Yesterday when I visited Peppa, she was sitting on a bench outside of chicken coop, chopping walnuts open with a hammer. “Buonissime!”, she said happily as she munched the nutmeats. Her walnuts…
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San Francesco is not the patron saint of our Assisi: He is the patron saint of all Italy along with Catherine of Siena. Most Italians aren’t practicing Catholics. Let’s just call them…
“Center of the Adriatic, center of Italy, center of the heart,” reads a brochure at the Sirolo Tourist Office. Sirolo certainly has a place in our hearts. When we have a free…
More than anything, the island of Ustica evokes images of colors: bright intense colors, muted pastel colors. First of all the blues, the greens: The translucent acquamarine and emerald brilliance of the…
Arab influences are strong in Sicily, from the architecture to the sweets, from the underground Arab acqueducts of Palermo to the granulated-ice dessert, la granita. The Arabs brought their sherbert to Sicily,…
“A blood relative or not, he’s my relative. Pasquale’s everybody’s relative: he’s “il nonno di Ustica.” Nonno Pasquale’s blue eyes – the same color as Ustica’s sea – twinkle at friend Gaetano’s…
Fast food? Invented by the Palermitani centuries ago. Palermo’s streets have always teemed with the carts and kiosks of street vendors – the mensari – calling out their wares in Palmeritano dialect…
On a hot day, at the end of an Umbrian tour – after taking in the art and history of our medieval hilltown gems – I’ll often say to my tour guests,…
Italians relax under umbrellas on sandy Adriatic beaches in the hot summer months. Under blistering sun, Moroccans, Tunisians, Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, Senegalese, Bangladeshi – to name a few of the immigrant vendors…
Maybe not the last of the many castle-villages in Umbria, but certainly one of the most picturesque, pink limestone gem, Collepino, slumbers on a mountainside above Spello in almost monastic quiet. Befitting:…