Monthly Archives: December 2024

Umbertide Christmas street art exhibit – Buon Anno!

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Every year for the last three or four, as part of the Christmas celebration, Umbertide hosts an outdoor art exhibit. It is on one of the main shopping streets, Via Garibaldi. Yesterday, since it was fairly mild out, I walked down the street, admired each painting, and took a picture to share with you all for New Years. There are quite a few entries. I now can more slowly look at them at leisure too!

You will notice that there is a religious theme here (of course). Some I couldn’t figure out how it fit, like the one with the rabbit. Rabbit? Shouldn’t that be Easter? Oh well.

You will also see that our own Saint from Assisi, San Francesco, plays a big part in these paintings. There are a lot with birds and St. Francis. He famously preached to the birds. He loved all creatures. The legend of St Francis and the wolf of Gubbio is one of my favorites. We have even visited the church under which the wolf was supposedly buried. It is only a legend, after all right? Then how? 😳 Read the legend in the link to the end to see. I counted 13 works below that feature St. Francis and the wolf.

My friend, Kathleen Mack has a painting in the exhibition. I promised her I would take pictures since she isn’t here right now. She has an apartment in town and comes for the Schengen shuffle, 90 days here, 90 days in the U.S. I will put hers first and then do all the others for your new years enjoyment! She chose San Francesco and the wolf as well. A couple have captions.

I note they mis-spelled her name.
Nicely done. Love Mary and Joseph’s awed expressions.
The rabbit.
A Presepe

I took a picture of the artists as well. Here they are.

Finally, the obligatory food report. 😁. Yesterday I tried a new recipe called Hoppin John Soup. I like regular Hoppin John for the new year but this was better to me. And if anyone is curious, no, you can’t get black eyed peas here. We have some beans that look like them, but they don’t taste anything like them. I have a small stash of them I brought over.

Finally, on New Years Even we are supposed to all wear red underwear, and eat cotechino with lentils for luck! I kinda think in 2025 we are all going to need that!

Buon anno a tutti!

Christmas 2024

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Christmas this year was a bit different. As you know from all the past Christmas posts we normally stay home for the day. This year, we were invited to our friends Susan and Gary’s apartment in Florence. They have been there a few years and we had never seen it. Susan had planned a Christmas luncheon for 11 already so just added Luther and I into the mix.

We stayed in a much-too-big for us apartment that actually shared a wall with their apartment so it was easy to go back and forth between the two. And we had to because we used the oven and refrigerator in our rental as well as their own kitchen. Here is the view from the bedroom of the rental. It is the Uffizi museum, just across the Arno and far to the left is the Ponte Vecchio so you can’t get a better spot in Florence. Next photo is the Uffizi straight on with the tower in the big piazza behind it. All was quiet on Christmas morning.

The Christmas lunch was being catered by a restaurant that Susan and Gary enjoy. One of the owners is American so they do turkey and fixin’s American style. The restaurant owner arrived on his motorcycle with the big box of food strapped on back. He delivered it to the kitchen and proceeded to take out all the dishes, multiple courses and sauces and explain what to do. Well we all nodded and said va bene and then we all promptly forgot what went with what and how it was to be used. After several phone calls we thought we had it all straight. We were lucky it was so cold and that they have an outside space just off the kitchen. We used it as an auxiliary refrigerator.

Then we sat around the kitchen table and worked out a step-by-step timeline for the meal. It took a LOT of time. Turns out it was invaluable on the day of the feast. There were so many different moving parts and courses that for us six to get it all done and in an organized and timely fashion it was necessary and we referred to it constantly.

I took a picture of the ballroom which was going to be used as a dining room this day. Susan and Gary had worked very hard to get tables and chairs and decorations and everything all set up. It is a beautiful room, check out the frescos.

We had a chance to meet all of Susan and Gary’s new friends. We enjoyed meeting them. The description of the meal. Appetizers: there were three, a mushroom strudel with a cheese sauce, smoked salmon on toast, and artichokes with a delicious garlic sauce. The next course was Cappeletti pasta cooked in a rich broth and it was served next to tiny meatballs. All of that was submerged in the broth. Main course was served buffet style. Turkey, dressing, vegetables gravy. Only one picture.

Here we all at table.

It was a lot of fun. Thank you Susan and Gary for a lovely Christmas. It was wonderful to share the holiday with you and your friends and sister Sarah!

Next day we took the train back home. It takes just 1.5 hours to get to Florence from the station that we use in Umbria.
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Here is my annual Christmas Card. I hope 2025 is a good year for us all. Happy Holidays to all my friends and family!

New Supermercato in Umbertide!!

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Big days in Umbertide. We had heard rumors for years about a new super store coming to Umbertide. We waited, and waited. They had been repurposing the old Molino Popolare facility. It is a big piece of land on the main road south out of town. The old mill had been defunct for a long time. They tore down, and cleaned up all the small superfluous buildings but left the big four story old mill building. Rumors had it that would become loft space. Anyway, we had noticed them building a new road etc, but somehow, seemingly in the dead of night, someone snuck in a big, shiny, new supermarket! An EMI to be exact. Today we went over for a look see inside. It is open all day Sunday, not the usual here.

Front of store
From the back, to show the old mill building.

We went inside and applied for the EMI membership card so we could get the discounts. Then we explored. For you Americans out there this will seem mundane for the most part. But much of it is very unusual, especially for our smallish town. Here we go, captions if needed.

Interior of store
Fresh squeeze-it- yourself orange juice. Yay!
I guess I’ll try the guac someday.
Can you feel me rolling my eyes?! 🙄 puleeze.
Lots of fresh pasta both here and in the case.
Well it is almost Christmas after all…time for panetone!
Hah! Hamburgeria.
Aging beef
Prepared seafood. Fries with eyes! The fresh seafood looked great as well.
Prepared foods.
Disappointed in the cheeses. Nothing interesting.
Pizza by the slice.
Here’s something you don’t see here…donuts!
Freshly baked bread.
In the US the biggest aisle is cereal. Here….it’s pasta of course!
Prosciutto for Natale!

Luther gave the wine selection a three🫤. I found a few nice things. I bought a rack of lamb from the butcher. I found pork tenderloins which I haven’t seen in a few years. I bought three! I bought fresh bread and a few other things. There was no international section which I had hoped to see. Overall, it is a nice store. More variety than the Coop. But not a great store.

My little tree

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I got the little tree planted in a pot and have brought him in to decorate. I just finished that and he is quite pretty, if quite small! But he will grow. I used many of my old ornaments. But many I couldn’t yet since he is small. Here are some pictures.

It is pouring rain today. Horrible weather. A proper day to get a colonoscopy. I don’t want to over-share but I kind of think it is interesting to know. Luther had this procedure scheduled for today. It was necessary to get it fast so we opted to pay private which is always an option here. The medicine that we must all take before this procedure was different this time. Less liquid needed to be imbibed. Luther told me this medicine would cost $200 in the U.S. and here it cost €20.

After the procedure, all was OK. It is always a relief. It cost us €450.00 in total. Not bad at all if only needed every 3-5 years. But to be clear, this would be free on the national health system, if you’re willing to wait. I imagine a colonoscopy in the U.S. is more expensive that this. You can let me know!

Charlie Brown Christmas tree

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Cold weather this December. We are staying comfortably warm in our upstairs space. Downstairs we don’t heat consistently. I’ll turn it on before I get up and want to take a shower, then turn it off again.

I have finally decided how to use this apartment. I’ve been having trouble with the two floors and two kitchens. We will move downstairs after the holidays for the coldest part of the winter. Normally January and February, but probably March too. It will be our “winter apartment”. This makes sense because we can use the stufa which has been going unused this year so far. Then, when spring has sprung we will move back upstairs. Most painful bit will be moving the kitchen things. I think most of the things that I use all the time I already have two sets. The food needs to move and the spices. Maybe some cast iron pots. Luther’s workspace. So I feel a little better having decided.

Christmas will be upstairs. I drove up to this really great vivaio – nursery in Italian. We get plants there in spring. They go all out for Christmas. I have never seen such an elaborate set up. They created a maze with Christmas trees galore, life sized reindeer and all manner of decorations. Hundreds of poinsettias, all sizes and colors. These are called stella di Natale, Christmas stars. It’s a pretty name.

I bought a smallish stella di Natale which they beautifully wrapped in red paper with gold ribbons. And I got a white wreath frame. I plan to try to make a wreath for our door.

I had thought to buy a smallish, living tree. I figured we could keep it on the terrace in summer. They had quite a few there at the vivaio so I bought one. A Charlie Brown Christmas tree 😁. Well maybe not that bad, but it’s small. I will plant in a pot tomorrow.

I will decorate it tomorrow and take pictures. It looks like it may be hard to hang ornaments. Speaking of which, one of the things I brought back from our storage facility this past March was all my ornaments. I’ve missed them all these years! So it will be a treat to use some of them.

Cinghiale stew

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The weather has gotten cold and damp. We had our first hard frost. The days are so short now. But the Christmas lights have been going up, which are cheery, and I saw pictures of the Christmas tree going up in the piazza. The big tree lighting day is December 8 on L’Immacolata Concezione, or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Photo credit Helen Harrison Jefferson

Cinghiale! That well loved beast which runs wild here in Italy. Well they are well loved for their meat but little else. I don’t know any hunters, but I have a store here in town that carries the meat. Occasionally I buy it and make a warming stew or ragú. Yesterday it was a stew.

The raw ingredients.
It has to marinate for at least a day

The meat can be tough. And it can have a strong taste. So it must be marinated a good long time. I used celery, carrots, onion, juniper berries, rosemary, bay leaf and red wine. When ready I drained it from the marinade. Meanwhile I chopped a carrot, celery, and onion which I sautéed until it softened. Then I added the meat and cooked until no longer pink. I added in more rosemary and bay leaves and then deglazed with a robust red wine. I used Primitivo which is said to be the grape from which Zinfandel evolved. Once the alcohol had evaporated I added some of the marinade and a little water. Then I covered and braised it in the oven for 2 hours, checking every so often to be sure there was still liquid. When it was done I thickened the sauce and checked for seasoning. It was meltingly tender and delicious. The recipe said serve over polenta but Luther isn’t a fan so I used mashed potatoes.

The finished dish.

It was delicious. 😋