Monthly Archives: January 2025

Winter in Umbria

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Umbria is a four season area, as is most of Italy. People seem to think Italy is warm in winter, especially in the south, but this isn’t true. But it’s also not terribly cold except in the mountainous north. It does snow in most of Italy but usually only a little. They had snow recently in far south Sicily. Our temperatures here can get as cold as the upper 20s at night with normal daytime temperatures in the day in the 50s. It can be gray and damp, with quite a lot of rain. I don’t like the season much but it can be very beautiful in a stark way.

Bathroom
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I met with Irma yesterday to finalize all the bathroom things like under sink built-ins, shower seat, number of tiles up the walls. We still have to go pick the countertop for the sink and the circle in the shower. This last bit is a little hard to describe so you’ll have to wait to see it in the end. The plumber came and said they didn’t finish the demolition. So the muratore returned today and made a lot of dust and noise. When he was gone we were left with this. I think the plumber returns tomorrow. We’ll see…

Yesterday and today we had very high wind warnings. It boomed on the canopies out on the terrazzo. I drove to the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro where I get my hair cut. Even the VeeDub had trouble with the wind and we had to negotiate around a double trailer semi which had been knocked into the guardrail and partially jack-knifed.

Dreaming of spring! A la prossima a tutti!

Bathroom

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I promised some photos. The first two are of the bath after the appliances and plumbing was disconnected. The next one is today after all is gone.

Now, it’s ready for the plumber who’s coming on Monday. Then I think the muratori (wall guys) will come back and smooth the walls and floors and finished the enclosure for the toilet. After all that, the pretty stuff happens 🙂.
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Our weather has been quite mild for the last couple of weeks and lots of rain. Weekend coming up. We have a few things on. Tonight we are going to our Italian family’s house for dinner. This is Vera and her husband and a Danish couple that she works for. We’ve met them before. They are wealthy and that’s hard to do in Denmark! Tomorrow, I’m working at Books for Dogs then I’ll go to the market. Sunday we are meeting American friends who live nearby for lunch at Calagrana. They are the ones that we help with the olive harvest every year. Calagrana is closed for the season, but they open now and then for a lunch or dinner and we get an email when they do. We have not been since Thanksgiving, so I am looking forward to that!

Buon Weekend! (Yes that’s really a thing they say here. Much easier than fine settimana!)

Productive week so far

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We have hit the ground running this week. I saw my medico last week and got scripts to make appointments. Then went to the CUP (Centro Unico di Prenotazione) to make the appointments. I’ve got two, one for blood work next Monday in our town hospital. And one, private pay, for an MRI in a town near Perugia. I have a painful shoulder. I am not fond of this system because there are several steps required to get an appointment.

Then we visited the USL (Unità Sanitaria Locale) which is the local health services. It is that time of year when all immigrants like us are renewing their Tessera Sanitara, enrollment in the National Health system. The lady who gives these cards, named Laura, is said to be the meanest woman in Umbertide. She scared the crap out of us the first time we went.

Since we received our Permanent Residency two years ago (🙏🏼), we now do not have to pay for the Tessera. It is good for five years, so we do not have to renew for a while. But there is also a mechanism that tells the health department what income category you’re in which affects any co-pay necessary. And ours was expired. We expected to have to deal with Laura for this but happily, we could use the nice young women down the hall to do this for us. I should add that Laura came out of her office and greeted us like long lost friends. So funny, since we got the five year Tessera and we brought her flowers we are best buds. I gotta tell you. She is no longer the meanest woman in Umbertide. At least not to us. But she still is to most!

The only problem was the computer system for all of Umbria was down. So we had to leave without getting it done. Then we returned the next day and the system was still down but this time she took our info and said she would call when done. Today, we got a call and we went to pick up the new document. It is a typical experience with getting anything done in Italy. Three times. Much waiting. But it’s done…until next year!
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The bathroom demolition started today. They are making a lot of noise. It can carry through this entire row of adjoining apartments. But it won’t last long. It is not a big room, but there were a lot of tiles to remove. Also a small wall. The appliances all had to be transported out as well. We are excited to be getting a modern bathroom with things that actually function. I don’t like renovation work but it must be done. Pictures to follow.

Checking in

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Hi all. I thought I would check in with the few interesting things we have been doing. Being winter, and pretty darn cold, we haven’t been doing too much. I have been volunteering at the Books for Dogs/Libri per i Cani shop. It’s pretty fun. I work on Saturdays, either early or late shift.

Today the bathroom renovation began. The plumber came to disconnect all the appliances. So all the sinks and shower, bidet and toilet have been unhooked. Monday the true demolition will begin. I am not sure how long this job will take. I do know Irma has received all the materials for it, so once demolished I would think they would begin installing the tiles, sinks, toilet etc. The electrician must also come. Then the plumber comes back. Maybe a couple weeks? I’ll post pictures in my next post.
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On the cooking front I have made some wintery dishes. Chili, always a favorite, with borlotti beans. My favorite roast chicken from Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. So simple but so delicious. Then over the weekend I made a Kimchi Soup. Yeah, I know it’s not Italian, but I love those exotic tastes on occasion and this one pushes all the buttons. Luther thinks he doesn’t like kimchi, but when it’s used as an ingredient it is more acceptable. (He liked the soup 🙂) There are lots of discussions on the Facebook Expat groups about foreign foods. Many people are adamant that when you come to live in Italy you embrace the food. Others say they miss flavors of home and it’s perfectly ok to use them. And the third group also misses all the diverse cuisines of the world that are available in the U.S. For myself, I love Italian food, I also love comfort foods from home, and I love exotic tastes. So here is my kimchi soup in pictures 🙂

The recipe called for bok choy but that’s not found here. So I used bietole which is like chard, and very close to bok choy. This soup came together very quickly. It was bright and spicy tart and sour. Very yummy
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I met with a friend, Elizabeth Wholly this morning, for a caffè. My favorite bar is Bar Mary as my long time readers know. It is in the piazza. And in summertime, it is great to sit outside with a spritz or a coffee and watch the world go by. But in the winter, they only have one pretty barren back room and mostly the tables are filled with the old men playing cards. My go-to wintertime bar is Antico bar Giardino. It is just outside the piazza on one of the main roads through town. It, too, has a lovely garden, hence the name, but it also is cozy with deep upholstered sofas and chairs, quirky tables, many different rooms, vaulted ceilings nice barriste. Coffee is good, pastries tasty, nice wines for aperitivo. They have apericena, (drinks with snacks) in the evening. They also have a warm stufa 😁.

Stay tuned for the bathroom renovation!

And now for the winter…

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The season ended yesterday on the Epiphany— the Epifania in Italian. The last day of the twelve days of Christmas. Commemorating the visit of the magi. Also called Three Kings Day. Sunday was the day that La Befana visited all the children. Read about it here. I took down my tree and he is outside on the terrace where I hope he thrives.

The weather is pretty mild right now but we are heading into the coldest part of the winter. Time for soups, stews and chili. It never gets very cold here. Lowest is around -4C which is about 25F. We like to get a couple weeks of that sort of weather to kill the insects that otherwise plague the olive trees, but not enough that it KILLS the olive trees themselves! I trimmed my little tree back pretty severely. Olive trees are super resilient. I’ve seen them cut back to practically stumps and they rebound well.

I forgot to relate some sad news. One of our fish, Quo, has passed and is in the big pond in the sky. Now there is only Qua. She is asleep and I hope she survives the winter. I will get her a companion when it gets warmer. It’s sad to see Quo go because he and Qua got along so well.