“Salva il pianeta!” – and sometimes, “Save the planet!” – shouted fired-up students and teachers carrying placards as they wound through medieval Perugia on Friday, March 15th. In nearly two thousand cities in over one hundred countries all over the globe, students – and not only – joined in the Global Strike for Future promulgated by#FridaysForFuture…
I think Pino and I are due for a return to Piacenza (in Emilia Romagna). We have such good memories of our first visit there – when I wrote a note on our trip for Italian Notebook. Time to add the “Piacenza musings” now to this blog: *Founded by the Romans, devastated by the Goths…
! Nowadays, if you’re traveling in Italy, don’t be embarrassed to ask to take home your leftovers. Until quite recently, in fact, most Italians would never ask. I think for a couple of reasons: very little use of the microwave in Italy and most Italians would not reheat various dishes in any case. Pasta for…
Gina and Mike, Byron and Melinda, mille grazie for having brought such a lovely group along with you for a stay in our countryside apartments. A joy to share Assisi wonders with you all… ….wrapping up the Assisi tour with our memorable Spello wine-tastings/olive-oil tastings/ truffles banquet: …and…ah, what wines…! The next day, we tasted other…
I’d read an article recently about ten “must-see” small-town stops between Umbria and Florence. The author had clearly never been to Certaldo. On an early February trip to Pisa, Pino and I stopped enroute at this little-known Tuscan gem north of Siena. Below the town in the parking area, a statue of Certaldo’s most famous…
Umbria’s’ mountainous Valnerina – Nera River Valley – unveils splendors at every curve in the road: And at the foot of tiny mountain village Piedivalle, a small restaurant in a pre-fab now (following the October 2016 earthquake), proves to be another Valnerina “hidden treasure.” We only found Ristorante Guaita Sant’Eutizio thanks to a tip from Roberto…
Poet Gabriele D’Annunzio (1910) called the area around Pisa’s Duomo (cathedral), a “prato dei miracoli” (“a field of miracles”). You know you’re gazing on miracles if you stroll around that piazza in the silence of a February night: …and the magic peaks if you look up and see the hazy halo of a moon over the 11th-century…
For years now, Pino and I have raised our glasses and clinked “saluti!” to each other in Orvieto on December 30th, our anniversary. We’re always there for a couple of days for Umbria Jazz Winter: what better way to celebrate? And what a better place than in Orvieto, medieval gem on the tuff rock plateau…
Years ago there were horses munching hay under the stone vaults of that stall but these days, ebullient groups of hungry diners fill the plank tables at La Stalla. The atmosphere is a “cosy medieval” also due to the blackened walls from the soot and smoke of the kindling used to light the fire in…
Crispy bruschetta with a hardy red wine, tastes of pecorino cheeses, and roasted chestnuts were a buonissimo prelude to Cascia’s January song competition of rural Epiphany-time music, The groups competing in the song contest would be heading into the piazza from the Basilica di Santa Rita, beloved 14th-c saint born near Cascia. Huge white tents were set up…