Loci he'd never have to turn on the television...just watching the view was entertainment enough! We skipped the wine tasting since we'd done that in June, so while everyone else went to learn about the fabulous Sagrantino, Art and I enjoyed the breeze and the view. We also bought some Sagrantino to take home....some lucky person will be getting a special gift this Christmas!
I'm so glad we had the chance to see Jane, Ken and Casey this summer....Casey's gotten so tall! As always Michael and his parents were the perfect hosts, and we're looking forward to our next visit to GENIUS LOCI, hopefully sooner rather than later!
The medieval town of MASSA MARTANA, just across the E45 from Todi, is a town we discovered back in 2002 when we came to Italy to find the perfect place to live. Most of the walled city was destroyed during the earthquake of 1997, and only recently was the restoration complete. The town now looks like a medieval jewel, retaining its character, but with completely updated facilities like new plumbing and wiring, and anti-seismic protection built into the structures.
For whatever reason we'd never visited Massa Martana during it's annual Sagra del Gelato, and we decided it was about time we did! We met up with our friend Shelly and her friends Milena (and MIlena's husband, whose name I don't remember!). Dinner was simple, and since the feature of this sagra is gelato, simple is a good thing. We had our choice of torta al testo with sausage, prosciutto, pancetta or cheese. We each made our choices, ordered a bottle of wine, and went to our table to wait for delivery. Becquse we were there pretty early in the evening the food arrived quickly and we all savored our food. Once again, the simplest of foods are the best!
After dinner we took a stroll around town. Many of the shops stay open during the sagra and we found quite a few realy nice art galleries, as welll as a muscc museum set up in an old church. The moon was nearly full, the temperature was perfect, and off in the distance we could hear music....that polka/accordian music that could be Italian...or Swiss/German/Austrian. At the end of the street we found the band, and of course swirling dancers filling the piazza.
Eventually we made our way outside the city walls for the main event" GELATO! There were several types of sundaes listed, and I found one that I liked...except it was made with gelato. When it was my turn to order I asked if I could have it made with gelato instead of yogurt and with a puzzled look the woman told me that it was made with gelato. I told her that the sign said it was made with gelato, and after a pause she told me that "yogurt" was a flavor! Oh...okay. I explained that in the states we have frozen yogurt, but I'm not sure they really 'got' it. Anyway, we each ordered our gelatos and once again waited at our table for them to arrive. Within minutes we were happily slurping away, lost in the decadence of a warm summer's evening and a bowl of gelato.
The festa in ROTECASTELLO has undergone some changes in the last few years. Previously the dinner had been served on the soccer field which sits below the town. There was a kitchen and a giant grill for preparing the food just above the field, and the young people who served it didn't seem to have any problems running back and forth between the kitchen and the field.
Last year things changed. Apparently there were new health regulations in force, or someone decided to enforce the existing ones...here in Italy it's hard to know. We were told that the food couldn't be served on the soccer field, but perhaps the problem was with the cooking facilities. Whatever the reasons, Rotecastello eventually got around the problem by saying "okay, we won't have a traditional festa, we'll just have a dinner for the members of our association", which must have meant that different rules apply. Again, things work mysteriously in Italy. Still, the food was not served on the soccer field, but up in Rotecastello itself.
Everyone who came to Rotecastello last year for dinner was required to join the "Friends of Rotecastello" association. You didn't have to pay a membership fee, although that was certainly appreciated if you felt like contributing. Each 'member' was issued an official membership card, and even though everyone still had to pay for their dinner, things were now legal.
The one good thing to come out of this was that people got to be up IN Rotecastello for a longer period of time. Previously if you came late to dinner then walked up into town for the entertainment, chances were that it was already dark and you wouldn't be able to see much of the town....not that there's much to see, but still, it's cute and takes less than ten minutes to see the entire village.
Tables were set up in several different spots, all near the town oven. We thought the system worked well, and were surprised when it was changed again this year. We later found out that the people who owned some of the land where the tables had been set up were unhappy with the mess that was made/left on their property. Our friends who live in Rotecastello say that there was no mess, that everything was cleaned up promptly, so maybe the landowners were just looking for an excuse to deny the use of their land. That seems a little strange to us since the entire festa is manned by volunteers, many of whom are in Rotecastello for a short time....on their vacation. It must be a labor of love, but perhaps this particular family just wasn't feeling the love.
This year tables were scattered throughout Rotecastello, a few here, a few there...a few more just around the corner or up the stairs. Food was also prepared in a variety of locations, and the servers were kept busy running from kitchen to kitchen, then table to table, and in the end there were quite a few complaints about poor (or even non-existent) service. Yes, I know it's a new system, and problems were inevitable, but this new system seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.....and it did, to quite a few people we know. I hope next year the system is a little more efficient.
On the final night of the festa, the night of the medieval procession, the dinner was a set menu, and after paying for your meal and selected drinks, you then took your ticket to a table that was set up outside the kitchen of Rotecastello's wonderful restaurant, LA LOCANDA DEL BORGO. After a short wait your name was called and you received your entire meal at once....how very un-Italian!
For €12 we received generous portions of panzanella (tomato bread salad), beans with tomatoes, farro salad, foccacia bread, loads of porchetta, veal, and to end the meal, cantucci with vin santo. Jugs or bottles of wine were available along with water and soft drinks. We ordered two jugs of the red wine )€5 each!) for our table of seven and several bottle of water.
After dinner we walked to the piazza to see if there were any seats left. Luckily, we found two seats on the side, and settled in. We've discovered that the only thing that ever starts on time is lunch, and knew that the 9:30 start time for the procession wouldn't happen. As usual Anna welcomed everyone to Rotecastello and gave us a brief history of the borgo, so we knew we wouldn't be waiting too much longer.
Sometime after ten, we heard the drums, signalling the arrival of the procession. The drums faded away as the group marched around the city, then came booming around the corner as the group approached on our right. As usual every class of people was represented from the peasants on up to the nobility.
Once everyone had arrived in the piazza the main characters made their way to the stage and presented a short play. Jesters filled the piazza with music and laughter, and eventually everyone marched back down the hill, led by the drums steady beat. Everyone we spoke to agreed that the medieval procession is a wonderful way to end the festa.
This past weekend was the festa in ROTECASTELLO. We didn't go on Friday night, but were there for Saturday's festivities. The menu listed lepre (hare) on the menu, so our friends in Rotecastello extended their drinks-before-dinner invitation to include dinner itself.
Our flight attendant friend (that's her on the right) was flying into Rome on Saturday morning, and after a flurry of emails we convinced her to come to Umbria for the day and join in the fun with us. We picked her up in Orvieto, fed her lunch, then sent her off for a nap so she wouldn't crash during the festa!
As usual, Keith and Janine's terrace was the perfect place to enjoy some drinks and good company. Many of the people who only come to Rotecastello during August were there, so it was nice to catch up with them and to meet a few new friends as well.
After dinner we walked around Rotecastello, and ended up marching into the main piazza right behind the PERUGIA FUNKING BAND. It was clear from the beginning that the entertainment would be lively!
As I wrote PREVIOUSLY, keeping up with the bureaucracy required to live in a foreign country can be complicated and confusing. Now that our permits of stay are renewed through the mail, it's even more worrying, wondering if all the documents were acceptable, and wondering if everything arrived safely.
Luckily Italy is slowly coming into the digital age and it's now possible to check the status of renewals online. I checked after a week but found no information. I checked after two weeks and read that no irregularities had been found in our documents, and hoped that was good news. If it was just another way of saying that our documents had been received but hadn't yet been examined, then we'd still have to wait to see if anything changed. You know me, why wait to worry?!
Today, just three weeks after we mailed our renewal packets to Rome, I discovered that we have appointments for the next step! We're scheduled for September 1st, and even better, we get to go to Orvieto for the renewal! This will be six weeks after we mailed in our packets! What a relief! We were hoping that we'd be able to complete the renewal in Orvieto and not have to drive all the way to Terni. Although the drive might not be much longer, we enjoy Orvieto so much more than Terni, so we'll have a nice day out.
When we go to Orvieto for our appointment we'll have to take copies of our documents just in case they want to verify something. We'll also have to take four passport size photos, our original (ready-to-expire) permessi, and our passports. We'll also get re-fingerprinted, this time digitally, which won't be messy like the FIRST TIME, when our hands were covered with black ink.
I'm not sure if we'll receive our new permessi that day or if we'll have to wait until our fingerprints/photos are processed, but for now I'm just relieved to be one step closer to completing the process. The new permessi will be good for two years, so hopefully this will be the last time we have to go through this process! (Rumor has it the the system will change yet again, and that in the future each commune will handle their own permessi, but who knows when or if this will ever happen?)
Just a reminder for those of you who are in Umbria this weekend and beyond....the medieval festa in ROTECASTELLO begins on Friday the 8th and runs through Monday the 11th. Details can be found by clicking on the link. Food is available from 7:30 and each night's entertainment starts (around) 9:30.
Also beginning this Friday is the weeklong SAGRA del GELATO in Massa Martana, not far from Todi. The poster for this festa is just a little more eye-chatching than the poster for the medieval festa....
Whatever you do this weekend, I hope you have as much fun as we plan on having!
Here's a picture of one of the more unique birthday presents Art received this year....a piece of chocolate from SANDRI’S, the wonderul pasticceria in Perugia.The scene is from Perugia, of the famous fountain and beautiful buildings in the centro. Almost too pretty to eat......almost!!
Art's birthday fell on a day when most of our friends were out of town. Although we really enjoyed our lunch with those who were able to come, we also wanted an excuse to get everyone together, and and excuse to try out a pizzeria in Fratta Todina that we'd heard about.
By some miracle everyone was free to meet for pizza on Friday evening, and Belinda had even invited the Canadian girls to join us. I hadn't been sure if they'd want to spend an evening with the 'old folks', but either they were too polite to say no, or didn't find the idea too disagreeable.
In all there would be ten of us, and we'd given general directions to everyone to meet at the pizzeria. We didn't know the name of the place, but the location was pretty easy to describe, along with the words "Pizza" in large letters on the building. We were the first to arrive, and the building looked closed....maybe even deserted. Hmmm, not good. Maybe they were closed for vacation. We called Belinda and Giacomo who'd told us about the pizzeria, and they made a few suggestions for alternate locations. After phone calls to Keith and Janine, Wendy and Shelly, we eventually settled on Wendy's suggestion to drive up to the restaurant in Motecastello di Vibio. There was sure to be a breeze and a view, so as long as this restaurant was open, everything would work out.
In August it's hard to know if places will be open or closed. To our American way of thinking, being open in August is a great time for a restaurant, gift shop or other tourist related business to rake in the bucks. Of course the Italians don't look at things the same way Americans do, and the almighty dollar, or euro in this case, doesn't always rule. Our first two choices had been closed, but hopefully this next restaurant, LO SCUDIERO, would open since it was connected to a hotel, il CASTELLO.
Yes, the restaurant was open and we had a wonderful dinner....a great mixed antipasti platter to start, then pizzas all 'round. The breeze and the view were both wonderful as expected, and of course the company was the best! During the course of the evening someone asked the Canadian girls how they were passing their time, and when it was discovered that they had no television Wendy offered to lend them one of hers, along with a DVD player and some movies. I'm not sure how much time the girls will spend indoors watching television, but at least they have some options now during the heat of the day or after their evening passiagiata.
On Sunday Wendy delivered the electronics, then she and the girls came to our house for lunch. When the girls rang the bell, Art and I were both surprised to see the beautiful flowers they'd brought as a gift! Of course here in Italy you NEVER go to someones house without some sort of gift...a bottle of wine, flowers, a plant, maybe some sweets...but we certainly didn't expect a gift from two teenage girls, even ones as mature and thoughtful as these two!
Lunch was simple: a pasta salad to use up the last of the peppers, tomatoes from Armando's garden with fresh mozzarella, and grilled eggplant, again thanks to Armando. Dessert was Sicilian pastries that Giacomo and Belinda had brought back from their last trip. Nothing too fancy, but delicious none the less. Once again, simple food and good friends made for two very enjoyable days...but such is life in Italy. It's a tough job, huh? ; )
For many, if not most Italians, August means vacation. Those who live in the mountains head for the sea, while those who live in the big cities seem to head for the cool relief of the mountains. Many shops and restaurants will close for the entire month of August, and services will be limited. When friends recently went to an office in the comune they discovered the one and only person who can perform the service they needed is on vacation for the entire month of August. No one is replacing the vacationer, so the paperwork will just pile up until he returns. What a system!
Our neighbors left today for a week at the beach. I'm guessing the reason they won't be gone for the whole month is that they're retired and living on a fixed income. Our other neighbors, the ones who own the other half of our house, should be arriving soon. They live in Bologna, which is hot and humid in the summer. For them the breezes in San Venanzo and the chance to catch up with friends and family will make this month go much too quickly.
Our neighbor Adamo has already completed his vacation for the year...apparently some companies, including the health care industry, are now letting their employees take vacations in months other than August. Some enjoy the chance to save a bit of money and to visit during less crowded times, but I'm sure for many others, whose families still vacation in August, this presents a problem. Although medical facilities remain open in August, I wouldn't want to schedule an elective procedure during this time, just in case I ran into some doctor, nurse or technician who'd been 'forced' to take their vacation outside of the 'normal' time frame!
For us August signals the beginning of the end of summer. Yes, the fruits and vegetables are at their height, and everything is plentiful and cheap. but unlike Kentucky, where summer seems to last well into September, and often October, summer here seems to know that once the page turns from August to September, summer is really over. I love the idea that the new olive oil will be here soon, and the idea of cool nights, but the shorter days are not something I look forward to, or the cold wet days of winter. Okay, enough of that.....for now it's August...time to savor the long hot days of summer while we still can!
Bossy, opinionated, and impatient. Determined and stubborn. Quick tempered.
Fiscally conservative and politically liberal. A realist, not a dreamer. A detail person and a planner.
Our favorite frantoio in Pigge didn't have enough oil to sell this year, and it was rainy on the "Frantoi Aperti" weekend. Luckily our friends Larry and Shelly arrived back in Italy to harvest their olives, and invited us along to watch them turn into oil! There were ten of us, so it was a party, especially when the owner of the frantoio brought out the bruschetta, dripping with the new olive oil! YUM! Here are some pictures from our visit to the La Pace Frantoio in Massa Martana, not far from Todi.
-726809.jpg)
we took a peek inside the very new, VERY posh 
-793598.JPG)
-790870.JPG)
