A Sagra Near Assisi for Top Umbria Cuisine

Up on the hill, Assisi backdrops the small (pop. 2500) village of Rivotorto,  where Umbria’s traditional rural cuisine draws the locals – and not only! – for nine mid-August evenings of feasting, ballroom dancing and more. A variety of pre-dinner events highlight this sagra (a food festival where local volunteers do the cooking), ranging from a…

Gnocchi with Peppa…..Without the Malocchio

How to refuse when Peppa calls us to ask,  “Ho fatto gnocchi oggi. Venite a cena?  (“I made gnocchi today – coming to dinner?”) Si, Peppa.  Subito. What a sauce Peppa had made for those gnocchi:  her olive oil, a bit of onion, tomatoes from her garden, a basil leaf or two, joined “pezzetti di…

A Stay in Our Assisi Apartment? Let Our Guests Tell You!

I really don’t need to write much about the month-long stay in our Assisi countryside apartment of friends Dawn and Louise, here with Louise’s two delightful daughters, Ella (13) and Christia (10). Their photos transmit the pleasures we shared. Their comments, left in our guest book, say it all. Mille grazie, Louise, for your note:…

Bolsena: Treasured Wash-day Memories

On an August Saturday night, groups of musicians and singers filled the Bolsena piazzas and wandered down the town’s winding medieval alleyways. With laundry baskets at their feet or on their heads, the singing Lavanandaie della Tuscia (“The Washerwomen of the Tuscia area”) harmonized together in front of Bolsena’s 13th-century San Francesco church. They enthused everyone………

In Lubriano, Just an Ordinary Italian Lunch

As we entered a favorite eating spot in Lubriano, the sign at the entrance already enticed:  fresh porcini mushrooms on the menu that day at Il Vecchio Mulino (“The Old Mill”). I knew Pino would be ordering them and sure enough, they joined his contorno (“side dish”) along with roasted potatoes. Chef and owner of Il Vecchio Mulino, Barbara, brought…

Bolsena’s Infiorate: Floral Wonders for Santa Cristina Misteri

In early August in Bolsena,  Pino and I (fortunately)  ran into Stefano and Fabio, two protagonists of the Misteri di Santa Cristina festival a couple weeks prior. Both thanked me warmly for having included them in my blog notes on the Misteri and on Trattoria Da Picchietto – and then asked me if we had seen the Infiorata (tapestry of…

Near Our Assisi Countryside Apartments, Sagra Good Times

From late spring to late fall,  revel in the Umbria countryside in one of our Assisi-area apartments…..and while here join us for a sagra, those delightful village food festivals. Just ask Louise and Dawn and young Ella and Christia – from  California and our guests for a month –  about the “sagra good times.”  In late…