Treasures of Italy include the peninsula’s glorious festivals and in my ZOOM talk, “Italy’s Uplifting Pagan-Christian Rites,” you’ll live the passione of the Italians as they celebrate their beloved saints in rites…
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Who knows when I’ll again be able to share the wonders of Italy as a guide? Due to travel restrictions, it may be a year before I can share again my passione for Umbria…
On May 22nd, the feast of the beloved 15th-c. Umbrian saint, Santa Rita di Cascia, I always take red roses to our farm neighbor Rita to celebrate her onomastico (“name day”). Rita…
May 5th, our second day of “liberation” from that full lockdown which has kept us all at home since March 11, 2020. We can now go to our own Comune (city or…
Just after Valentine’s Day, over one hundred engaged couples – each woman holding a rose – celebrated their love in a church linked to Valentines, the Basilica di San Valentino, where the…
On January 29th – the Feast of San Costanzo (Perugia’s first bishop and one of the town’s three patron saints) – I headed to Perugia for the traditional fiera (a grandissimo outdoor…
That huge crackling and spitting focaraccio (literally, “big ugly fire” i.e., “bonfire”) near Assisi’s massive medieval fortress, La Rocca Maggiore, is said to light the way for the arrival of La Madonna…
Sharing tasty food with family and friends is often a week-end outing in central Italy from early spring to late fall, the season of la sagra (village food festival). Onions take center…
In a past note on the Assisi’s October 4th festivities for the Feast of St. Francis, I started by summing up Francesco’s top ranking for all of the Italians. This is what…
The hills undulating down from Montefalco are laced with vineyards of the Sagrantino, a prized grape indigenous a to very limited area of Umbria. ….and mamma mia, how these wines – and…