Actor Willem Dafoe’s comment about the Van Gogh film “At Eternity’s Gate” (at the Golden Globe awards) struck me: “It really deeply affects people because it changes how you see things. It…
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On the week-end after the feast of the beloved St. Anthony Abbot (January 17th), the blessings of the animals takes place all over Italy. Many a medieval hilltown fetes Sant’Antonio for days…
It was an icy January day outside but warmth enveloped in Peppa’s house. And it wasn’t just the warmth of the wood stove where Pino toasted us la bruschetta …nor the warmth of…
You might know that Norcia, Umbria medieval mountain-town gem, is famous for its norcinerie. “Norcineria” can’t be translated with a single word: “a pork-butchery store selling other local products” sums it up. And…
To tell the truth, Pino didn’t order the homemade tagliatelle al tartufo nero to support Norcia’s post-quake economy but just because he loves truffles! At lunchtime, during our early January visit to Norcia, we found…
Often linked to black truffles, savory prosciutto, pecorino cheese and the baby lentils of nearby Castelluccio, Italians now think “earthquake,” too, now when envisioning Norcia. The August 24, 2016 earthquake shook up…
In late December in Orvieto, Derrick D’Mar, drummer for the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra, brought the lunch crowd at the Ristorante San Francesco jazz lunch to their feet with an astounding gran finale.…
Last-minute shopping forays, hours of cooking up a feast, gift-wrapping marathons, and a furious flurry of holiday party preparations: a few moments of Christmastime for many. But in some tiny mountain villages…
Even the torrone – Christmas nougat – closing our mid-December Christmastime feast with a sweet note, was homemade. A Nello specialty. Nello, hard-working farmer and torrone-confectioner …
What an extraordinary marriage of the modern and the medieval in Todi on December 8th. The stately 13th-c civic palace of this Umbrian hilltown gem served as stunning backdrop for a show…