It’s official: countdown to the May 15th Corsa dei Ceri in Gubbio has started. Almost as if a gun at a starting line had been fired. Today, after a solemn High Mass…
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Head to Gubbio during the first days in May and you’ll see signs of “Ceri fever” all over town. May 15th, la Corsa dei Ceri – one of the greatest medieval festivals…
“The medieval tower leapt straight up into the air when the bomb went off,” Signor Fausto told me, “….and then disintegrated into chunks of rock.” I asked if anyone was hurt. “No,…
Easter is a sacred time and in Umbria, even Easter breakfast must be sacred. Before Easter as you wander the Umbrian countryside, you might see whisps of smoke curling up out of…
A sunset private poetry-reading on the ruins of an 11th-c. Norman castle in Calabria? An unplanned pre-dinner treat on the drive down to Sicily last August. We’d booked a night at the…
We’ll be heading often to L’Aquila now: Pino’s restoration company has just won a bid to restore three buildings there, damaged in the April 6. 2009. As the job will take two…
On every Good Friday, as day gives up to night, evocative medieval street theater unfolds in the winding backstreets. The dull bounding of a drum (the bells ae “tied” from Holy Thursday…
There are treasures around every corner in Italy. In every village, no matter how small. You’ll find them just off the piazza, hidden away in medieval backstreets, and behind huge wooden doors.…
It’s been a good year for wild asparagus, a springtime delicacy which transforms a frittata, risotto or pasta sauce into a regal feast. Pino and I had good luck foraging in early…
The north Casentino valley tortelli di patate aren’t made with just any potato: the key ingredient is the Chetica potato, a red-skinned round tuber of rosy-toned white flesh, cultivated at 500 m.…