As you head through the arched medieval entrance of hilltop castle-village, Collemancio, you’ll probably see an elderly lady in black, ubiquitous gold chains draped around her neck, sitting in her chair along the lane. Anna. She’ll want to tell you (no matter what your language!) about the Roman origins of her her town – and…
Vivian and Martin, part of my “Fresno family,” I’d aways hoped you’d visit us in Assisi. Joy to have you here, staying in our Casa dell’Arco apartment – with a “bonus”: grandson, Brady, such a loving traveling companion for his grandparents. A few highlights of the Barcellos mid-July family stay in Umbria: Dinner in our…
Our smiling young waiter Davide told us, “yes, still beautiful but the wildflower colors are fading now….” as we looked out at the expansive flowering Piano Grande (“Great Plain”) below us. As we do every year, I’d been checking in at Castelluccio (calling an inn there) every week or so since June to ask “la…
We’re now happy to welcome guests to our two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, Casa dell’Arco. See the welcoming charm of this rural apartment here. …and I enjoyed taking a few shots before the arrival of our mid-July guests – to show a bit of Pino’s fine artisan work, complimented by the work of other artisans. From the…
I want you to experience the Umbria I have come to know and love in over forty years here on the land, just outside Assisi. Live Umbria, “Italy’s green heart,” from the inside. Live our splendid early May medieval festival, Calendimaggio with me, with “the locals.” Enjoy the photos of our May 2016 “Inside Umbria”…
Even though I’ve been speaking Italian for more than half my life, words still flee me; at times, I feel that my perception of the exact translation of a word is imprecise. I read with pride the late May Abruzzo newspaper article on my husband Pino’s sponsorship of a second theatrical piece in L’Aquila, the…
Pino has to head to Valtopina often these days as his team is doing earthquake restoration work on the nearby tiny hamlet, Giove. There’s only one restaurant right in Valtopina’s centro – Ristorante La Gabella – and it makes every Valtopina jaunt an experience, a culinary one. “La gabella” was a 16th – 17th c.…
Just 30 km east of Perugia, skirt the mountain village, Valtopina (population, about 1400). Take the curvy road winding around hillsides of olive groves, to the tiny hamlet Giove perched on the wooded slopes of Monte Faeto where cranes stretch out over the village. Heavily damaged in the earthquake of 1997, a 2011 court suit…
Every year for Corpus Domini (60 days after Easter), over seventy stunning floral tapestries carpet piazza and winding alleyways of medieval hilltown gem, Spello, fruit of months of flower-gathering and then all-night work to create the flower masterpieces, le Infiorate. On the morning of Corpus Domini, as as the spellani floral groups are anxiously adding…
I was about twelve years old when our family made a trip to the late 18th-c Spanish Franciscan mission church San Juan Capistrano in California. On a recent Abruzzo jaunt, Pino and I linked up with the Mission’s origins, exploring the Franciscan monastery just outside L’Aquila, San Giuliano, where San Giovanni from Capestrano (a tiny…