In Bevagna Where Food is Art…and Not Only

Attenzione! Bevagna, sleepy medieval town in the Umbrian valley, hoards many a hidden secret. You just have to know where to find them.

Meeting artist Luigi Frappi in his studio in an elegantly-frescoed 17th-c noble palazzo is a Bevagna highlight. Our early May (2017) “Annesitaly Inside Umbria” tour group can tell you that:

With pink scarf looped around his neck, hat slanted down over bespectacled twinkling eyes, Maestro Frappi welcomed us to his studio lined with his paintings, climbing the walls to the rococo stuccoed ceiling above.

[lcaption]Maestro Frappi welcomes us near his “Remebrandt selfie”[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Entrance to Maestro Frappi’s studio[/lcaption]

[lcaption]An elegantly-stuccoed rococo ceiling[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Maestro Frappi in his studio[/lcaption]

His artwork includes portraits, landcapes, and still life images of foods so realistic that you wish to munch that porchetta, finish that half-eaten fresh fig, pop those grapes into your mouth, bite into that juicy watermelon, squeeze that lemon into your tea – and finish slipping those fresh fava beans out of the pods, for a snack with pecorino cheese.

Or maybe you’d rather enjoy fresh fava beans with pasta, as we did at lunch after our visit with this talented artist; for that day, we “savored” food as art on a 17th-c. palace wall, then on our plates, tempting us with enticing kaleidoscope colors. And what flavors:

[lcaption]From fave beans in Frappi art, to fava bean goodness with pasta and herbs[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Colorful “art” in a dish: la Panzanella[/lcaption]

At his tiny little non-descript trattoria flanking a Bevagna medieval gate – in a kitchen about as big as a walk-in closet – Luciano creates palate-pleasing, eye-tempting Umbrian seasonal goodness like this:

[lcaption]Our first antipasto, bruschetta topped with fava bean puree’[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Wild asparagus frittata followed..[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Deep red gnocchi in a Sagrantino wine sauce followed (and the fava bean pasta, too!)[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Luciano’s tasty baked eggplant (the chromatic splendor continues..)[/lcaption]

[lcaption]What a feast at Luciano’s tiny trattoria near a Bevagna medieval gate[/lcaption]

And don’t miss the other Bevagna treasures. A highlight? That jewel box of a frescoed late 19th-c theater:

Head back a few centuries to seek out the mosaics of the Roman baths of ancient Mevania (2nd c., AD):

Don’t overlook the main piazza graced with fountain, 13th c-municipal buildings and Romanesque churches with story-telling medieval sculptures on their facades:

…..and do discover the charming labyrinthine medieval alleyways and hidden piazzette:

Ah, Bevagna: another of those Umbrian “hidden gems,” – and this one, a palate-pleaser, from an artist’s canvases to the trattoria table.

 

Read about Calendimaggio splendor
Read about the first day – and rural feast! – of this 2017 May tour
Read about the “cooking day” of this 2017 “Annesitaly Inside Umbria” early May tour
Click here to read about the special “pink” Montefalco day of the 2017 tour
Read about – and see! – the 2016 Annesitaly Inside Umbria Celebration tour
Read about – and see! – Umbrian goodness highlighting another day of our Umbria tour
Read about the Deruta day of the May 2017 Annesitaly Inside Umbria celebration tour
Read about our 2017 May tour full into Gubbio passione
Read about the May 2017 tour group’s Perugia discoveries
Click here to read about – and see! – the unforgettable (also!) 2016 May “Annesitaly Inside Umbria Celebration
Read about a family group’s “favorite day in Italy”