It’s not the first time we’ve savored the abruzzese goodness at the family-run Agristoro San Gregorio, just outside L’Aquila. And it won’t be the last time. A couple years ago, we stayed…
Who ever thought that at an olive oil festival, you’d come home with a hand-bound journal or a handmade eelskin belt – or a pair of handmade leather shoes? Gianfranco will tell…
Carracci’s painting, “The Bean-Eaters” (1590) lives on in a modern version at the Sagra del Fagiolo in the tiny village of Cave di Foligno (pronounced “ka-vay”) along the Topino River near the…
If you’re in Umbria in October, you won’t want to miss the sagra of a small village between Assisi and Perugia, Pianello. Pianello only has about five-hundred inhabitants and there’s just one…
You might associate October with pumpkins in the US, but in the medieval hill town of Trevi, October is the month of celery. Not just any celery but the famous sedano nero…
From early April to late October, sagras – outdoor village food festivals – animate the evenings all over central Italy. They all have common threads: ten-day festivals highlighted by outdoor dinners at…
Talla is most famous as the birthplace (maybe! – a debate…) of Guido Monaco, late 10th-c Benedictine monk, regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) and writer of Micrologus,…
Stroll the path under towering poplars, beeches and firs along the Nera River just outside Scheggino perched on a limestone outcrop and you might think that you’re in a national park in…
You know you’re headed towards Rieti’s peperoncino festival, Rieti, Cuore Piccante, as soon as you cross the Velino River and enter Via Roma: huge green and red chili peppers meet in a…
If it weren’t for the eye-catching bright red and white umbrellas spread out over the outdoor tables surrounded by scarlet begonias, you might drive right past what seems to be a nondescript…