Even the torrone – Christmas nougat – closing our mid-December Christmastime feast with a sweet note, was homemade. A Nello specialty. Nello, hard-working farmer and torrone-confectioner Nello’s torrone Pino favors Nello’s chocolate torrone At Mariella’s and Nello’s table,…
What an extraordinary marriage of the modern and the medieval in Todi on December 8th. The stately 13th-c civic palace of this Umbrian hilltown gem served as stunning backdrop for a show dedicated to the works of the American sculptor, Beverly Pepper. Todi’s 13th-c civic palace – a majestic venue…
A coffee bar with a nondescript name (Bar Commercio), in a non-descript shopping center of a non-descript suburb of Perugia merits a Christmastime visit. A colorful panoply of Christmas crafts – the work of Signora Susanna, bar c0-owner with husband Sergio – tops the stainless steel bar, fills the glass cases holding ice-creams in summertime…
This morning when I headed into the Caseificio Broccatelli to buy fresh ricotta, I mused that I might be living an “only-in-Italy” moment. Perhaps a hackneyed phrase but cheese shops aren’t usually right across the street from a majestic 16th-c Basilica. (Not to mention, a Basilica built over the site where St. Francis died in…
We usually enjoy la macedonia (“fruit cup”) in summertime when peaches and other summer fruits are in abundance. But kiwis in abundance recently inspired a winter macedonia. Anna Maria came to visit the other day bearing gifts: the first poinsettia of the season – and a Christmasy-red wicker basket full of persimmons from her family home…
I had just made the broccoli for pasta ai broccoli when Pino came home, peeked into the pot and asked, “perche’ non facciamo nel modo del cavolfiore?” (“why not make it the cauliflower way?”) I knew what he meant: time to add a handful of pine nuts and the tiny sultana grapes of Sicily (uva sultana), as…
Groveling black pigs, sprouting saffron, the harvesting of mountain grapes and a banquet lunch turned an October outing with our daughter Giulia into “an event to remember.” Giulia even did a video of memorable moments. Enjoy: From our Assisi farmhouse, a twisting road through the woods led us up the mountain, dramatic views all around.…
The road to Todiano through the Valnerina (Nera River Valley) is breath-taking even on a November day. Villages border the Nera River flanked by mountains as it winds through the valley. ..and some villages precariously cling to the mountain sides… Other villages seem about to slip right down the mountain ….. We’d taken this road to Todiano…
In past years while driving through the late fall/early winter Umbrian countryside, you’d spot now and then a tree with orange balls dangling on the scrawny branches, bare of leaves. No, not oranges but the last of the kaki (persimmons), orbs of brightness in the winter dusk, beacons of cheer in winter fog. For me,…
As always, we celebrate our Thanksgiving the Sunday after the holiday and fourteen of us celebrated the Festa di Ringraziamento together this year. ….and today for lunch, I nibbled bits of our leftovers.. There was still a bit of our “re-invented” Waldorf salad (with yogurt and local grapes, our olive oil…and more), creamed onions (with Trinidad rum…