As you head up to Assisi in mid-summer, you’ll note giant round bales of hay at rest between the rows of olive trees. Around sunset, golden olive bales underscore the majestic beauty of the Basilica di San Francesco stretching out on the hill above. I remember the days we farmed in the late 70’s and…
Nothing simpler to make – and nothing tastier! – than a fresh tomato sauce. Just about any Italian restaurant will serve you pasta al pomodoro if you ask, though it might not be on the menu. Often my choice on a hot summer day, I advise visitors to Italy that you’ll always know a good restaurant by their…
The cultivation of sunflowers throughout Italy adds a joyful floral frame to the views of the medieval hilltowns… …..and creates a butter-yellow carpet setting off a simple farmhouse ..,,,while rolling yellow fields of sunflowers blend with the greens bordering rolling hills… A Greek myth recounts that the sun – Apollo – transformed the nymph Clizia…
The sugar, salt and coffee are the only foods on the table in Giuseppa and Paolo’s farmhouse kitchen not raised by them. Lunch or dinner there is truly a “farm-to-table” experience or, as they say in Italy, feasting at “chilometro zero.” Paolo (and son, Loris) cultivate the wheat for the breads Giuseppa makes in her…
It was a joy for us to create the Assisi countryside apartments behind our house – and the joy continues as our guests share with us their appreciation of our lodgings. Maura, Kathy (and little Eva), wonderful to have you and delighted you discovered the secrets of Assisi, Spello, Bevagna, Montefalco, Gubbio and Perugia during…
At any time of year, the town of Bolsena and Lake Bolsena beckon – but especially in the summertime. We often spend many a weekend on the Lake at the family-run Hotel Eden. What serenity lakeside under those palm trees…. ….and after (or before swims), enjoy lakeside feasting: On a recent Hotel Eden outing with…
We always tell our apartment guests that the best eating – and at the most economical prices – is at the evening food festivals of the small villages, le sagre. Our favorite sagra? La Festa di Sant’Anna here in the Assisi countryside (not far from our farmhouse): At Sant’Anna, many of our rural neighbors volunteer to…
The curtain’s up on our Assisi countryside apartment, Casa dell’Arco: literally….. but not only. Creating the interiors of our Assisi countryside apartments – so tastefully designed and built by my husband Pino – has been a joyous adventure right from the start. Even one of the curtains was the result of an adventure: a fortuitous…
Lisa and family, a joy to host this summer – che bello!Your notes to us when you left were most appreciated. And Paolo, glad you noticed the kitchen marble-top table (with so much history – as you can read here): “Dearest Anne, Compliments on such a beautiful space. The house we stayed in was so…
With 90% of the elegant Renaissance buildings lacerated in the October 2016 earthquake, Marches region hilltown gem Visso awaits a resurrection. The town is now zona rossa and cordoned off: ……. and the merchants must welcome their customers from small wooden pre-fab shops outside the devastated town: The butcher now slices prosciutto, grinds meats, debones rabbits,…