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…
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…
Unusual July rainy weather did not keep us away from the gnocchi sagra (a village food festival) in San Giovanni Profiamma near Foligno. I’d never seen the interior of the 12th-c. Romanesque church there and was hoping it would be open for an evening Mass that late July Sunday. Pause in the rain when we arrived there…but the…
Probably an hour after participating in the 4th-c martyrdom scene of Santa Cristina – patron saint of Bolsena and feted in late July in two days of medieval street theater – young Matteo was out of his regal red Roman sash and running trays from kitchen to tables. Matteo after…
As we arrived in Bolsena on July 24th, the locals were gathering together in front of the 14th-century castle across the road from the San Salvatore church. At the conclusion of the Mass celebrating Santa Cristina, martyred in the 4th-c and patron saint of the town, the first of the morning Misteri would be acted out on the…
“Ospedaletto” literally means “a small place offering hospitality” – and in fact, the ospedale in the Middle Ages gave rest, respite, and nourishment to the pilgrims trekking through Europe. And not only: housing was offered there to widows, orphans, infirm and those ostracized by society. After the 14th-century outbreak of the black plague, medical assistance, too,…
The brass band from Florence, Funk Off, always wows the crowds at Umbria Jazz in Perugia in July. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the gemellaggio (literally, “twinning”) – or sister city tie – of San Francisco and Assisi at the end of June, Assisi invited Funk Off to kick off the celebration: Few people had…
For the celebration of Corpus Domini (sixty days after Easter), the floral tapestries of Spello – le Infiorate – are certainly the most famous here in Umbria. You need a full morning to stroll all the piazzas and medieval alleyways of Spello to take in the floral wonders which have taken hundreds of infioratori (“makers of the flower…
Of course you need days to uncover all the wonders of medieval Assisi. But if you’re there in the summertime, do take an afternoon or evening pause to head to the tiny village of Palazzo (pop. slightly over 1000), on the plain below Assisi. It’s worth the jaunt just for the ice cream. Right across…
Memorable adventures can even start with just an espresso in a small-town bar. Pino and I had stopped at the only cafe in Rioveggio, a wink of a town in the Bolognesi Appenini. The Bologna area Appenines Enroute home to Umbria from a family graduation in Parma, we were on our way to nearby Marzabotto…