In Perugia, an Old Hen for Good Broth

Rural Friends, Rural Life, Umbrian Hilltowns3 Comments

“La gallina vecchia fa buon brodo,” (“an old hen makes a good broth”) says an old Italian adage, lauding the wisdom of a sage elderly woman. But an old hen does make the best broth as the meat of a young chicken will slip off the bones while the chicken pieces simmer with carrot, celery, half an onion and a small ripe tomato or two (added for color as well as flavor). My Sicilian husband, Pino, remembers that years ago, chicken broth was brought to the family of the deceased as the first food to eat after the funeral and burial of a loved one. After death – hopefully, in the family home, so that the women of the family can wash and dress the body – relatives sat all night with the deceased and relatives and friends would fill the house the next day. Burial was generally within forty-eight hours. Little to no food was eaten in the home during the mourning time before burial.
read more…

Cantine Aperte in Umbria

Festivals, Food/Wine Lore, Special Events2 Comments

This past May, fifty-one Umbrian wine cellars threw open their cantina doors, invited visitors into their vineyards and uncorked bottles of crisp whites and robust reds for the thousands joining in on Cantine Aperte (“Open Cellars”). The festival – launched twenty years ago by Movimento Turismo Vino – is targeted at the diffusion of the culture of wine and developing familiarity with Italy’s great wine regions. Bringing to life the slogan “Vedi che bevi” (“See what you drink”), over nine hundred Italian wine cellars welcomed more than a million visitors on the last Sunday in May, 2011.
read more…

Feasting in Purgatory

Festivals, Food/Wine Lore, Other Italy Favorites, Special EventsLeave a comment

Leaving Gradoli, picturesque Latium hilltown on the western shore of Lake Bolsena, you might miss that old stone ruin on the left, but if you stop – as a friend and I did recently – you can feast in Purgatory. That is, at Il Purgatorio. Once a 15th-century monastery in ruins (old arches still remain), una cooperativa of five men, co-workers and friends, rented the building from the Comune di Gradoli and opened their restaurant about twenty years ago.
read more…

San Terenziano Celebrates PORCHETTIAMO

Food/Wine Lore, Rural Life, Umbrian Hilltowns1 Comment

La porchetta, noble street food of Umbria and central Italy in general, stars in the May festival of San Terenziano, “Porchettiamo”. Best translated as “Let us roast suckling pig it”, your Italian/English dictionary won’t have a translation and you don’t need one: just head to San Terneziano to experience “porchettiamo” with the “locals” in this tiny hilltown near Todi.

La porchetta (pork roasted on the spit, generously seasoned with garlic, rosemary, sage and wild fennel) and panini di porchetta draw the crowds to the stalls of vendors – or to their customized moveable trucks – in the piazzas, streets and weekly outdoor open markets all over central Italy. La porchetta is omnipresent at every Umbrian fiera, the traditional outdoor market on a saint’s feast day (or the day before or after the feast).
read more…

Gubbio’s Corsa dei Ceri Where May Passion Reigns

Festivals, Italian 'Passione', Umbrian Hilltowns4 Comments

During Gubbio’s May 15th Corsa dei Ceri (“race of the candlesticks”), passione comes in all sizes – from just-hatched little ones to the elderly – and in three colors: yellow, royal blue and black.
You’ll see more than one infant in a yellow kerchief and tiny yellow satin shirt and you might see a pre-schooler straddling his grandpas’s shoulders, both in bright royal blue shirts. An enthusiastic group of small children in black shirts, traditional Ceri white pants and red neck scarves clapping excitedly, danced to the music of the band on the steps of a medieval backstreet as I wandered Gubbio on the afternoon of May 15th.
Passione for the Ceri starts early – and lasts a lifetime. The marching brass bands trumpeting thoughout Gubbio during la Festa dei Ceri inflame that passione.
read more

Wild Asparagus Bliss, Then and Now

Recipes, Rural Friends, Rural Life2 Comments

Feeling itchy and sweaty, scratched arms and legs, and hands pricked by thorns can all herald bliss:
When you scramble up out of the woods, scratched hands clutching a big bunch of tender wild asparagus.

Cool weather these days is ideal for foraging for asparagi selvatici: less chance of meeting a viper. Years ago, our farm neighbors taught us the precautions for wild asparagus-hunting: wear high rubber boots and carry a stick to thrash around near the base of the prickly plants before putting hands among the rocks and leaves to pluck the tender asparagus shoots. Vipers move into the cool of the woods in hot weather, they warned.
read more…

Narni’s Corsa dell’Anello: Medieval Passion Reigns

Festivals, History, Italian 'Passione', Umbrian HilltownsLeave a comment


In the 14th century during the first three days of May, Narni town criers called young riders to join in the races over the next few days: the race for the ring and the race for the Palio (flag), all in celebration of the martyrdom of their patron saint, San Giovenale. The ceremony lives on in early May in Narni as town criers on horseback crisscross the town, galloping under the colorful banners of the three terzieri (“district”), while drummers and buglers announce the festivities.
read more

Madonna Primavera Reigns Over Assisi’s Calendimaggio

Festivals, History, Italian 'Passione', Umbrian Hilltowns1 Comment

Fanciful legends, myths, age-old folktales, medieval morality plays, ballads and poetry are woven into the rich tapestry of Calendimaggio, Assisi’s three-day May celebration of the arrival of spring. A much-loved Assisi legend recounts that long ago, a hooded old crone crept into a noble banquet, ignored by all the merrymakers except for five young damsels who proffered her food and drink. The old hag threw back her veil, revealing herself as La Primavera (“Spring”) and the young damsels who assisted her are remembered today as five young damsels are chosen for each of the two factions of Assisi – La Nobilissima Parte de Sopra (the upper area of the town) and La Magnfica Parte de Sotto (the lower area). Another folktale recounts that Springtime who rectifies the chaos of the natural world thanks to her five daughters who put order and harmony into the five time periods of the day: dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, evening.
read more…