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…
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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…
Crispy bruschetta with a hardy red wine, tastes of pecorino cheeses, and roasted chestnuts were a buonissimo prelude to Cascia’s January song competition of rural Epiphany-time music, The groups competing in the song contest would…
On the week-end after the feast of the beloved St. Anthony Abbot (January 17th), the blessings of the animals takes place all over Italy. Many a medieval hilltown fetes Sant’Antonio for days…
Last-minute shopping forays, hours of cooking up a feast, gift-wrapping marathons, and a furious flurry of holiday party preparations: a few moments of Christmastime for many. But in some tiny mountain villages…
We’d first savored la roveja legume a few winters back in Cascia during the Umbrian mountain town’s winter festival starring this “lost bean.” Cascia in January Roveja…
As you stroll the medieval hill towns, look down as well as up: art is often on the cobblestoned piazzas and alleyways. The “Madonnara” artists re-created art masterpieces in chalk – and…
For years, we’ve celebrated our late December anniversary in Orvieto at Umbria Jazz Winter. We always stay a couple days in the home of Signora Liliana (nearly ninety years old!) and take…
Snails are served up not at the proverbial “snail’s pace” but with zip and verve by the earnest young wait staff at the August food festival near Bevagna starring snails, la Sagra…