Monteleone. The picturesque hilltown’s name, “Mount of the Lion”, denotes force, domination and greatness. The name might seem pretentious for this tiny mountaintop village in the Val Nerina area of Umbria, not…
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Like bent over old men, dried cornstalks stand forlornly in fields joining our farm land. The corn has been picked and who knows if it has been pulverized for chicken feed or…
Umbria, called “Italy’s green heart”, is green all year thanks to the non-deciduous live oaks blanketing the mountains of our region and the silver-green of the olive trees which cover our hills.…
November is bellissimo in Umbria, ie, fewer tourists and much to do: olive oil mills are open all over the region offering the newly milled oil on bruschetta to visitors… read more…
Umbria welcomes in the Feast of St. Martin, November 11th, with the saying “San Martino, San Martino, castagne e vino” (“St. Martin, St. Martin, chestnuts and wine”). As the days turn cooler,…
Passione is in the Italian DNA: Each has it. No one can fight it (and why do so anyway?) Passione for his craft is in the heart of the gelataio as he…
Like me, my artist brother Tom has French-Canadian, Irish, Scottish and Swiss-German roots, but when he paints, Italian-like passione creates wonders on his canvases. read more…
“Thank you for a very special evening. What a great final event for us to host in our D.C. home!” wrote Linda G after my last 2010 cooking class – at her…
With hugs, Rhea loaded me into a wheelchair for delivery to my flight to Washington, DC on March 19th. Old friend, David F, from junior-year-abroad-in-Rome years, picked me and after lunch together…
Felt like leaving an old friend when my Pennsylvania host, Judy, settled me into the wheelchair at the Philadelphia airport on March 16th. Wheelchair consignment to an aircraft has its positive side:…