Even the torrone – Christmas nougat – closing our mid-December Christmastime feast with a sweet note, was homemade. A Nello specialty. Nello, hard-working farmer and torrone-confectioner …
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What an extraordinary marriage of the modern and the medieval in Todi on December 8th. The stately 13th-c civic palace of this Umbrian hilltown gem served as stunning backdrop for a show…
A coffee bar with a nondescript name (Bar Commercio), in a non-descript shopping center of a non-descript suburb of Perugia merits a Christmastime visit. A colorful panoply of Christmas crafts – the…
This morning when I headed into the Caseificio Broccatelli to buy fresh ricotta, I mused that I might be living an “only-in-Italy” moment. Perhaps a hackneyed phrase but cheese shops aren’t usually…
I had just made the broccoli for pasta ai broccoli when Pino came home, peeked into the pot and asked, “perche’ non facciamo nel modo del cavolfiore?” (“why not make it the cauliflower…
Groveling black pigs, sprouting saffron, the harvesting of mountain grapes and a banquet lunch turned an October outing with our daughter Giulia into “an event to remember.” Giulia even did a video…
In past years while driving through the late fall/early winter Umbrian countryside, you’d spot now and then a tree with orange balls dangling on the scrawny branches, bare of leaves. No, not…
As always, we celebrate our Thanksgiving the Sunday after the holiday and fourteen of us celebrated the Festa di Ringraziamento together this year. ….and today for lunch, I nibbled bits of our leftovers.. There…
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…
They called us into the olive mill yesterday: it was our turn. Pressing time for our 300 k+ of olives which we’d hauled in the day prior. Delivery of our…