Pino and I are often invited for a “simple” lunch at Peppa’s, elderly rural friend living here in the Assisi countryside – who quite simply prefers company at mealtimes. When calling me…
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When Italians wish to get a smile for a photograph, they urge “Dici ‘cheese!” Many of the photographed subjects don’t even know the meaning of “cheese” but they obediently repeat it with…
A tractor adorned with fiscoli – those discs used in olive mills during the pressing – stood alone near the medieval church of Spello, Santa Maria Maggiore, an olive tree standing tall…
Tour guests, Kerry and her parents, Judie and Bill, joined in recently for a banquet with rural friend near Deruta, Giuseppa. The family prosciutto with an organic melon was just a tidbit…
Before leaving, Mimi wrote in our guest book, “ This was definitely the highlight of our trip…(and)…to be honest, I never want to leave this place.” And while staying here in…
I decided to title this blog note with a phrase from tour guest, Sharon. After our Perugia/Deruta tour with Sharon, her husband Jerry and friends (Linda and Glenn), she wrote me this…
While rural neighbor Chiarina was making her homemade pasta recently,…… ….her husband Marino took me over to their improvised “cantina” (wine cellar) in a converted garage near their farmhouse: Inside, guanciali (pork…
If you read my recent note on Giuseppa making her homemade fettuccine, you’ll already know that the best in the rural cuisine of Umbria reigns in the farmhouse kitchen of Giuseppa, in…
In the Deruta countryside, Giuseppa opens home and heart to all. When you arrive, Giuseppa comes out of her house, perhaps with her two beloved Jack Russells and that welcoming smile says…
A box of Carnaroli rice in the kitchen cupboard, a pot of meat broth on our stove, a hefty chunk of orange winter squash on the table and snow flurries and biting…