Maybe not the last of the many castle-villages in Umbria, but certainly one of the most picturesque, pink limestone gem, Collepino, slumbers on a mountainside above Spello in almost monastic quiet. Befitting:…
“Three Ladies of Blues” had all rockin’ at the jazz aperitif last night at Hotel Brufani, one of the last events of the stupendo 10-day Umbria Jazz festival in Perugia. read more…
“Bello Spello, vero?”, an elderly woman asks me as she polishes her brass doorknob to a gleam. Above her head, fiery red geraniums and hot pink petunias overflow in chromatic profusion from…
Spello – che bello! – is becoming world famous for its magnificent flower petal tapestries – Infiorate – carpeting medieval alleyways and piazzas for Corpus Cristi. Prior to the wonders, the Spellani…
Since 1973, In mid-July the rhythms of jazz, R&B, soul, Gospel, swing, Latino, zydeco, bebop, tango, blues, samba – to mention a few – fill frescoed Perugia theaters, reverberate off the walls…
Every year on June 22nd in Gubbio, a solemn procession led by the bishop heads to the Mausoleo dei Quaranta Martiri to pay homage to the forty civilians shot by the Germans…
At the end of June, it’s hot in Bevagna, medieval hilltown of Roman origins in the Valle Umbra Nord, Umbria’s largest valley. Not exactly the ideal day for dressing in heavy woolen…
It will soon be time to gather the wildflowers, weeds, grasses and leaves for the wondrous rural concoction, l’acqua di San Giovanni. After all, no morning wash is more glorious than that…
A recent visit to La Scarzuola, in northern Umbria – where our region almost merges with Tuscany – plopped me right into a surreal world of Dali-Miro’-Escher-Fellini-like bizzarities. The name “Scarzuola” derives…
Dramatically perched on a hill overlooking the ruins of its Roman theater, Gubbio seems suspended in the Middle Ages: time has stood still in this stunning medieval hilltown. But slumbering Gubbio erupts…









