L’Aquila’s Christmas-market booths are backdropped by scaffolded buildings, devastated in the 2009 earthquake. A towering Christmas tree laced with dim twinkling lights in the main square stands tall in front of the…
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According to legends, a myriad of la Madonna images have miraculously arrived in Italy from the sea. No one knows when the venerated Byzantine Madonna Greca image arrived in Isola a Capo…
I’ve decided it’s time to offer more than just Umbrian hilltown guided tours. After all, my love for Umbria is tied to the land as well as to the art and history.…
We just harvested our olives. Alleluia, alleluia! Last year, for the first time in our forty years on the land in Umbria, we skipped olive-picking in November: la mosca olearia devastated olive…
Rolling around in huge metal bins over hot coals, chestnuts pop in the night in the medieval backstreets of Arcidosso, Tuscan mountain village. When the husks slip loose on the roasted chestnuts,…
Every September 26th, vases of fresh flowers encircle the pink limesonte plaque on the floor at the entrance to the Basilica Superiore di San Francesco. Look closely at the plaque and you’ll…
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…
Yes, we’re cooking here in Italy as temperatures shoot past records, springs risk drying up and elderly are warned to stay indoors…but some are ignoring those warnings. A smiling gray-haired woman waved…
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…