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…
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The road to Todiano through the Valnerina (Nera River Valley) is breath-taking even on a November day. Villages border the Nera River flanked by mountains as it winds through the valley. ..and some villages…
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…
What zucca magnifica we’ll have for our Thanksgiving: a splendid squash of brilliant orange pulp. My favorite: la Marina di Chioggia variety. ….and from our favorite fruit and vegetable stand, that of the…
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…
I missed the Festa di Scienza e Filosofia in Foligno this year. Here’s a note I wrote on that “only-in-Italy!” event the first time I attended: Where else can you join a Saturday night…
A gem of a tiny hilltown overlooking the Piano Grande (“Great Plain”), Castelluccio di Norcia, is a forlorn mass of rubble now. Devastated by the earthquake of October 30, 2016, the town is now…
Roman treasures peak out all over Assisi and not all are as evident as the stunning 1st c B.C. Temple to Minerva in the main piazza… The Temple to Minerva is a…
The cultivation of sunflowers throughout Italy adds a joyful floral frame to the views of the medieval hilltowns… …..and creates a butter-yellow carpet setting off a simple farmhouse ..,,,while rolling yellow fields…
For the Feast of Corpus Domini – sixty days after Easter – floral splendor carpets the medieval alleyways of hilltown gem, Spello, for their stunning festival, le Infiorate. Depending on the year’s climactic conditions, la…