The road to Todiano through the Valnerina (Nera River Valley) is breath-taking even on a November day. Villages border the Nera River flanked by mountains as it winds through the valley. ..and some villages…
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In past years while driving through the late fall/early winter Umbrian countryside, you’d spot now and then a tree with orange balls dangling on the scrawny branches, bare of leaves. No, not…
As always, we celebrate our Thanksgiving the Sunday after the holiday and fourteen of us celebrated the Festa di Ringraziamento together this year. ….and today for lunch, I nibbled bits of our leftovers.. There…
What zucca magnifica we’ll have for our Thanksgiving: a splendid squash of brilliant orange pulp. My favorite: la Marina di Chioggia variety. ….and from our favorite fruit and vegetable stand, that of the…
We’d first savored la roveja legume a few winters back in Cascia during the Umbrian mountain town’s winter festival starring this “lost bean.” Cascia in January Roveja…
First stop on our return from the olive oil mill with our just-pressed oil? At Peppa’s to let her judge the goodness. She’d been out harvesting her own olives with her sons…
They called us into the olive mill yesterday: it was our turn. Pressing time for our 300 k+ of olives which we’d hauled in the day prior. Delivery of our…
November is the month for the squash appassionati (and I’m one). Our favorite fruit and vegetable stand near Assisi – that of Roberto Migliosi and family – tempts with a variety of…
“Ho trovato funghi ieri. Venite a mangiarli!” (“I found mushrooms yesterday. Come eat them!”) Peppa chortled over the phone. How to refuse? As I savored those mushrooms, what memories of my own…
We often eat at Peppa’s. Every meal is always an Umbrian rural feast, and although she’ll invite us over for “solo per un primo,” it’s never “just a first course.” Lunch…