How did I end up spending the rest of my life in Umbria? The Italian connection started years ago while studying junior-year-abroad in Rome. Coming up to half a century soon: Mary, can you believe it? We first met in Rome and that link endures. What joy to recently share with you here in Umbria our connections to the rural people who have taught us so much about life on the land – and life in general.
Delighted to have you and Brownie with us for a few days (too few!) and thanks, Marci, Dave, Tony and Lori for including my old friends in the Rural Life Revisited tour. Our rural friends remain national treasures: after all, to know Italy, you must know the people – and especially the rural people.
Like Peppe – at eighty-five, still baling about five thousand bales of hay each summer, raising cows, sheep, pigs, fowl and cultivating his olive grove and vineyard. Ah…and what prosciutti
Peppe makes. He’s giving no sign yet of ever slowing down his pace…..
[lcaption]Old friends, Mary and Brownie, meet Peppe – and his prosciutti[/lcaption]
[lcaption]….and simply not possible to leave Peppe’s farm without first tasting his vino![/lcaption]
Peppe not only has worked the land since he was a child, he’s also a self-taught stonemason. He built his own family’s farmhouse and we saw another Peppe masterpiece when we went on to visit Peppa: her outdoor stone bread oven was made by Peppe.
[lcaption]Peppa’s wood-burning oven, made by Peppe[/lcaption]
[lcaption]Peppa welcomes all visitors with warmth[/lcaption]
Meeting our treasured rural friends means savoring the rural goodness they cook up. What a dinner in the home of Marino and Chiarina, with daughter Rossanna helping to cook and serve:
Brownie, thanks for your note to me, summing up the joy: “Thanks again for a wonderful time. The visits with your farm neighbors, especially the dinner with Chiarina and Marino and family were true highlights and a marvelous experience. Thanks a million..”
Marci and Dave, Lori and Tony, Brownie and Mary, all our rural friends send their best – and ask when you are coming back?!
Read more about our treasured rural friends
Read more about our apartment guests
Read more about Chiarina and Marino’s warmth and our other rural friends
Read more about Umbria’s treasure: the rural people
Click here to see – and read about – the rural people, rural banquets
Click here for more on the “Rural Life Revisited” experience
Read more about Peppe, Peppa and other rural friends here
Meet our farm friends, givers of the greatest gifts
Click here to read about “memorable moments” or our rural visits
Read about – and see – our first years on the land in Umbria
Read more about treasured rural friends
Read more about indefatigable Peppe
Click here to read about an “Auntie Annie” rural tour
You really can’t miss a rural banquet cooked by Chiarina
Read about the “regal welcome” Chiarina and Marino give to their guests
Read about our rural friends – and their “green gold,” olive oil
Read about why a visit with our rural friends makes any Umbrian stay unforgettable
Click here to see how a visit to rural friends can make your stay “the experience of a lifetime”
Click here to read about a treasured Umbrian rural winter tradition
Click here for many more insights on our rural friends
Read about Chiarina and Marino – and the use of broom
Read about making wine with Peppa
Click here to read about – and see – why rural visits offer “unforgettable moments”
