Monet immortalized the lilac spread of lavender fields in 19th-century Provence and these days, the Castellini family’s lavandeto purple shades fan out in the valley below Assisi. At their late June/early July…
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What’s the highlight of a visit to our rural neighbors? Sharing in eighty-year-old Peppe’s pride in his prosciutti? Tasting his wine? Meeting Peppa, “Earth Mother,” as I call this warm and joyous…
Easy to entice Pino to the Balanzano (near Perugia) sagra: snails were the headliner second course dish at this Sagra dell’Ortolano (“Food festival of the vegetable gardener”). Pino relished those snails (bruschetta…
On the feast of Corpus Domini (60 days after Easter), kaleidoscopic floral tapestries carpet the piazzas of Spello (this year, seventy masterpieces) and not only: narrow floral masterpieces run along the winding…
If you’re eager to taste the best in Umbrian local cuisine, head to a sagra, a ten-day village festival where local volunteers team up to cook up buonissimi regional specialties. From late…
“Because there’s no better way to eat the goodness of Umbria than at a sagra,” Renato replied with a smile when I asked why he and his wife, Graziella, were eating here…
Italians are known for opening home and hearts to visitors and at the end of May, wine cellars all over Italy throw open cantina doors to welcome visitors into their cellars and…
Fried foods might not be prevalent in the Mediterranean diet, but they’re definitely present… and you’ll find “il fritto” (or derivatives) in a few Italian idiomatic expressions, too: – “siamo fritti”, “we’re…
This May in Assisi, La Parte de Sotto (“Lower Assisi”) won our four-day medieval festival, Calendimaggio, in a smashing tripletta victory over La Parte de Sopra (“Upper Assisi”: Sopra took home il…
I could never be anywhere but Gubbio on May 15th for the glorious Corsa dei Ceri – but May 16th has its own magic. The euphoria of the day before has melted…