It’s official: countdown to the May 15th Corsa dei Ceri in Gubbio has started. Almost as if a gun at a starting line had been fired. Today, after a solemn High Mass at the mountaintop Basilica di Sant’Ubaldo high above Gubbio, the three towering wooden Ceri – for Sant’Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant’Antonio – were…
Head to Gubbio during the first days in May and you’ll see signs of “Ceri fever” all over town. May 15th, la Corsa dei Ceri – one of the greatest medieval festivals of Italy – is not far off and Gubbio’s feverish anticipation is simply palpable. [lcaption]Ceri draperies on hotels these days[/lcaption] All over Gubbio,…
“The medieval tower leapt straight up into the air when the bomb went off,” Signor Fausto told me, “….and then disintegrated into chunks of rock.” I asked if anyone was hurt. “No, but many roofs caved in and homes were destroyed.” It was June 30, 1944 and occupying Germans forces were abandoning Montisi in retreat.…
Easter is a sacred time and in Umbria, even Easter breakfast must be sacred. Before Easter as you wander the Umbrian countryside, you might see whisps of smoke curling up out of the wood bread ovens. What’s inside? Huge cheesebreads. Many. Probably fifteen to twenty. There is no more appreciated Easter gift than a homemade…
A sunset private poetry-reading on the ruins of an 11th-c. Norman castle in Calabria? An unplanned pre-dinner treat on the drive down to Sicily last August. We’d booked a night at the Agriturismo Aria Fina near Mormanno – on the border between the regions of Basilicata and Calabria – to break up the long drive…
We’ll be heading often to L’Aquila now: Pino’s restoration company has just won a bid to restore three buildings there, damaged in the April 6. 2009. As the job will take two years, Pino’s now looking for a rental for the six workers who’ll live there Monday-to-Friday while on the job. During the restoration project,…
On every Good Friday, as day gives up to night, evocative medieval street theater unfolds in the winding backstreets. The dull bounding of a drum (the bells ae “tied” from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday) – battistrangole -accompanies the slow pace of the local people and clergy following hooded, barefoot figures, crowned with thorns and…
There are treasures around every corner in Italy. In every village, no matter how small. You’ll find them just off the piazza, hidden away in medieval backstreets, and behind huge wooden doors. Like those of the checkerboard facade of the SS. Pietro e Andrea church of Trequanda, not far from Pienza in Tuscany. [lcaption]Sogni d’oro[/lcaption]…
It’s been a good year for wild asparagus, a springtime delicacy which transforms a frittata, risotto or pasta sauce into a regal feast. Pino and I had good luck foraging in early April, coming out of our woods with a good bundle. And on the day before Easter, I’d found enough for a frittata di…
The north Casentino valley tortelli di patate aren’t made with just any potato: the key ingredient is the Chetica potato, a red-skinned round tuber of rosy-toned white flesh, cultivated at 500 m. or higher. I first tasted these large square-shaped tortelli at the home of friends Louise and Jim in Poppi, castle-topped village in the…