Pino’s creativity has moved into the kitchen, now that retirement from stone restoration is (partially) underway (though not quite fully in action). His artistic bent lives on in his stonework masterpieces. Like…
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Eric, Marion, Prisca and Robin, mille grazie for coming all the way from the Netherlands to stay in our Assisi countryside apartment. Such a pleasure to host you – our first Dutch…
Never postpone. I have thought about Graziella Viterbi now and then over the past few months, wondering how she was and hoping to look her up in Rome. Alas, I can’t now:…
Actor Willem Dafoe’s comment about the Van Gogh film “At Eternity’s Gate” (at the Golden Globe awards) struck me: “It really deeply affects people because it changes how you see things. It…
When we moved to Umbria to work the land in 1975, our farmhouse – without heat, running hot water, electricity, bathroom – rented for 25, 000 lire per month. Sound like a…
We don’t see Aldo with his sheep any longer as they graze on the hill behind our farmhouse. He’s nearly ninety now and lives with his children near Deruta. We miss seeing…
Near Montepulciano in the small southern Tuscan town of Acquaviva, don’t miss lunch at Ristorante/Pizzeria L’Angolo. Before lunch, the butcher shop around the corner is worth a stop. Pino had been there…
“Good things come in threes,” they say. For me, our third year of the early May ten-day “Annesitaly INSIDE Umbria” Celebration affirms the saying. Kris, Sally, Jerry and Carol, mille grazie to…
A highpoint of springtime in Umbria – indeed, of all of central Italy – is Assisi’s stunning early May medieval festival, Calendimaggio, welcoming the arrival of spring in four days of glorious…
What a catharsis, those Ceri moments in Gubbio in May and on June 2nd. Living those euphoric moments with the eugubini, you understand why they’re affectionately dubbed “i matti dell’italia” (“the madmen…