Foligno, often called “il centro del mondo” (“the center of the world”) was inhabited centuries ago (possibly as early as the 7th-century B.C.) by a native Italic people, the umbri. In the 3rd-century B.C.,…
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Foligno – often overlooked by many visitors to Umbria – hides innumerable treasures. One is certainly one of the oldest religious edifices in Umbria, Santa Maria Infraportas. Santa Maria Infraportas is the…
After discovering the medieval and Renaissance wonders in Foligno, let yourself be drawn by a magnet. An enormous one. You’ll find the 24-meter Calamita Cosmica (“Cosmic Magnet”), mammoth sculpture of Gino De Dominicis,…
While rural neighbor Chiarina was making her homemade pasta recently,…… ….her husband Marino took me over to their improvised “cantina” (wine cellar) in a converted garage near their farmhouse: Inside, guanciali (pork…
Farm neighbor Chiarina was dicing the carrot for her pasta sauce when I dropped in one recent morning, her husband Marino nearby and how he beamed when I asked him about his…
On a recent mid-March Spoleto guided tour, my tour guests and I spotted a shop window displaying perfume bottles flanked by branches of yellow mimosa tied with yellow bows: In harmony with…
If you read my recent note on Giuseppa making her homemade fettuccine, you’ll already know that the best in the rural cuisine of Umbria reigns in the farmhouse kitchen of Giuseppa, in…
In the Deruta countryside, Giuseppa opens home and heart to all. When you arrive, Giuseppa comes out of her house, perhaps with her two beloved Jack Russells and that welcoming smile says…
A box of Carnaroli rice in the kitchen cupboard, a pot of meat broth on our stove, a hefty chunk of orange winter squash on the table and snow flurries and biting…
Prosciutto, pancetta, salami, salsicce, coppa, barbozza. The names unite in an enticing rhythm, so appealing to your ear. Even if you’re a vegetarian. When I dropped in recently at the house of…