I still remember the colorful, lyrical charm of Preci – not far from Norcia and close to the epicenter of the October 30, 2016 earthquake – when I visited there a few…
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I’ll visit the Assisi cemetery this afternoon as I always do around la Festa dei Morti (“Feast of the Dead”, i.e., All Souls’ Day, November 2nd). In late October/early November, Italian cemeteries…
I wonder if next year, the kaleidoscopic splendor of the early summer wildflowers will still draw visitors to the Piano Grande (“Great Plain”) fanning out below medieval Castelluccio di Norcia? After all,…
No, art is not eternal. (This has become my mantra). The seismic activity in Italy since August 24, 2016 has affirmed that for us. Again and again. The strongest tremor of all…
Heart-breaking updates of the continuing losses of our rich artistic patrimony come to us in waves – like angry swells breaking on a rocky beach. Mother Earth is still in a rage.…
Today while telling my tour guests about the restoration of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi after the 1997 earthquake, I added “and feast your eyes on this splendor, remembering that…
…..or at least the central backbone of the Italian peninsula had a good shake-up on a recent late October evening. And coincidentally, both our Giulia and Peppa had cleaned wild woodland mushrooms…
It was time for lunch and as we pulled off the highway not far from Notaresco (tiny Abruzzo town near Teramo), a sign dangling before a two-level stone house caught our eye:…
Within forty-eight hours of picking, those olives should arrive at the mill: pressing must take place before the moisture of the fruit starts to dissipate. Pino had called the mill even before…
Our son Keegan (36) put it this way, “Well, definitely the best year since I was born.” Not only: the best olive harvest we’ve had since we first picked our olives in…