To fully experience Umbria, “Italy’s green heart,” you’ll have to connect with the people. Meet our rural neighbors, those most directly connected to our Umbrian land. Each one, a “national” (as well as “regional”) treasure. Peppa opens not just her wine cellar but her heart to you as well. Ugo – over eighty – might…
Rolling around in huge metal bins over hot coals, chestnuts pop in the night in the medieval backstreets of Arcidosso, Tuscan mountain village. When the husks slip loose on the roasted chestnuts, men shovel them into white paper bags. The locals of this Monte Amiata village line up with visitors for the roasted chestnuts at…
Sharing Assisi and Umbria with each and every apartment guest brings joy. The joy is compounded when I read notes like the ones from Kaye: “Anne, you made cooking a meal an experience of fun and joy that I haven’t had in a long time,” she wrote after joining others to cook – and feast…
A recent guest, Barbara put it this way: “Your farmhouse apartment is spacious, clean and well-appointed: a lovely retreat after a day of touring.” Barbara, delighted to host you and Brad in our Assisi countryside apartment. And thanks for joining us for dinner the night you arrived: …and I am glad you felt la passione:…
Umbrian rural goodness was the link, uniting guests in our Assisi farmhouse from Australia, the UK, San Francisco and New York. Introductions took place as we shopped for the ingredients: first stop, the caseifcio to select (and taste!) Umbrian cheeses. On to the butcher – and then to Ristorante Da Giovannino (near our farmhouse) for…
Every September 26th, vases of fresh flowers encircle the pink limesonte plaque on the floor at the entrance to the Basilica Superiore di San Francesco. Look closely at the plaque and you’ll see that it’s incised with four names below the T-shaped Tau cross (symbol of St. Francis): the two restorers and two friars who…
As you stroll the labyrinthine alleyways of medieval hill towns, you might see sheets, towels and clothing hanging out to dry. In our Assisi backstreets these days, white sheets flutter over the streets – painted with portraits. Assisi artist, Claudio Carli, paid tribute to the neighborhood life of the Porta Perlici area of Assisi, painting…
Pino had been back and forth to Castiglione del Lago countless times during the months his company restored the massive medieval walls of this lakeside gem, often enjoying a lake fish lunch while there. But on a recent outing there, we discovered a winner of a ristorante/pizzeria where lake fish stars: La Capannina. In this…
Two out of three nights on the magical island of Marettimo (western Sicily coast), we ate at Il Veliero and only because one night we arrived too late to nab a table. As you walk towards the swinging door of this small seaside trattoria with leaping blue dolphins painted on the side, you already suspect…
Say “cheese” in Palermo – but say it in Italian, “formaggio” (or better yet, in Sicilian “u caciu“) and ask where to find the best of it. Those who know cheese goodness will indicate a small, non-descript shop on a busy street near the port – and you could easily walk right past those fluttering…