La passione. It’s a recurring theme to life in Italy. As I often tell my tour guests while strolling the Umbrian hillltown gems, “If you don’t get la passione, you miss out…
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During late May and June, enjoy the best in simple local cooking (at enticingly low prices!) and ballroom dancing with “the locals” at a sagra. Which one and where? That depends on…
“E vien Calendimaggio..” As the medieval ballad intones, “Calendimaggio will soon be here.” All over Assisi, you’ll see the signs of feverish preparation for our stunning medieval celebration of spring’s arrival, Calendimaggio:…
This past winter, Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno (1512) returned “home” to Foligno for a week, attracting thousands of visitors. She’s now back in the Vatican Museum where she’s enchanted visitors since the…
On October 3rd – date of the death of St. Francis of Assisi in 1226 – hundreds of African and Syrian refugees tragically died, too, drowning close to the coast of the…
The island of Lampedusa, southern-most point in Europe, is where Africa meets Europe, where the West picks up subtle influences of the Middle East. Closer to Africa (just over one-hundred-fifty kilometers from…
Countless religious customs – and innumerable processions in particular – are rooted in medieval street theater. The Holy Thursday and Good Friday of Assisi traditions are living examples. On Holy Thursday night…
When we opened the shutters, the view of the majestic snow-capped Gran Sasso (“big rock” and it IS) unmistakably defined our location: Abruzzo. After breakfast, we headed to the new Comune (L’Aquila’s…
Who could ever imagine that a quiet medieval Umbrian hilltown- not even on the railroad line – would merit a place in the Guinness Book of World Records? Gubbio did it with…
In early November, white truffles star at the 32nd edition of la Mostra-Mercato del Tartufo Bianco in Citta’ di Castello in the Upper Tiber Valley. But not only the prized white truffle,…