It's certainly necessary to present a brief "professional"
biography (which follows), but I do feel that what bests gives a
sense of why I so enjoy sharing Umbria is a brief "personal-life"
biography... which tells about our ties to this land...
Anne Robichaud received her degrees in both English Literature and
Italian Language and Literature from the University of Santa
Clara (California) in 1970, after also having completed studies
in Italian literature and culture, as well as art history at the
University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy in 1969. She
furthered her studies at the University of California, Berkeley
in l972 and since 1973 has lived in Italy.
After teaching for two years in Rome, she and her Italian husband
moved to a mountain area outside of Assisi (Umbria) where they worked
the land, raised three children, and began restoring their farmhouse.
Here in Umbria, Anne also... *founded an English Language Institute
in Assisi in 1975, which she ran for over 18 years; *served as site co-ordinator and principal
lecture for the 2-week Assisi Elderhostel programs for many years; *created and conducted the “Umbrian
Countrysides” tour for the Smithsonian; *assisted in the development of a restoration
tour for the National Trust; *served as local Umbrian expert for
the National Trust tour; *created an Umbrian walking tour for
Wilderness Travel (Berkeley, CA); *served as assistant for summer abroad
Assisi program of the University of Santa Clara; *has been licensed as an official Umbrian
Regional Tour Guide since 1997 (18 out of 350+ applicants passed
the exams...); *set off on a 5-week, coast-to-coast
U.S. lecture tour in 1998 with the intent to restore tourism to
Assisi, greatly reduced after the September 1997 earthquake; *has lectured on aspects of contemporary
Italian society and Umbria (please see Lecture
page) for various tour/study groups in Italy, including: Tauck
World Discovery Tours, Academic Travel Abroad, Backroads, Wilderness
Travel, BCT, Country Walkers, Earthbound Expeditions, Butterfield
& Robinson; *has often worked as a consultant for
tour companies in the creation of customized tours in Umbria including
incentive tours, alumni tours, summer abroad programs, culinary,
art, walking and Jewish Heritage tours; *has traveled annually (since 1998)
to the U.S. for her lecture/cooking lessons (of Umbrian rural cuisine
in private homes) tours (please see U.S.
Events page).
