There’s no doubt about it: Giuseppa opens her heart as well as her home to us as she serves up a rural feast. Can’t you just see the joy in her face? ……and what pride, too, as she serves up her homemade tagliatelle topped with a meat sauce of veal, pork and goose. All meats…
“Sua Maesta’, La Porchetta” (“Her Majesty, La Porchetta“) is the title of an article in a local Assisi-area magazine on the Sagra della Porchetta. …..and yes, queen of this August 10-day sagra (a village food festival) was certainly la porchetta: pork roasted on a spit all night and seasoned with garlic, local olive oil, rosemary,…
Gleefully shouting children jumped from rocky outcrops into the sea, arms outspread. As I watched them leaping into that aquamarine Mediterranean water with a splash, I lived a leap, too: a metaphoric splash, right into past decades when our three children had cavorted in the waters of the Tuscan seacoast town, Talamone. I have a…
“The best decision of our lives was to book here for our wedding day” was the message a British couple wrote in thanks to Raffaella for the unforgettable wedding event at her family’s Assisi countryside villa. Raffaella showed me that note with pride on my recent visit to her family villa in the Assisi hill…
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…
Roberta, Davide and little Ludovica, you’re home in Milano now but it’s never too late to let you know our pleasure in hosting you here in our Assisi countryside apartment. Mille grazie, too, for your lovely note, (written in excellent English!): **** “We really enjoyed our time at your fabulous guest house. It had been…
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…
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:…
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………
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…