To fully experience Umbria, “Italy’s green heart,” you’ll have to connect with the people. Meet our rural neighbors, those most directly connected to our Umbrian land. Each one, a “national” (as well…
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Umbrian rural goodness was the link, uniting guests in our Assisi farmhouse from Australia, the UK, San Francisco and New York. Introductions took place as we shopped for the ingredients: first stop,…
As you stroll the labyrinthine alleyways of medieval hill towns, you might see sheets, towels and clothing hanging out to dry. In our Assisi backstreets these days, white sheets flutter over the…
Pino and I moved into a crumbling farmhouse outside Assisi in 1975. What unforgettable years working the land, learning so much from our rural friends (you can see shots of “the good…
Whether you stay in our in-town Assisi apartment or our countryside guesthouse (right behind our farmhouse), there are a couple obligations: – you have to join us for a rural Umbrian dinner…
What’s the highlight of a visit to our rural neighbors? Sharing in eighty-year-old Peppe’s pride in his prosciutti? Tasting his wine? Meeting Peppa, “Earth Mother,” as I call this warm and joyous…
Easy to entice Pino to the Balanzano (near Perugia) sagra: snails were the headliner second course dish at this Sagra dell’Ortolano (“Food festival of the vegetable gardener”). Pino relished those snails (bruschetta…
There’s no more memorable “Umbrian experience” than lunch with our farm friends, Chiarina and Marino. Just about everything on the table comes from their labors on the land: from the wine to…
I’ve just been to Heaven and back… Five years ago today, two areas of the frescoed vault of the Upper Basilica di San Francesco here in Assisi, crashed to the floor when…