I’ll visit the Assisi cemetery this afternoon as I always do around la Festa dei Morti (“Feast of the Dead”, i.e., All Souls’ Day, November 2nd). In late October/early November, Italian cemeteries are transformed into a kaleidoscopic tapestry of colors as visitors lovingly arrange chrysanthemums of rust, buttery yellows, creamy whites and burnished oranges on…
I wonder if next year, the kaleidoscopic splendor of the early summer wildflowers will still draw visitors to the Piano Grande (“Great Plain”) fanning out below medieval Castelluccio di Norcia? After all, there will be fewer lodgings for visitors and those delightful little trattorie serving up the famous Castelluccio tiny lentils will perhaps still be…
No, art is not eternal. (This has become my mantra). The seismic activity in Italy since August 24, 2016 has affirmed that for us. Again and again. The strongest tremor of all – the 6. 5 quake at 7 41 a.m on October 30. 2016 – brutally gouged the rich artistic patrimony of southeastern mountain…
Heart-breaking updates of the continuing losses of our rich artistic patrimony come to us in waves – like angry swells breaking on a rocky beach. Mother Earth is still in a rage. We’re hoping she’ll soon be soothed.. ..and now more than ever, a thought I often share with my tour guests while showing them…
Today while telling my tour guests about the restoration of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi after the 1997 earthquake, I added “and feast your eyes on this splendor, remembering that seeing this with your own eyes is not the same as seeing it in a book.” The earthquake of 1997 underscored that for…
…..or at least the central backbone of the Italian peninsula had a good shake-up on a recent late October evening. And coincidentally, both our Giulia and Peppa had cleaned wild woodland mushrooms just hours before our farmhouses trembled. Giulia had found a few on an an early evening hike and Peppa’s son, Giancarlo, had brought…
It was time for lunch and as we pulled off the highway not far from Notaresco (tiny Abruzzo town near Teramo), a sign dangling before a two-level stone house caught our eye: “Antico Frantoio Bar”. An “ancient olive oil mill” sounded promising as a place to eat. The restaurant, Ristorante ai Friscoli, was above the bar…
Within forty-eight hours of picking, those olives should arrive at the mill: pressing must take place before the moisture of the fruit starts to dissipate. Pino had called the mill even before our olive-picking was finished, arranging delivery to the mill near Assisi within 24 hours of the conclusion of harvesting. At the mill… The…
Our son Keegan (36) put it this way, “Well, definitely the best year since I was born.” Not only: the best olive harvest we’ve had since we first picked our olives in 1975. And miraculous considering that the parasite mosca olearia (literally, “olive fly”) has hit again. Perhaps not with the devastation of 2014 (when…
When the rains come and the air chills, it’s time to pick all the tomatoes: those few remaining red ones and all the green ones that never made it to full ripening. Summer’s behind us now; autumn is stepping forward. A favorite October task for me is deciding how to use those green tomatoes. After…