On a recent visit to friends near Pisa, Pino and I decided to head off the usual autostrada route for our return trip to Assisi. We had a full-day ahead of us…
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After over a year’s work by skilled young fresco restoration experts in Assisi’s stunning Basilica di San Francesco, the late 13th-c. fresco Cimabue fresco la Maesta’ has returned to splendor: The unveiling…
For the past thirty years in late December, the Umbria Jazz Winter festival livens up the medieval hill town of Orvieto, bringing in the New Year with a musical blast of jazz,…
Lately, many a chilly January day has been warmed up with lunch at Peppa’s, for she often invites Pino and me for lunch. Now over 80, Peppa stil cooks up a rural…
Although Ray Gelato’s surname means “ice cream” in Italian, there was nothing “chilly” about his group’s performance in Orvieto at Umbria Jazz Winter this past December. Pino and I joined in the…
The illumination of medieval Assisi’s cathedral, basilicas and main square astounded visitors from all over Italy this year. Let me show you a few of the gems of luminosity….and we’ll start with…
Linda and Tim and their wonderful gruppo joined me this fall for a memorable Deruta rural feast. See their enthusiasm in these photos – and taste the goodness! All were enchanted- and not…
A small hill town in the region of Emilia Romagna near Forli, Bertinoro, celebrates its centuries-old tradition of hospitality with an array of events in early September, culmination this year on Sunday,…
Every year for the Feast of St. Francis, one of the 20 regions of Italy brings the oil which will burn all year in front of his tomb in the Basilica of…
At the end of October, Pino and I headed into the bellissima Valnerina (Nera River Valley)….. ….on our way to Cascia, medieval mountain town where St. Rita died in the mid-15th-century. Annually,…