When to come to Umbria? Our region, “Italy’s green heart,” entices all year round with exciting festivals highlighting every single month of the year. Join me for an unforgettable guided hill town…
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Assisi’s school children well-know the significance of that Giorno della Memoria (“Day of Remembrance” (or “the Day of Memory”) – and a good group participated this year in Assisi’s annual January 27th…
(Photo above thanks to Assisi News – www.assisinews.it) You might consider St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of animals but Italians well-know that this honorific appellation belongs to St. Anthony Abbot,…
La Festa di Santa Lucia is celebrated December 13th, the shortest day of the year and in fact the name of this 3rd-century martyr saint of Siracusa in Sicily signifies “promise of…
Pasticcerie (pastry shops) in Sicily are veritable altars of culinary history. One of these “culinary altars” is certainly Pasticceria/Bar Gardenia, a splendid showcase of culinary creations in Cardillo, a nondescript borgata (small suburb, an outcrop)…
Near Pino’s childhood home in Cardillo, a small Palermo borgata (small suburb, urban outcrop), a grandissima pasticceria/bar, Pasticceria/Bar Gardenia, draws in customers from all over. The tempting goodness on rows and rows of shelves does it:…
Time passes quickly as you wait in line for fresh seafood at the stand of Claudio in Palermo. Pino, his longtime Palermo friend, Nino, and I joined the waiting customers there on…
Over a thousand years old and linked to the ancient Arab souk, Ballaro’ still remains one of the most animated and liveliest Palermo street markets. On an early December day, Pino and…
Many a grandiose villa rises in the borgate (small suburbs) encircling Palermo, majestic summer residences desired by the Palermo aristocracy for their location closer to the seaside than that of their imposing in-town palazzi, noble residences…
Our olive harvest this year in mid-November took a couple of days. And here are the crates of olives after our first day of picking: …and here is the abundance at the…