During my Umbrian hilltown guided tours, I’m always pointing out examples of Italian passione; after all, if you don’t get la passione, you don’t get a hold on Italy. Examples are endless…
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When you walk Assisi, the medieval splendors leap out at you around every corner. Panoramic vistas spread in the valley below. You’ll want to try to capture the magic in your photos.…
“You’ve brought the world to us,” Olga once told me with a hug after a banquet dinner at her home. Olga and Americo have warmly welcomed everyone into their home and both…
Montefalco, noted for its fine Sagrantino wines, loom-woven linen textiles and the stunning Museo of San Francesco, hides many a secret as well. Suor Giovanna is one. She remains – for me…
Ah, Perugia, “city of the infinite view”, as Henry James wrote. Pre-Roman Etruscan city gates, a stunning 13th-c. fountain, frescoed and wood-inlaid guild halls, a majestic medieval courthouse, a 15th-c Papal fortress,…
Finding the hidden backstreets in Bevagna[/caption]Bevagna offers something to every visitor. The 1st c A.D, mosaics of the Roman baths – hidden away in the backstreets – astound. If you can locate…
Built in local pink limestone like Assisi, medieval hilltown gem Spello wins over any visitor with its flowering backstreets, Roman remnants,medieval churches, stunning Renaissance frescoes and one of Italy’s top wine cellars…
La cicoria d’autunno is not the most tender, Peppa explained to me as we gathered wild chicory today in our field up behind the donkey pen. “Quella di maggio e’ la migliore”,…
July 26th isn’t my birthday but farm friends will be calling in any case to wish me “auguri, Anna” on my onomastico (name day): July 26th is the Festa di Sant’Anna, the…
“Giugno, la falce in pugno” (“June, the scythe in the fist”), says an old Italian proverb, re-echoing the days of scything hay manually. Times have changed: at Peppe and Gentile’s farm two…