When you come down the hill from Norcia and round that curve, you’ll understand what a mozzafiato view is. Only mozzafiato (literally, “cutting off, truncating your breath”, and more visceral than the…
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Passione takes hold of one early in Italy: passione for good food, for soccer, for the frescoes in your town church, for music, for one’s village festival – and even for flowers.…
This past May, fifty-one Umbrian wine cellars threw open their cantina doors, invited visitors into their vineyards and uncorked bottles of crisp whites and robust reds for the thousands joining in on…
Leaving Gradoli, picturesque Latium hilltown on the western shore of Lake Bolsena, you might miss that old stone ruin on the left, but if you stop – as a friend and I…
During Gubbio’s May 15th Corsa dei Ceri (“race of the candlesticks”), passione comes in all sizes – from just-hatched little ones to the elderly – and in three colors: yellow, royal blue…
In the 14th century during the first three days of May, Narni town criers called young riders to join in the races over the next few days: the race for the ring…
Fanciful legends, myths, age-old folktales, medieval morality plays, ballads and poetry are woven into the rich tapestry of Calendimaggio, Assisi’s three-day May celebration of the arrival of spring. A much-loved Assisi legend…
In Umbria, you know spring is in the air when the balestrieri (“cross-bowers”) compete in the piazzas seated behind their crossbows, one eye closed, taking aim. The crossbow is an inherent part…
“L’Italia e’ libera. L’Italia risorgera'” (“Italy is free. Italy will rise again”) announced the headlines of the newspaper Il Popolo, referring to the liberation from Fascist control of Milan and Turin April…
Rural youth living near the tiny walled hilltown of Grello (pop. 45) run whenever they can these days. In serious training. But not for a a track meet. They’ll be running with…