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My Italy Travel Explorations
Ah, Italy, the "land of the endless discoveries"! My favorite spots? Impossible to decide - every one of the 20 regions has its gems. Here are some of my Italy Travel Explorations listed from north to south. Exploration continues!
PIEDMONT
Elegant Turin (1/2008)
The oxymoron "simple elegance" keynoted our recent 3-day Turin stay: from our exquisite loft apartment to the elegant caffé interiors to the regal architecture of this royal city destined by the Savoys in the 16th century to represent absolute power.
VENETO
Venice Tour
A Jewish history walk through Venice evokes a city that most visitors
never see - one refracted through its many Jewish facets, where the people,
places, and stories of an ancient and still thriving Jewish-Venetian culture
are revealed in magnificent and surprising ways.
LIGURIA
Pasta al Vero Pesto alla Genovese (Pasta with the REAL Genovese Pesto Sauce)
The variety of basil cultivated on the Ligurian coast (and which enriches the Genovese pesto with its rich perfume) is the fundamental base for this traditional dish.
Cinque Terre
I recently spent 3 days hiking all of the Cinque
Terre (5 towns in Liguria, connected to each other only by footpaths skirting
the seacoast).
TUSCANY
Along for the Ride in the Mugello Valley - NEW!
I was just "along for the ride", so to speak: the ride with Pino on the motorcycle through the spectacular Mugello Valley area in northeast Tuscany.
Tuscany Byways (11/2007)
November entered grandly with a 4-day week-end this year: a national holiday. We did manage to squeeze in just a brief intervallo as Pino packed up his tools late Saturday afternoon and we headed off. Destination: the area of Buonconvento in nearby southern Tuscany.
Pitigliano... Medieval Wonder and Jewish Heritage (10/2006)
Pitigliano, precariously perched on a lava rock precipice, is on the eastern side of Lake Bolsena in southern Tuscany.
Wandering Southern Tuscany (4/2004)
I say it again and again: "ah, Italy of the endless discoveries!"
Walking Tuscany and Umbria in May
Walk through the green hills of Tuscany and Umbria with a "simpaticissimo",
knowledgeable guide: my friend Alessandro. Enjoy regional wine and cuisine
in country inns and wine cellars owned by Ale's friends.
Bevagna: Passione for the Middle Ages - NEW!
Bevagna's end-of-June medieval festival the Mercato delle Gaite synthesizes the passione of the Bevignati - six-year-olds to the elderly - for the medieval history and culture of their town...
Umbria's Flowers of Passione - NEW!
It all started on a late June Sunday in the early 1900's when an elderly woman from Spello (Umbria) scattered shredded bunches of brilliant yellow wild broom and mossy green wild fennel on the cobblestone street in front of her home....
Umbria's Sacred June Rites - NEW!
No morning wash is more glorious than that of Umbria's rural people in the early morning of June 24th. On June 23rd at sunset, vigil of the Festa di San Giovanni Battista, the farmwomen head out into the fields with baskets or bags to gather the cento erbe (literally,"one hundred greens or plants", though flowers as well as plants are picked)....
Umbria Brings in May
At around 2:00 am, we were awakened by robust, joyous male voices singing under our window, accompanied by rollicking accordian music and the jangling of a tamburine: our first introduction to the maggiaioli!
Blessed Easter Abundance in Umbria
Driving through the Umbrian countryside during the week prior to Easter, you'd note whiffs of smoke drifting up from the outdoor stone bread ovens fired up by the farmwomen. Holy Week for the Umbrian farmwomen is a busy one, an exhausting one: making the torta di Pasqua ("Easter cake") or pizza pasquale, as it is often called, in the stone bread ovens is a major task.
"Black" Celery Festival in Trevi
Not long ago, a friend and I joined in the revelry of the final night of the Trevi Sagra del Sedano Nero e Salsiccia arriving just in time for the grilled sausage sandwiches, local vino rosso and tastes of all sorts of Umbrian delicacies, from varieties of pecorino (sheep's milk cheese) to wild boar salami to celery paté to sweets made with freshly-pressed grape juice.
FOLIGNO,
Where First Courses Take First Prizes -
NEW!
I Primi d'Italia
("First Courses of Italy") is Umbria's
celebration of the most-beloved Italian first courses: pasta
(and this year, gluten-free varieties, too!), risotto, gnocchi,
polenta and soups.
Climb
to the Heavens:
Viewing Fresco Restoration
in Assisi (9/2002) MUST
READ!
Five years ago today, 2 areas of the frescoed
vault of the Upper Basilica di San Francesco here in Assisi, crashed
to the floor when an earthquake struck. The frescoed vault section
over the door has just been returned to the world.
NOVEMBER: Sweets, Saints and Cemeteries
Here in Umbria, at the end of October the farmwomen start chopping the walnuts they have gathered in preparation for the traditional early November Umbrian sweet, la pasta dolce.
Rural Life Revisited: A Tribute to the Past, to the People
This new tour is targeted at providing participants with an "inside" look at rural life of the past, as still lived by so very few.
Death of an Assisi Hero (2/2007)
The extraordinary life of Don Aldo Brunacci.
Medieval May Festival in Assisi
In the medieval hilltown of Assisi committees have been meeting
nightly since February to plan this year's traditional salute to spring,
the Calendimaggio.
Spielberg Honors Assisi Priest (1/2003)
Don Aldo, close to 89 years old, assisted the
bishop of Assisi in hiding Jewish refugees in World War II. For this event,
Spielberg chose to interview Don Aldo along with three other direct witnesses.
October 5th, St. Francis Street Fair Lives On
The day after the Festa, Oct 5th, the town becomes an open marketplace as the annual street fair, la Fiera di San Francesco, winds its way through the medieval alleyways of the town. Very early in the morning, 150 vendors (from all over Italy) set up their booths and most of Assisi is a street market until sunset.
La Madonnna Arrives!
During the night of December 7th, La Madonna will stop at each Assisi home, leaving a simple gift for the children.
Why Umbria Entices
"I have never seen anything more pleasing", said St. Francis
of his own Umbria, often called Italy’s green heart.
January
Assisi Festivals (Join the Locals)
Special feast days highlight January here in
Umbria, making it a wonderful time to visit. Mediterranean winter: clear,
crisp days in the 30's and 40's, hilltown gems empty of tourists, lower
prices and the opportunity to share in le feste with the locals.
Catecuccio: Eating and Dancing with "the Locals" (2/2006) Carnevale is in full swing now. And I do mean "full swing": the rural people exuberate in ballroom dancing (after banquet meals!) every Friday and Saturday night, as well as Sunday afternoons.
Easter Monday in Montone, Umbria
I've lived here in Umbria, "Italy's green heart", for well over
25 years... and finally this past year was able to attend the celebration
of the Sacra Spina ("Sacred Thorn") in the tiny walled
medieval castle-village of Montone, about 25 miles north of Perugia.
The Flowering of Spello (6/2003)
Article by Gail Sheehy.
A "Wonder" at Umbria Jazz
- Perugia (7/2004)
The hit of Umbria Jazz 2004
in Perugia this July was the 15-year-old Sicilian sax player Francesco
"Wonder Boy" Cafiso (so baptized when he played Carnegie Hall
last May with Wynton Marsalis).
Spello and a Mountaintop Castle-village
A walk
through a "world-apart", stopping to talk with the "locals".
Olive Oil and Truffles: Umbria's Diamonds (11/2005)
Umbria is the only region of Italy's 20 regions which boasts only DOP
olive oils. DOP ("denominazione origine protetta") signifies
that the specific item in question may be produced only from ingredients
from that specific and limited area.
November 25th: "Umbria's Diamonds" FESTAtour
This new afternoon/evening tour will entice those whose palates wish to
savor art and history as well as Umbria's two gastronomical "diamonds":
olive oil and truffles.
Christmas in Umbria
The crib scene originated in Assisi with St. Francis who was the first to
create a "living manger scene".... In 1223 (3 years before his
death), St. Francis decided to celebrate the memory of the birth of Christ
at Greccio (south of Assisi, in northern Latium).
Raphel Fresco Just Discovered! (5/2003)
"C'e un Raffaello a Cerqueto" ("A Raphael in Cerqueto"...!)
leapt off the front page of Corriere dell'Umbria on Saturday, May
17, 2003. On the following Sunday, my husband Pino, one of our sons, Keegan
(23) and I attended the conference in the little town (pop. 500) of Cerqueto
(Marsciano) - not far from Perugia.
Sagra: Joining a Local Festival! (4/2003)
We've been attending the local sagre (singular: sagra) or country festivals since our arrival here in Umbria nearly 30 years ago and we certainly do have favorites...
For more on Umbria, see Memoirs of Rural Life
MARCHE
LE MARCHE: Plural Name, Plural Wonders
Hilltop pastures, live oak and chestnut woods, and springtime-green fields of wheat lined the twisting roads we followed into the region of Le Marche.
ABRUZZO
Abruzzo, Forever "Strong and Gentle" - NEW!
Abruzzo is an area not yet jaded by mass tourism. In fact, in three days of exploration, we met only a few... and all Italians.
Abruzzo: Forte e Gentile (1/2006)
Abruzzo is an area not yet jaded by mass tourism. In fact, in three days of exploration, we met only a few... and all Italians.
LATIUM
Lubriano's Miraculous Madonna..and Unleavened Bread
I recently happened on a fascinating custom tied to a centuries-old apparition of the Virgin in a small town in central Italy - with a curious link to unleavened bread. ...
VENTOTENE, "slow" island of blissful exile
The tiny Mediterranean island of Ventotene, a slice of paradiso south of Rome, has always been an island of "exile"...
Roman Tidbits
Roman highlights, restaurants, flea markets, information points, etc.
Captivated by Lake Bolsena (10/2006)
For over 25 years, we've escaped summer heat with frequent jaunts to Lake Bolsena, a short distance west of Orvieto and in the region of Latium (which borders Umbria).
CAMPANIA
Ischia, the Island of the "Universal Garden" (6/2006)
In the 16th century, a visitor to Ischia wrote: "you will see with infinite marvel that this island, almost like a small garden, embodies all the elements of the universal garden of the earth."
Naples Tour
This tour by my Nucci friends is perfect for the Christmas season
but is available all year round. You will walk the narrow streets of Naples'
historic center to follow the story of the renowned Neapolitan crib (presepe or presepio in Italian).
Forza, Napoli! (Go, Naples!) (11/2004)
"Forza, Napoli" can be translated "Go, Naples!" (as in a soccer rallying cry) - and "forza" can also mean POWER!
PUGLIA
Gargano on Fire
The Mediterranean burns as temperatures soar once again to over 100° F. Pino and I witnessed the devastating results of the first of Italy's major fires during our mid-August motorcycle trip around the Gargano peninsula in Puglia, the "spur of the boot"
SICILY
Sicily: Volcanic Adventures
I've been celebrating my end-of-August birthdays on volcanoes recently - "explosive" moments! This August, I celebrated my birthday with a trip to Mt. Etna.
Palermo's Welcoming Nobility (10/2005)
The weather was unseasonably cool during our annual visit this year to my husband Pino's family in Palermo, Sicily. We combined, therefore, seaside with visits to a few of Palermo's "hidden" artistic treasures: privately-owned noble palazzi.
Tasting Sicilia! (9/2003)
Fast food? Invented by the Palermitani centuries ago! Since the early 19th c, Palermo's streets have teemed with the carts and kiosks of street vendors...
Ustica: Long-Lived Island (9/2007)
For me, Ustica is "the long-lived island" for more than one reason...