The stunning Certosa Monumentale di Calci (near Pisa – and often known simply as “la Certosa di Pisa“) was founded in 1366 for a group of Carthusian monks. The architecture of the Pisa monastery is a veritable footprint of the Carthusian rule: the interlinking distribution of spaces and rooms reflects the rapport between the…
Generally I don’t have bookings for guided tours in February: for me, February is dedicated to making videos, writing on my blog and exploring Italy. When Pino must head off somewhere to view a restoration project he might possibly take on, I join him. Stunning landscapes are guaranteed on any jaunt – as well as…
More than once Pino’s construction company has taken on restoration tasks in the nearby region of Le Marche (the Marches), just to the east of our region of Umbria. When I am free, I like to accompany PIno on his jaunts to check out possible future projects in preparation for putting in a bid; after all,…
After learning about the straordinario Maceo Angeli in a guided visit to his medieval home (January 2023), I was taken over by a veritable “Maceo passione.” I simply needed to know more about this extraordinary assisano (who had died in 1991). I now often ask any middle-aged or elderly assisano I encounter, “Conoscevi Maceo?” I recently asked elderly retired blacksmith, Roberto as we sipped espressi at…
Before the end of January, 2023, I hadn’t realized what might be right behind the wooden doors of the pointed-arch medieval entryways in pink and white local limestone, lining Assisi’s winding medieval backstreets: I But I found out on January 29 2023. On that day, I joined a group for an event sponsored by Assisi’s Museo…
When to come to Umbria? Our region, “Italy’s green heart,” entices all year round with exciting festivals highlighting every single month of the year. Join me for an unforgettable guided hill town tour. I assure you of that. (And even if your Umbria visit does not coincide with a festival). Festivals are already animating the…
Assisi’s school children well-know the significance of that Giorno della Memoria (“Day of Remembrance” (or “the Day of Memory”) – and a good group participated this year in Assisi’s annual January 27th ceremony commemorating the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps with the ending of the Holocaust on that day in 1945. ·A law passed in…
(Photo above thanks to Assisi News – www.assisinews.it) You might consider St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of animals but Italians well-know that this honorific appellation belongs to St. Anthony Abbot, Egyptian hermit monk who died after years of penitence and deprivation at the age of 105 in the Egyptian desert on January 17,…
La Festa di Santa Lucia is celebrated December 13th, the shortest day of the year and in fact the name of this 3rd-century martyr saint of Siracusa in Sicily signifies “promise of light” or “shining, illluminating.” Our recent early December visit to Pino’s family in Palermo concluded on December 12th, la vigilia della Festa di…
Pasticcerie (pastry shops) in Sicily are veritable altars of culinary history. One of these “culinary altars” is certainly Pasticceria/Bar Gardenia, a splendid showcase of culinary creations in Cardillo, a nondescript borgata (small suburb, an outcrop) just outside of Palermo. Pino grew up in Cardillo, though the bar – opened just over 40 years ago – was not there…