About the time we were seeing the first photos of proud papa’, Prince Harry holding his baby Archie, I was taking photos of many a proud papa’ (and proud mammas, too) at…
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One day in early April, I found myself again on top of a Vespa: a trio of appassioned Vespa-drivers from Emilia Romagna – Roberto, Stefano and Stefano – had insisted on boosting…
Notre Dame’s most sacred relic, the Crown of Thorns, escaped the devastating fire of April 15, 2019. The circulet of rushes is thornless as the thorns had been dispersed throughout the world…
Keegan and Francesca missed the traditional Holy Saturday blessing of their Easter cheese bread – but the one they brought us on Easter day was one of the most delicious we’d received.…
Outside of the French cloistered Franciscan Sisters’ convent, il Monastero di Santa Colette, small groups of grandmothers and grandchildren, parents and children, waited in anticipation, gaze directed up the street. A bespectacled nun in…
I’d just intended to buy a thyme plant at Spello’s early April mostra-mercato (literally, “show/display market” or let’s just call it a “show-and-sell”). But there were other enticements, too, at this three-day market…
A “cooking lesson” is a banal understatement to describe our day at the farm estate near Spoleto of Gianluca Polidori. Here’s a tidbit of his invitation to an event centered on “food…
The “heart of the problem” is the hazelnut itself; ironically, the idiomatic expression “the heart of the problem,” is translated as “il nocciolo del problema” in Italian, i.e., “the hazelnut of the problem.” A…
When I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an exciting school field trip might have been to Great America in Illinois to ride the roller coasters. If you’re in school here in Umbria,…
Heavily damaged in the October 2016 earthquake, Norcia’s “resurrection” just might have started: the early March street fair, Nero Norcia (“Black Norcia”), starring black truffles – and not only! – animated the…