What is it about the sunlight in Autumn? Like suddenly the shadows are longer, darker, different. The mountains have a clarity that they didn’t have in July. Today was a perfect Autumn day. The sun was doing that certain something it does in September and October. I can’t get enough. We went to Calagrana for the first time in I don’t know how long. It was delicious as usual. The pictures are along the way or from their terrace. Just LOOK at that sky!
TobaccoCalagranaTobacco.
This is the picture I grabbed outside Calagrana. The view is always lovely. Ely’s flowers are always beautiful.
Lunch with friends today. I tried the winter salad with anchovies and the venison stew with a pastry top. Both were yummy and autumnal.
Overall, it was an outstanding day. We had delicious food with old friends on a glorious fall day. What’s not to like?!
This week we were invited to join our Italian famiglia for a Thai dinner. Vera’s birthday was last Sunday and for a present her family gave her the gift of a Thai chef who came to her house and cooked a meal for us all. She invited friends and her two daughters (who chose the menu) were there as well as Graziano, her husband. The other guests were Nicolai and Annette, from Denmark whom we have met many times, and Nik and Henrietta who I had heard of but never met. Nik is a pretty famous artist. He is British and has an estate here in Umbria. They were super nice. If you wish to look him up his name is Nic Fiddian Green. He does primarily sculpture and his subject is horses. In fact he is exhibiting in a town named Middleburg in Virginia near where I used to live next year.
Anyway, the chef was a diminutive Thai woman and her caucasian husband helper. The menu was three antipasti, one primi, and two secondi. I took pictures of my favourites.
I accidentally ate a sliver of red pepper and it was HOT! once I had stuffed a bunch of rice in my mouth and recovered I told Desiree not to eat that! But she was curious. I picked up a piece and said just taste a tiny piece. Well it turned out it was a sweet pepper. So she went to the plate and picked up another piece. She must have thought I was crazy, and she popped it into her mouth. it is funny, the lag from first taste to when the heat hits, but it did.
It was a fun meal. I like that Vera is super adventurous when it comes to food, She is adventurous in most ways. She loves to travel and see new countries. As do her two daughters. She is inhibited by Graziano who is by no means adventurous. But he did like the dumplings filled with sausage. The meal had a nice amount of spice. Thanks Vera, for the invite! And buon compeanno! ~~~~~~~~ Then Luther and I decided to have a sushi lunch at the place we went to in the summer, Shiso. It is relatively new in town and is finding its footing. The menu was completely different this time. It tells us it is learning its audience and what they will eat. The last time the menu was more complicated. It has been simplified and streamlined. We decided to get the 16 piece chef selection. I was also intrigued by the Poke bowls. They had three sizes which allowed you to pick the protein, the sauce, and the extras. I may try that next time.
I leave you with a picture of our Simba. He had to see the vet this week. He is 16 and that comes with problems of old age. And don’t I know it! He is a sweety.
Montefalco is the capital of the Sagrantino DOC wine producing area of Umbria and this weekend it was the epicenter of the completed grape harvest. Every year they have tastings and events culminating in a fun, hokey parade (of sorts). We just happened to have made reservations for our group of friends who enjoy lunches together. Then, yesterday I heard the ”parade” was starting at 3pm. I knew what it was about because I had attended this festival once before.
We all arrived and had a great table in the Piazza del comune. The main public space in the small hill-town. It was a gorgeous autumn day. As we sat there choosing our food and getting wine the other tables filled with groups and families. The hum of conversation and laughter filled the air. We asked ourselves more than once what it is about going out for a meal in beautiful weather surrounded by Italians that was different from every other place on earth. You can dine outside in nice weather in most cities, but you’ll never get the happy vibe you will in Italy. We love living here.
Here are some photos of the food, the piazza and the Harvest Festa. It is pretty clear the participants have been sampling the harvest wine! and having fun, of course.
The Piazza before.
The Lunch.
Our table.Appetiser of roasted peppers and parboiled onions on a bed of tonno sauce. mmmmTagliatelle with Funghi. Not my favorite.My dessert. Inside my dessert.TiramisuAmazing dessert of three things.
The Harvest Festival. It consisted primarily of tractors of all shapes and sizes pulling wagons full of celebrating people usually with a grape press and plates of food which was shared with the crowd. Very loud music accompanied each float.
Ciao ragazzi! I know, I know and I feel really bad about being Missing-In-Action. But I have some pretty good excuses 😉. First off, I have had, and still am having issues with the website. It is down intermittently and this makes it hard to make updates. I am still working with my ISP. They are pretty inept.
Then, I got a mean virus that was going around. Not COVID. But that is going around here too. I ran a high fever, 102F or 38.9C. That is higher than most fevers I have had. I had a headache and intestinal upset. I took ibuprofen and checked in with my medico who said it was going around and she had many patients with the same symptoms. After 3 days the fever and headache subsided but the intestinal upset lasted a week. The worst was that, unlike most weekends, we had a lot of plans for this one. I, sadly, missed our entire Otto Cento festa. I had, planned to meet new residents and friends to show them around. Luther had to be my stand-in. But they got me some pretty sunflowers to cheer me up. 🙂. Then, Sunday, we had plans for lunch with our lunch bunch, the gang o six in Montefalco at our favorite restaurant, L’Alchemista. That, too had to be canceled.
Anyway, all that is past and since then we had our annual street fair which is non-stop vendors from the train station past our house. Probably 10 blocks. I watched from our aerie. And once I got over my malady I began to cook again. I had had no appetite during the illness. I grilled a few times outside on the wood fired BBQ. A whole grilled fish one night and I got very adventurous and made a Lebanese dinner. I made home made pitas which cannot be found here. They were good enough for my first try. And with them we had tzatziki and fresh tomatoes with sliced new onions and a kebab of spiced ground beef and pork. It should’ve been lamb but well, that’s not easy to find. I grilled the kebabs and it was a yummy dinner, and different!
I worked a shift at Books for dogs and someone donated some art which I really liked, so I bought two. I love them.
I always grow a pepper plant or two. This year I tried Tabasco. Tiny little heat bombs. I’ve been tossing them into stews etc and they really perk it up. The photo is after I harvested most of the ripe red ones, which were many. My tomato plants are still producing but have slowed down. The Sicilian one gives lots of small tomatoes. The beefsteak gave a lot of big juicy tomatoes but now it has stopped. There are a number of still growing green ones that I hope will mature. Our weather is the terrific autumn weather we always get here. Our fall season is long and perfect.
Last week we attended the annual silent auction that is held by Books for Dogs every year. They get donations all year and save the best ones for the auction. It was combined with a wine tasting. I had not been to one before. They published a catalog so I had picked out a couple things I was interested in and I was successful. I bought a pretty agate and glass vintage necklace, and a contemporary carved stone rhinoceros. It weighs 3 kilos. I have another soapstone collection of Inuit soapstone carvings and this reminded me of them, but much larger.
We have a few things planned for the future. We rescheduled our lunch with the Gang for the 21st. And we will finally get to Calagrana with other friends we haven’t seen in a while. Tomorrow we are trying a restaurant nearby we have not ever been to. We will enjoy this gorgeous fall weather. I hope you do too, wherever you are! Ciao amici!
Umbertide, previously known as La Fratta, is gearing up for our big festa— Otto Cento. 28-29-30-31 August. It’s a great festival which reenacts the creation of Italy in 1862 called the Risorgimento. Entertainment, competitions, music, food all in keeping with that era. Stilt walkers, street grinders, dancing, cannons! Garibaldi, the briganti and the ladies of the night! Our town produced an excellent video of the festa. Here is a link. Hopefully it will work for you.
Now that I am back home with all my cooking things and spices I have been trying some new recipes. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take photos. One night I made my own tostada bowls out of flour tortillas. In the oven. It was a bit finicky but it came out nice. Brown and crispy. I used them as bowls. I made a mix of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions, avocado and a can of tuna. The sauce was made of lime juice from a whole lime, garlic, spicy peppers, mayonnaise. I tried out our peppers that I grew this year. Tabascos. Wow, they are hot. When I minced and mixed the two I had harvested into the mayo, lime garlic it was perfect. Spicy, but not too spicy. I tossed the other ingredients with this mix. It was really tasty, and pretty too. I wish I had taken photos! I also made ceviche which was nice.
August is winding down. The days are noticeably shorter 😔. Enjoy what is left of summer!
We spent the final days taking it easy. We had used up all the food and we went out to eat a couple times. The last Friday we had a very nice lunch in a lakeside restaurant called Jilly Beach. We had a really nice time and had some good food. Beef for a change. It was good.
We left Austria at about one PM Saturday. We had reservations in a hotel just north of Bologna. We wanted to break the trip up since it was a big holiday weekend with lots of anticipated traffic. It took four hours. The only traffic we hit was getting on the Italian toll road just south of the Austrian border. What a mess. We had a very long backup. When we got to the toll plaza they had reconfigured the gates to give more booths to the northbound cars. This made us southbound cars have a real backup. Ours was much longer than the northbound one.
I had tried three different hotels for this overnight, all with their own restaurant. It would be easier to stay and eat in the same place. BUT I was thwarted all three times in that the hotel was open but the restaurants were closed for the holidays. So, we decided we would find a place to eat nearby. The hotel was nice enough. It had air con which was important because it had gone up to 40C on this day (104F).
The restaurant was called Pippi. It was definitely a local basic place, but hey! We were in the Emiglia Romagna which purportedly has the best food in Italy. So they don’t allow bad restaurants. It was very plain, almost cafeteria-like. The people were so friendly. You would have thought they had been expecting us all day! Something told me we weren’t in Austria anymore 😉 We had the seafood antipasto to split and then we each got the fried sardines. Delicious. Picture of the dining room full of locals.
We got up and went down to breakfast. We seem to be the only guests! Maybe because the Trattoria is the big draw here, so no one would come just to stay. We left about 9:30. I happened to be awake to see the sunrise. Pretty.
~~~~~~~ We are back home in lovely, friendly and messy Umbertide. Our wonderful house and cat sitter said she had a great and relaxing time. And guess what, we still have tomatoes coming in. A LOT of them. So I am happy. We have settled back in. Grocery shopped, worked in the garden, did laundry. So nice to be home.
My thoughts about our trip. We stayed in Werzer Strandcasino Hotel. It is all apartments. The ground floor ones, of which ours was one, are the biggest. Beautiful landscaping. Lawn going to the lake was lovely. Views were nice. The apartment was austere. Not one piece of art or decor. Kitchen OK with minimal pots and pans. Nice Austrian glassware. Austria is known for its crystal. The place was all families, which is not my preferred thing. The guests were all Austrian or German. Not warm people as a whole. We saw a few cars from the Netherlands. Only met one group of Americans in a restaurant. One family lived in Barcelona, the other lived in Portugal. Unusual.
Big issue was parking. The lot had the narrowest places with a wall opposite making it hard to maneuver into the space. The last week we were unable to use our spot because the new vehicle in the spot next to us was so big and he had parked barely within the lines but way over on one side making it possible for us to park but not possible for the driver to exit. We managed to squeeze into the car and drive out. But it is easier to get into that low car than to exit. So we parked the last few days in the area in front of reception, with permission.
After all is said and done, I wouldn’t do a trip as long as this again. We did have fun but I missed friendly people and good food, and, of course, my home. We did have great wines, all Austrian. They make wonderful wines un Austria.
We are winding down our vacation. We will leave here Saturday and drive south to just north of Bologna to break the trip in two, mainly because I erred in my planning and am traveling on about the busiest travel days in Italy. Feragosto. The main holiday in a month that is one big holiday here. So I figured I couldn’t avoid the traffic, but I could make each day trip shorter. We shall see if that works!
Sturgeon moon
We took a trip around the lake to a fancy restaurant that was not worth the cost in my opinion. I’m not going to inundate you with food pictures but I’ll include a few. There are captions.
The view was nice of the lake.Loved these little flamingo tables to hold your purseMy first course – goose liver pate. Second courseLoved the dessert box. They bring it closed and then open up all the compartments. They were yummy but we were stuffed
Here, we pretty much hang in our town of Pörtschach. The weather is hot, hazy and muggy. I can no longer see the Alps 😕 We also visited the next town towards the Italian border, Villach. And then we picked a typical Austrian place for lunch on the way back called Gasthaus Fruhmann. That was fun. I had my first and last Schnitzel of this trip there. Yummy. Tonight we visit a typical Austrian place here in town that we’ve been to before. We have eaten at most places here in town. These pictures are from Gasthaus Fruhmann.
I have been cooking in the apartment maybe half the time. It has been eye opening. The ingredients are just not up to the standards I’m used to. But also, I don’t have much to work with here. I bought thyme and oregano. That’s the extent of my herbs. I brought good Umbrian olive oil and pepperoncino, spicy peppers I cannot live without those. I always bring knives. The pots and pans are minimal. It is pleasant to eat on our terrace, because it gets very quiet at night, and by that, at six PM everybody disappears. There are a lot of families and that means a lot of children. Daytime is noisy with them.
I will do a recap of my feelings and observations about this trip once I’m finally back home in my beloved Umbertide.
For those of you who know me you won’t be surprised at my excitement. I found sweet corn! And in Austria of all places. I freely admit I am a corn snob and connoisseur. I adore sweet corn and I miss it a lot, living in Italy. They grow a lot of corn for animal feed and to make polenta, It is the same in most of Europe. They only grow it as animal food. But not for humans to eat. When I have seen any it has been picked for so long all its sweet juices have turned to starch. I don’t normally even try it if I do see it anymore.
One year I borrowed a friends land to try to grow my own. I had brought seeds from the US, three different kinds. I was moderately successful. Here is the culmination of my quest that year in my post called Corn. That same year I also tried “container corn” on our terrace. Sadly that was not so successful. Post on the Terrace Corn.
Anyway, yesterday we made the trip to the farmers market and there was corn! I took a chance and bought three ears. As everything in this country, it was the neatest, tidiest corn I have ever seen. Not a tassel in sight. Here are pictures.
My report is positive. It was very fresh, sweet and juicy. Maybe not “quite” up to US standards, but close enough and we devoured it with our meal las night ~~~~~~~~ Starting to head into the homestretch of this, too long, stay in Austria. I miss my home and my messy Italy. Next week we head back.
Last week in Portschach was pretty quiet. There were several days of rain. I did take some walks along the promenade and took some pictures of the interesting architecture. We ate out a couple times.
On Friday we were off on another excursion. This time our destination was the Bergenland in Styria. This is a wine region. We drove along the very good roads that are in Austria. We haven’t found a bad road yet, not even the small ones. The first part of the trip after leaving Klagenfurt is some of the prettiest scenery I have ever seen. The alps are just to the south, then it becomes rolling hills, farms and dense forests. A very, very lot of forests with straight pines towering into the sky. You can see nothing within after the first fifty feet or so they are so dense. I loved driving through that part.
About 12:30, we decided to find lunch. I put in Google maps “restaurants” and there were many in towns off of the Autobahn. I randomly picked one which got a score of 4.8 and figured it would be a nice Gasthaus. We got off the highway and drove down pretty roads with great views across a large valley. The GPS took us to a village called Ligist. It was the quintessential Austrian village and the Restaurant Wörgötter was right on the main square.
There was a covered porch and we found a table outside. The locals looked very curious. The waitress was a beautiful young girl, slim with porcelain skin. We got some wine and the menus. Luckily I still remember a lot of my German and can read menus in German without any trouble. I decided to get more adventurous and I ordered two things I wasn’t familiar with. The appetizer is hard to describe but it had beets and kohlrabi as main ingredients. It was delicious. Then I ordered a braised veal shoulder dish which also was very good. Luther got the salmon sashimi and the cod. The plates were beautifully presented. It was not your typical Gasthaus! Sehr gut. I didn’t realize at the time it was actually a Michelin one star restaurant! 😳
While in the restaurant a couple came in. I couldn’t help marvelling at her outfit. It was a very short, flouncy dress and red knee socks and shoes. Austrian fashion I guess.
We drove onward past Graz and the countryside got uglier. Eventually as we entered Styria and drove further it began to get prettier but remained very flat. When we got near our apartment we stopped at a vinotek and bought some wine and sat outside with a couple glasses in the pretty, well manicured lawn area with many small buildings alongside it. Two had thatched roofs which I never saw here before.
We had read about a lodging option in the wine region with many of the old winery buildings being converted into cottages you can rent. They are called Kellerstöckl. Ours is the Kellerstöckl Andrea and Walter Mittl. Pretty little place. Tiny inside with a kitchen living dining area and a small bedroom and bath. Nicest part is the covered porch with grape vines, laden with grapes all over it. Nice big table and a view of the vinery grapes.
Saturday morning around 10:45 we planned to go and visit some wineries and the have lunch. Luther did some research and found 4 places he liked and off we went. It was cool and overcast. None of the places were more than 15 kilometers so not far. The roads were good. Some were very narrow. For the most part the land was flat except for the best wine area and there was a large hill on which were planted many vines. Here are pictures of some roads and also views from that hilltop.
We visited all four of Luther’s picks and, although TripAdvsor said they were open…they were not. So, by this time it was lunchtime and since our choice for lunch was ALSO closed I got on google maps and found a few in a town 17 kilometers away. The town was Grosspetersdorf. It had two choices. We decided on the Gasthaus. It was good enough. We sat outside and each had fish.
We stopped at a grocery store and bought some meat for our picnic this evening, and then we went to a winery we had visited that morning which showed they were open after two. It was a nice place. Luther bought nine bottles. We will take them back to Portschach to enjoy. We may be able to squeeze in some bottles when we return to Umbertide but the Porsche is pretty packed so can’t bring many.
Sunday. Another overcast day. We had a lazy morning and Luther researched places to eat. He found Restaurate Ratschen. It is an interesting enterprise with spa and sauna and 24 small cabins 24 square meters each arranged in a circle around a common area where they serve breakfast. I would have stayed there had I ever heard of it. Anyway, the restaurant was lovely. it was situated up on a hill with great views. Lots of glass ad wood.
The people were very nice. Lots of young people and an apprentice who was very young and eager to learn and the owner/manager was super kind to him and seemed happy to have him for 3 months. Our meal was very nice and the Austrian wines were spectacular. I had a appetizer of watermelon with cheese. it tasted more like tomato than watermelon and the cheese was imperceptible. It was still good if not as expected. Luther had beef tartar. We both had trout for an entree.
We decided to forgo dessert and have an after lunch drink. I got a sweet local wine which was much like port which I really liked – it was very creamy. Luther got Schnapps.
Tomorrow we return to Portschach. We will leave early-ish and drive straight through. It was a nice visit but I doubt I will return. It is so quiet here.
Random Observations * Very little is old here except some of the farmsteads. Most of the cities were bombed in the war so they are rebuilt. Things were damaged in Italy, but not like here. * The towns, except for the biggest ones, have no services at all. No stores or shops or restaurants. They are only residential towns with homes shuttered from the street so it is all very stark and empty. Uninviting. * After Italy, this place is irritatingly tidy. 😁 Will it be hard to go back to messy, untidy Italy…nah! * There are more bells in Austria than Italy. * Both apartments have an abundant selection of egg cups of all things! * Maybe not so surprising is that the glassware in both apartments is high quality crystal. Austria is known for its crystal. I have an entire set I bought years ago in Vienna. It was a gift from my Mom and Dad.
Graz is only two hours from Portschach and we had never been. So we decided to take a weekend trip there. It is the second largest city in Austria. We stayed in the Schlossberghotel. Just at the north end of the old town. The building dates from the 1500s and was originally an artisan wood workshop for the aristocracy. Now a boutique hotel known as the art hotel. The owner has commissioned over 100 works of art specifically for places in the hotel. Our room has several. Here are a couple hotel pics.
Gift on arrivalI got a suite. it is the biggest room we ever had. But not expensive.
After we arrived we checked in and went for a walk. We stopped for a glass of wine in a plaza near us but it was also home to the amazing staircase up the Schlossberg to the clock tower and where the castle used to be. There is a lift and a funicular if you don’t want to do the stairs.
We decided on a place for dinner. Schmidhofer im Palais. We had a nice time. We enjoyed the ambiance. Not fancy. Good people watching. I had fried burrata with tomatoes and watermelon and branzino.
Schnaps
We woke to pouring rain. it was predicted. But it was a deluge. We had breakfast and stayed in for a while. We finally donned our raincoats and went down the street to the Graz museum. Mostly history of Graz but a special exposition had some art too. It was interesting. Graz was bombed during the war by the Americans. 30% of the city was destroyed. I delved into it a bit and found that Austria is a neutral nation. The Russians liberated them and in order for them to remain independent they agreed to that. They are not members of NATO.
Rainy morning
After the museum it had cleared so we went for a walk to check out the Murinsel. Built in 2003 in conjunction with the European Capital of Culture celebrations. They have an outdoor arena where they screen movies.
Then we walked into the altstadt where we explored a shopping street and visited the main square. There were some exquisitely decorated and painted buildings. The sun had come out and so had the people.
Door to an old bakeryDecorated buildings
Time for lunch! Luther chose Steirisches Wirtshaus, a very traditional restaurant. There was a great outside garten but it was very wet so we stayed in the outside, undercover area. I had forelle, which is trout served whole. One of my favourites. So good.
This concludes my trip report on our short trip to Graz. I really liked the city. Tomorrow we head back to Portschach. Our home away from home. Our house sitter sent us pictures of what we are missing. I miei pomodori.
