Founder of the concept of the albergo diffuso (“scattered hotel” might be the best translation?), Giancarlo dall’Ara summed it up this way: “I think of an albergo diffuso as a novel that…
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L’Aquila’s Christmas-market booths are backdropped by scaffolded buildings, devastated in the 2009 earthquake. A towering Christmas tree laced with dim twinkling lights in the main square stands tall in front of the…
Pino had warned me not to hang the braids of purple onions over the stove: “troppo caldo – spunteranno” (“too hot – they’ll sprout”). Of course, i knew he was right –…
Fewer guided Umbrian hill town requests in November means I have more time to join Pino on his frequent trips to L’Aquila. His restoration team – Impresa Edile Alagna – is nearing…
When only green tomatoes remain on the plants, you know summer is over. But summer lingered on this year: we gathered our green tomatoes at the end of November – and picked…
I was “along for the ride” with Pino as he headed from L’Aquila to Atessa in southeast Abruzzo to check out a possible restoration project. Along our route, medieval hill towns clinging…
The last – and only time – we turned our own grapes into wine was in 1975, our first year on the land in Umbria. The land and farmhouse had been abandoned…
Sunday’s salad was a special one. The radicchio and salad greens came right from the garden and even though early November, I washed them outside in a warm and buttery sun. I…
Pino will be coming to L’Aquila three times weekly for a couple of years now, as his company is restoring an apartment complex (three buildings) damaged in the devastating April 2009 earthquake.…
According to legends, a myriad of la Madonna images have miraculously arrived in Italy from the sea. No one knows when the venerated Byzantine Madonna Greca image arrived in Isola a Capo…