Even though I’ve been speaking Italian for more than half my life, words still flee me; at times, I feel that my perception of the exact translation of a word is imprecise.…
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Pino has to head to Valtopina often these days as his team is doing earthquake restoration work on the nearby tiny hamlet, Giove. There’s only one restaurant right in Valtopina’s centro –…
Just 30 km east of Perugia, skirt the mountain village, Valtopina (population, about 1400). Take the curvy road winding around hillsides of olive groves, to the tiny hamlet Giove perched on the…
Every year for Corpus Domini (60 days after Easter), over seventy stunning floral tapestries carpet piazza and winding alleyways of medieval hilltown gem, Spello, fruit of months of flower-gathering and then all-night…
I was about twelve years old when our family made a trip to the late 18th-c Spanish Franciscan mission church San Juan Capistrano in California. On a recent Abruzzo jaunt, Pino and…
I remember the year that a tour guest summed up our walk through Spello on Corpus Cristi (60 days after Easter) this way: “Seeing the Infiorate should be on the cover of…
I’ve been told by more than one that you can’t truly feel the passione for the Ceri unless you join in carrying one of the three mammoth pyramidical structures, called “candlesticks.” Said…
As you walk through Assisi’s main square these days, you’ll hear metal clanging as workers set up the grandstands. Posters of medieval personages adorn Assisi notice boards. Blue and red flags flutter…
La Festa della Vernaccia is celebrated in the tiny walled Umbrian town of Cannara just after Easter for this treasured dessert wine is intertwined with Easter in local tradition. The cannaresi traditionally…
Thanks to artisan husband Pino’s fine handiwork, our countryside apartments charm each visitor. I’ve been thinking: what better place for a family reunion or a gathering of friends….or a writer’s conference..or a…