Monthly Archives: June 2025

Birthday party and other things

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We have had a fairly busy few days. We have been in a heat spell so not doing much in the middle of the day for sure. But in the evenings we have been invited to some fun things.

Thursday we went to visit friends in Montone (nearby hill town) for a lovely dinner. We ascended the hill only to find the road closed due to a landslide! So we had to backtrack and go up the other way. This made us 15 minutes late and I HATE being late. Anyway, we finally got there. We were six, all of the four besides us are architects. They have beautifully restored homes in the village. We had a cool supper with antipasti and a nice cold hummus soup and after that, a delicious salmon and cool salads, after which we went upstairs to their logia which is the best thing about their house. An outside-inside space. Furnished, with a table and sofas and a fireplace for cooler weather. Not that it was cold of course! But the cool breeze was welcome and we enjoyed our dolce there.

Then I visited our Saturday market and got cheeses, fresh eggs and tomatoes. It was going to be hot so I went early. That evening we were invited to a birthday party at friends house where we had not been before. Directly across from where Calagrana is but up a winding strada bianca— white road i.e., unpaved road. The road was not bad but it was about the twistiest we had ever encountered. The house was at the tippy top of the mountain with views off to both sides of the ridge. Amazing!

It was a great party for about 50 people. They had a “pig man” do the food. Yes, he owns a pig farm and also makes his own cured sausages and prosciutto which is in a climate controlled warehouse that our host said was probably worth millions. There was a four piece band. Everyone was seated and there were four courses. Started with very delicious cured and thinly sliced prosciutto. Then pasta, which just kept coming. A rigatoni, an orecchiette and last, gnocci with shaved truffles. The secondi was porchetta, roasted potatoes and salad. They actually had a gelato stand for gelato and cake!

The space and sunset
Our table
Pig man with porchetta and prosciutto.

Believe it or not, it got actually cold during this party. Down in Umbertide it was in the 90s so I wore a linen dress with short sleeves and sandals. I was freezing before someone shared they found a big basket in the house with blankets! I guess it is always cool at 600 meters. I bet the wind could howl up there. It was a great party!

Later the bad played.

Just as a point of interest I want to tell you about what transpired while we sat at the table. Across from us sat a nonna and her grandchild, Romeo. Yes, Romeo. The boy, who was five, had a phone and was completely immersed in whatever he was doing. When the pasta course came the nonna carefully cut up each rigatoni and fed it to the boy like he was a baby, while he was completely ignoring her, other that to open his mouth and ingest the food. What would you have thought? If it were me the phone would be turned off and he would feed himself. Italian nonne and Mamas completely spoil their boys. To such an extent that they live at home until they are sometimes 40. And Mama cooks all their meals, cleans their room, does their laundry. So what do you think this man-child will expect of any girlfriend or wife? Yup. I am the Prince…wait on me. Ah well. It is the culture.
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Tomorrow we leave on our short trip to Sestri Levanti for a little sea air, good seafood, Ligurian specialties, and relaxation. I will post pictures after we get home. We got our first tomato this week so I am looking forward to tomatoes from my two plants when we get back! Ciao for now!

Traveling

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Let’s go back. I grew up in a blue collar family. The only vacations we took were what my parents could afford so that was an annual trip to Virginia Beach. My mom was very frugal and brought things in coolers so we could eat cheap. This was a LONG time ago, back before high rises on the beaches. All these hotels were old clapboard two story beach hotels. We stayed at the Dolphin. It had a big front porch and a lawn down to the boardwalk. Right on the ocean. I have fond memories. We always brought our dog Cricket. 🙂

Flash forward. I was thirty one years old and had been married thirteen years. We had been very poor since our marriage. We had never had a vacation. I worked to pay our food and rent. Luther worked to pay his tuition. Until he finally stopped going to school and got a job we had little. Even trips to McDonald’s were a stretch. So, I was thirty one and I realized I had never been outside of the US. And finally we could afford a vacation. I said to Luther “we are going on a vacation”. I remember planning that trip. We went to England and Scotland. Good place to start because the language was ours… sort of. It was an epiphany. I saw the world I never knew. It scared me some. I felt uncomfortable but still. It was our beginning. After that we traveled to Europe every two years.

I think most who of you who know me and read this blog know our first really big adventure was to actually MOVE to Germany in 1990. After our first travels we decided to go for a big adventure. Luther first got a job with a German software firm. I worked for an international company who had a site in Heidelberg. So I transferred there. Moving to Europe was probably the reason we finally decided to retire in Europe. It was life changing. Just a couple pics from our time there.

Me and Luther in Florence.
Luther near Ponte Vecchio in Florence
Me. No idea where!
Amazing experience to actually be this close to Pope John Paul.
My sister Cindy, Her husband Bill, and Luther on the Cinque Terre.

Once in Germany, we went everywhere. It was right in the middle of Europe. We visited all the Low Countries, France, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Italy. It was an amazing opportunity of which we took total advantage. It was the beginning of our great European adventure which led us here, where we retired, in Umbria, Italy. So this post is a Blast from the Past!

Pizza night at casa Vera

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As I mentioned recently, we were invited to pizza night with Vera’s family. Our famiglia italiana. There was an interesting group. Of course there were Vera and Graziano and their two girls Maya and Desiree. Then there was Graziano’s mom and dad and his brother and his wife and their two children. A couple from Brazil who were unrelated friends with their two children, one, a 2 month old. Finally Vera’s nephew and his wife who was visiting from Slovenia. Many languages a tavola. 🙂

It was a hot evening after a hotter day but we dressed for it and it was shady with a light breeze so not too bad. During this past winter Graziano had build a new pizza oven with prep area under roof. It is a beauty. He said it was a lot of work. It replaced the old oven that was 40 plus years old and had done its duty. This was the very first use of this oven so Graziano and Vera were nervous to see how it went. One of the things I was surprised at was that they have no refrigerator downstairs. Everything cold is up one or more floors and has to be carried down. I mentioned to Vera they need a frig in the shelter. Make life so much easier. I’m pretty sure she will do it. 🙂
Photos have captions.

The new oven and place for making the pizza.
Graziano and Luther in the yard before the activities began.
Desiree and the new bambino
Dog that was abandoned which Graziano’s dad took in. He is very frightened. Obviously has been abused.

Now for the action. Pictures of the oven.

Moving wood and ashes.
Oven is ready for the pizzas.
Cooking it up. Margherita. It takes less than a minute to cook..

This is where Vera assembled each pizza, and her mis en place with all her ingredients.

All important tomato sauce.
Mis en place

Now for the pizzas.

First Margherita next to a pizza bianca. They started with three of the bianca sort of as a test run.
Salsiccia – sausage.
Gorgonzola with salumi piccante – spicy salami.
Zucchini with blossoms pizza. My favorite.
Salads. Melone e prosciutto is a standard for summer in Italy. The watermelon, melon and feta with mint was cool and sweet.

And finally…Vera sat down to eat the fruits of her labors.

I ate a ton. It’s impossible not to taste every single one. Their salads were delicious. Graziano’s mom, who is an excellent baker, made a delicious dessert, coconut cake. We stayed until well after dark, and headed home.

Below are links to three video I took of the action for the first pizzas. They are short. You may notice she and Graziano are a good team. He holds the pizza peel on the table so she can place the dough right on it then add the ingredients. She says “vai!” Each time and he takes it and slides it into the oven. A minute later the pizza is done and they repeat the process. Boom boom boom! Pizza’s on!

Terrazzo update

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Hi everyone 😊 This is an update on stuff outside. It’s really hot now so I spend my mornings out on the Terrazzo. It is cool and there is usually a breeze. I had to deep six one of my tomato plants because it was diseased. Sad. But we still have two. They look good and have some nice fruit. Second picture is a sprinkler I got. I’m having problems with the irrigation system in this bed and have a call in to our gardener who installed the system many years ago. I like the sprinkler. I got happily all wet trying to adjust it. 😎

The fish FINALLY woke from their long winter nap. We still have Qua. But the other two are new and small and have no names. I do like watching them play.

Some other pictures of plants. I put captions on them.

These are the lavenders. White and purple. And the red maple at the end.
This fern was nearly killed by an invasive plant but seems to be making a comeback. And the impatien is pretty.

Here is where I sit in the morning when it’s cool. I like to look at the surrounding mountains. Pretty.

Finally, a funny story. There are these big bottles used for wine here. Called demijohns in English. Damigiana in Italian. They used to be common and found in the recycle centers, tossed away. It seems now they are scarce and they are sold for a good price mostly among us immigrants. Anyway, I was driving back from errands and I saw an old man crossing the road near our house with a big, green demijohn. He was headed for the glass recycle receptacle. I made a quick turn around and sped back. Lucky for me the bottle wouldn’t fit and he was just leaving it. I asked if I could have it and he happily gave it to me apologizing because it was dirty and saying I needed a plastic cap. He assumed I was using it for wine. Anyway. Here is my prize, all cleaned up.

Today is laundry day. Did you know power is less expensive on Sundays and in the middle of the night in Italy? Yes, it is. Being summer, I no longer use the drier. Everything dries on the rack outside in minutes. Solar drying 😁 These just came inside so I can fold in the cool inside. The sheets smell like sunshine! ☀️

Catching up

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It has been busy here and there, but it is mostly very mundane! I’m going to show a few photos and tell you a bit about what we’ve been doing. I finally finished my medical things. Navigating the system is hard for us stranieri. We don’t ever really understand it. But I did it and all is ok and I’m happy. Our two cats will be 16 in August. That’s a pretty old age for cats. So far they seem OK. We can’t decide if Simba is getting deaf. Rocky, pictured below, loves the terrazzo but he doesn’t go far unless we are out there with him. He seems to love the heat(!) which is inexplicable given that thick coat of fur! 😳

On Sunday we were invited to Pranzo at our friend Doug’s beautiful home. Sunday lunch is a tradition here. The best day to get together to eat with friends. Below you’ll see his amazing view. We sat on this terrace and enjoyed that view. It was hot but not in the shade. The beautiful table is next, and finally his coup de resistance- a grand salad Niçoise. Everything he served was cool. Perfect on a warm day.

We saw our friend Vera for a chiacchierata. That means chat in Italian, it is so much easier in English. I still have a hard time pronouncing it! She invited us for a family dinner this Sunday. They will make pizza in the big wood oven.

Today we had a treat. We went to Arezzo to meet our good friends Susan and Gary who live in Florence now. Arezzo is a city in Tuscany about 50 minutes from us driving. It’s about the same from Florence by train. We met up at Osteria 54 for lunch. It had a small menu but plenty of good things to choose from. It was so great to catch up with them. They were our first friends when we moved here. They lived in Umbertide then. They helped us out a lot and we got to be great friends. It’s not that often you meet completely simpatico people. We traveled together and discovered a billion great restaurants together. We all love good food. We had a great time today catching up. We miss one another a lot. We have a trip planned together for October but I’m sure we will see them sooner than then. Picture below is of my appetizer. A cold tomato tartar with burrata cheese in top. Perfect on this hot day.

Otherwise we have been doing some trip planning. The October trip is to Lecce in Puglia. We also have an anniversary coming up so have reserved in a Ligurian seaside town, Sestri Levanti. We were there once before and liked it a lot. And finally our big get-away trip to Austria for a month in the summer to beat the heat. We will have an apartment in the mountains and we will do a couple short excursions from there so I was busy making reservations for those as well. These are all happy things to look forward to. That’s not always the case nowadays. We need some things to distract us from events in our world right now. That’s about it. Enjoy June…happy strawberry moon which is amazing right now! 🌕

Summer, here we come!

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The weather is picture perfect right now. Quite warm, 31C or 88F today and getting hotter. Our terrace is the perfect extended living space. Last night we inaugurated eating dinner outside, and then watching a movie. 🙂 It was lovely. Luther smoked a cigar but I really think he has decided that cigars are no longer a big part of his life. It is hard for him to transition. But it’s a good thing. Maybe now it will be an every-now-and-then thing rather than an every night thing.

Today is a holiday here. Republic day. The day, in 1946 when they voted that Italy would become a republic. Nothing is open. I had a basket of the kumquats that I harvested from my tree sitting on the counter for a week mocking me to use them. I found a recipe for kumquats and apricot chutney. So today I amused myself making a batch. It’s quite tart and a bit piquant. I think it will go as a relish with many things.

Last Saturday night we had rather an unexpected experience. Goes to show we can still mess thing up after all these years 😁 We used to have a restaurant in town called Locanda Appennino. It had a lovely outside summer terrace which sat right on the city walls. Sadly it closed several years ago. Recently friends told me it was open again under new management.

We had friends visiting in town who own apartments in the countryside and we always try to have a meal together when they come. I made a reservation at this new place for us all. Or at least I thought did. I first called the number on the Internet and ended up with the old owner who said they were closed. But I “knew” they weren’t! So I found another number and called it. I made the reservation and let our friends know.

Saturday we went into the restaurant and looking back on it now, they didn’t seem to have a reservation for us but said if we came back they would open up the terrace for us. So we did that and returned.

The place was a little basic (understatement!). I think it must be a work in progress. The owner and cook were your basic, rather “rough” Umbertidese. But sweet, as all Umbertidese are. They told us what they had. Basically an antipasto assortment, a primi which was tagliatelle with ragu, and a secondi of pork. We had one vegetarian so we asked for a non-meat pasta which they made for us. The wine was red…or white in re-used bottles.

The antipasto was good and varied. We had cheeses, meats, roasted baby onions and radishes on platters to begin. Then a plate of the thinnest sliced eggplant ever (super good), and a plate of bruschetta fegato, (liver). Oddly, no bread. In the end, we all got fed and had a laugh. 😆

At nine o’clock I got a call from the other Locanda Appennino. Yes, there are two. I was so embarrassed that I had reserved a table for six on a Saturday night and then was a no show. I never would do that. I even told him when he asked where we were that we were there now, eating. Until we figured out the confusion.

We are finally enjoying summertime in Umbria ! 💚