Category Archives: Eating

Outing to Florence

Yesterday morning I woke early to the sound of construction. Not so unusual around here. They had backed a truck down Via Grilli to take out debris from a house being renovated. Sounds pretty ho hum but look at how tight the space was!

We had planned a day trip or gite fuori la porta in Italian which means a short trip outside the gates, to Florence to visit our friends Ron and Linda. We met them around 5 years ago before they moved from Virginia to Florence. They are very happy there and we planned to meet them for lunch. We had not yet used the train to go so we drove to Terontola to the train station and took the 9:30AM train which arrived at just before 11AM. Nice trip. We met Ron and Linda and had a bottle of Prosecco in a lovely piazza at an outside table in a glass enclosed area. The weather was spectacular, in the mid 60s F and bright sun. Here is the Duomo under renovation in anticipation of a papal visit later this year.

I had asked Linda to take us somewhere where I could buy ingredients (foreign) that I can’t get in Umbria. I have forgotten the store name but will get it from her. I got lots of things I couldn’t have gotten to include Thai and mexican things. Here is a picture of my haul.

We had lunch at one of their favorites Trattoria Porcospino (porcupine). We could sit outside. The proprietor knows Ron and Linda and is a big USA booster but a little strange in an OK kind of way. The food was good and so was the company.

We walked to Ron and Linda’s apartment. On the way at an outside vendor along the leather market I spotted a nice leather tote bag. I had been wanting to get one and lamented that I had not sent any over with our stuff. This was much more fun. I bargained and am happy with my purchase. It is periwinkle blue and reversible so it can be a pale beige. Nice soft leather and it included a blue purse. Here it is!

When we went to our Italian lesson this morning my teacher remarked it was a color for spring. So OK with me. Bring it on! Our lesson was good (I guess). It is sometimes frustrating but I am trying. We have moved from 9AM to 10-12AM on Thursdays. Much more civilized hour and when we are done we can lunch. We went just over the Tuscan border to La Pieve Vecchia in Monterchi. Pretty old building with a lunch menu for 12 Euro to include 4 courses. And they were really good! We decided to become regulars and go after all of our classes…for the next 20 weeks!

Calagrana has reopened!

Bay leaves

One ingredient I’ve never found here is bay leaves. They just don’t have them in the store. Well I found out why. Everyone has a laurel tree and they just pick the leaves off!! I don’t have a tree but a friend brought a branch to me. Who’d have thought it!

Yesterday we had a big cold front come through. In the morning it was almost 60F but by afternoon it had dropped to near freezing. In the process we had a big hail storm and very strong winds.

This time last year we were just winding up our house hunting trip. A lot has changed since then!

Follow up

So today we returned to the Dipartimento di Salute to finalize our health insurance. We could not ‘jump the line’ as we thought but this day was far calmer with fewer people waiting. After only about 40 minutes we went in to see LL.

What a surprise! She was quite nice to us. But she really opened up when we began discussing restaurants that we had been to. I guess food is a subject close to her heart 🙂 given her girth! We were given cards and assigned a doctor. We asked for the one Susan and Gary have. The only glitch is that our Permissi run out in June so it is only good until June. We have to go start up our Permissi process again and then they will extend it until the end of the year. Our doctor has hours and you just drop in. I’ll let Luther go first so I see how it goes.

On Sunday we drove to Citta della Pieve. It is very close to the Tuscan border and is a very pretty hill town. I was impressed that it was a really active place with lots of people about. Nice bars and outside spaces. Here is one of the pretty streets.

We found one of the restaurants that we had read about called Zafferanno Pievese.

The menu had a surprise on it. Hamburger!

But WOW was it expensive. Note the price above. I guess since it was made from the famous Chianina beef with bernese sauce and to top it off the Famous Onions of Cannara. Perhaps it was worth the price. I resisted ordering it. Maybe if we go back. Below are our two appetizers. They were good but a lot of food. I did not care for my primi but maybe it was just the ingredients. Luther liked his steak.

It was a fun day!

January 2, 2015

We enjoyed our New Years Eve at Patrick’s Enotecca. He had a nice spread of food, some of which was from the Tyrol in northern Italy as his wife comes from there. It was paired with some wines from that region as well. The town shot off fireworks at midight which we watched until we were too cold. Afterwards we walked back into town and the band was in full swing. We headed on into our house while Susan and company stayed out and hopped up and down to the music as the Italians do. The noise was quite bearable and the cats seemed to have acclimated to the constant fireworks which everyone seems to have.

On January 1 we had a very nice New Year lunch with Susan and Gary and her sister, husband and Joseph and Paul. Very nice food catered by Colagranna. My cold caught up with me and I was a tired puppy afterwards and hit the sack early. Too much partying!

Today, January 2 I felt better but still not back to normal. Today was the day we had to drop off the Clown Car. We had decided we could live without a car for the time we needed to wait until our car was ready. We dropped the car at the train station in Perugia and then took the MiniMetro (only 2 blocks away) up to the top of the town. Then we wandered down to the Etruscan Museum that we had wanted to see. It was very good but a few more English write ups would have made me happier. After we were there a couple of hours and I was all Etruscan and Roman artifacted out we went up and had lunch at Pasticeria where we had eaten a couple of times before. The place was PACKED. It had always been pretty empty before but this time they had two big groups and lots of families with little children making it pretty chaotic. We had a nice lunch though and walked down to the OTHER train station. This station is a short line that only goes from Perugia to San Sepulcro. But it is pretty convenient and it dropped us off right in Umbertide.

Monday is the day Befana comes to town. In Italian folklore, Befana is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to St Nicholas or Santa Claus. But children get gifts from both Father Christmas and Befana. Lucky kids. I will keep a watch out for her arrival. Maybe grab a picture or two! But here she is as I could find her on the internet.

Next week we pick up our car… or we THINK we will. After all this is Italy. One never knows…

Thanksgiving!

I am a lucky person to have shared our American Thanksgiving, and my first one in Italy with my good American friends Susan and Gary and their guests from California and six of our Italian friends and two Italian children. It was an amazing feast! It has been documented in pictures below.

Alas, I was still cooking in the borrowed apartment as we are not quite ready to move into our place yet. My contribution to the meal was dinner rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The cranberries had crossed the ocean with Gina and Mark. I also decided to roast the little Cannara onions in balsamic vinegar, stock and herbs to share. I had to send Luther on an errand to buy a mixer and it was pouring rain. He manned up and walked to Formica and therefore made his contribution to the mashed potatoes.

We gathered at Susan’s and Gary’s apartment at about 12:30. Gary, Gina and Mark had gone up into the Niccone valley to Calagrana to pick up the turkey. Since none of us have a big oven Susan had arranged with the restaurant to obtain and cook our turkey. I might add it was the largest turkey any of us had EVER seen. 15 kilos or about 35 pounds! Eli, restaurant owner and British, had started the turkey at midnight and collaborated with her sister in Philadelphia on Skype. The turkey roasted for 12 hours. She also made some wonderful appetizers, a pork roast in case there wasn’t enough food (!) and a pie. She sent along the drippings for us to make gravy.

Susan’s beautiful table!!

We started the preparations and Simone, Simona and Fabio arrived with contributions of their own. Simona and Simone are Milanese transplants who live off the grid on a farm south of Umbertide. Fabio is a technical guy and also creates olive wood utensils, lamps, etc. Fabio was the most excited of everyone. He had seen our Thanksgiving on TV and this was his first actual one. Most of the pictures below are from him.

Antoinetta, Barbara, Emanuele and their boys arrived last. We had a prosecco toast and dug into the appetizers. Here are some pictures.

Next we dished up the Meal. Here is the ENORMOUS turkey which had the boys in total awe!

And the buffet with all of the dishes. I demonstrated to the Italians how to load up their plates and I was pleased to see they did so with enthusiasm.

Fabio’s plate and the table.

Onions.

Gravy.

Beans.

Mark stepped up to carve the bird.

And finally we all sat down to the feast. We gave a toast to our friendship and our ability to share a wonderful, international meal.

Luther had helped with the wine selections along with Gary and Mark. Susan had made a pumpkin pie. There were two other pies we were too stuffed to eat.

Cantine Aperte a San Martino

Yesterday was Sunday, November 16 and there was a festival called Cantine Aperte a San Martino or Cellars open for St. Martin. We had gotten a brochure with the participating wineries and a map from a winery we visited last week. It was organized by Movimento Turismo del Vino Umbria. We had planned to visit one or two wineries and then have lunch and then maybe visit another.

The weather was threatening. The first place we went was just south of Perugia and it was closed (!) and it was supposed to be participating. So we headed south near Todi. This one was called Roccafiore. It was quite an operation. When we arrived it was raining and after going inside where they have a gourmet restaurant, spa and hotel, we found out they, too were not opening the Cantina because of the rain. Shoot. We called and made reservations for lunch and decided to try one more. This one was called Tenuta San Rocco – a cluster of confusing buildings and it was POURING rain. Finally we found their make-shift tasting area which was in a newish building with the bottling machines. The man was very friendly and there was another guy and a young woman there. They not only served us wines but also two breads, a sweet, nutty cookie, and hot bruschetta and then they roasted chestnuts on a little brazier right there on the floor!

Chestnuts in a cup.

One of the wines was the Vino Novello which is almost exactly like Beaujolais Nouveau from France. Very young and meant to be drunk right away. It was fresh and good. They explained that it was due to the St. Martin festival that they had olive oil, chestnuts, and new wine as it is the tradition. I found it all charming. They harvest everything by hand. At the end Dottoressa Grassini who is the owner and enologist came and met us. She also was very welcoming. All in all a very fun experience.

New wine.

Off to lunch at Locanda Rovicciano in Castel Ritaldi. We found it in our Gambero Rosso Ristoranti d’Italia book. Excellent restaurant. We were seated in a room with a big fireplace. I bet it would be cozy in the winter. There were large Italian families dining and many children. It was fun watching them. The kids were pretty well behaved and could go outside and blow off steam while their parents ate and drank wine. The table in our room had four women and four men. The four men sat at the end of the table, then the four women all together, and then the kids. So strange. We would never seat ourselves like that in the States.

I had the quail eggs with white truffles. They were fried and place on top of toasted bread with shaved truffles. Yum!

Luther had Maltagliata which means “badly cut”. And it was very irregular. It had onions and bacon.

I had the spit roasted Quail for an entree and Luther had grilled lamb. He pronounced it the best lamb he’s had here. My Quail was tiny and crispy and smokey flavored and not too much food. It was wrapped in bacon and I am pretty sure roasted over a wood fire. Very Very good. My Quail.

Here is the sky just before we went into the restaurant. Spooky!

All in all a fun day. This coming week will see us moving into our own place, or so we hope. I finished unpacking what I could unpack so there are not so many boxes. We went shopping Saturday and bought a vacuum cleaner. A Dyson Animal. We hope that will help us keep up with the cat hair.

Beautiful Fall day!

Yesterday (Sunday) we decided to visit a restaurant with Susan and Gary that was recommended by our local Enotecca and also visit a winery in the Cannara area. This town grows the famous Cannara sweet onions to be found only here in the world! The weather was just spectacular for November 9. Warm enough for shirt sleeves and with that lovely Autumn slanting sunlight on the grapevines that have turned red and yellow.

First the winery. We headed up into the hills and stopped at an ultra-modern winery. It was not the one we intended to visit which was further down the road. This one, Tenuta Castelbuono had an enormous tasting room and some sculptures. I cannot imagine how much it must have cost. Perhaps it is um, money laundering? Anyway, they had two Sagrantino wines which we tasted and bought. Here are pictures.

ENORMOUS tasting room.

Click to appreciate the colors of Autumn.

The structure was designed by a sculptor. Very unusual.

After we visited this winery there were few others open on Sunday so we went to Cannara of onion fame. We drove into this little town which is situated on the Topino river, another St. Francis town with two medieval churches and the site where he gave his sermon to the birds. It used to be to be a lake until it was drained in the Middle Ages. We passed a sign advertising onions or Cipolla for sale. Couldn’t pass that up – world famous and all! We rang the bell and the lady came out and took us into the shed. As we entered the gate another car stopped with a family inside and asked us if they sold onions. We said yes and he was thrilled and gave out a Bellisimo and stopped to buy also. Only Italians would get this excited to buy onions. The lady began scooping onions into a bag, and scooping, and scooping! 2 kilos later (about 4 lbs) we left. Fun.

Now onto our restaurant called Hazienda Ristorante Cafe. What else would you name an Italian restaurant? It was one of those holiday places. It had apartments to rent for holiday makers and a swimming pool, great views of Assisi up on the mountain. We ordered the 4 course degustation menu. After we ordered the owner warned us that it was a LOT of food. Uh oh. Well it was a lot but we managed it. No picture, sorry. We had an antipasti with several fried specialties like onion rings (famous onions!) fried sage leaves etc. Next was a pretty plate with three fried dough circles on which were three poached (famous) onions on top of a parmesan cream sauce with drizzled balsamic (heaven!). Next were Raviolis in a parmesan cream sauce. The Secundo or main course was supposed to be horse but we couldn’t deal with that and had them substitute lamb, grilled, not great. Over done and gristly but thankfully not a lot to eat. We skipped dessert. Burp!

Back in Umbertide they were having a big market with clothes, jewelry, roasted chestnuts and peanuts. Happening place. Pictures.

Chestnuts being roasted.

Today, Monday, always a slow day. BUT it was an unusual Monday because our kitchen was due today!! I went over to the house to grab some things I needed and take a little walk. They were washing the floors in preparation for the kitchen.

We also got good news from Gary that Luther’s long-in-coming medicines had been delivered to him (2 months!). It is so funny, Luther’s name was on the package, we had my sister send it to Emanuele’s office but no-one was there. BUT they knew other Americans lived nearby and they MUST know the recipient so went to Gary’s house. He paid the duty and we met on the Piazza to take delivery and pay. Also Susan brought me my share of the Famous Cannara onions. Now I need to figure out how to fix them to take advantage of their special qualities.

Here is the Pedini truck delivering our KITCHEN!!!

I’ll go over tonight to see the progress. So exciting!!

A couple of trips here and there

Sunday we decided to go with Susan and Gary somewhere. Susan sent an email to check out a town called Monterchi as they had passed it on their way to Abruzzo. I did some research and found a little restaurant that got some nice ink called Trattoria al Travato.

Sunday November 2 was a gorgeous day. Hard to believe it was November. We found the town only about 30 minutes from Umbertide. It is a small hilltop town, but a kind of low hilltop town. Not way, way up like most. We could actually drive right up to the top on a very tiny road. The restaurant sits in the little piazza on the very top of the hill. It is very pretty with plane trees planted all around the edges which softens it. The trees still had most of their bright yellow leaves.

There was only one restaurant and it was ours. Unfortunately we had forgotten to call so all the outside tables (yes is was nice enough to sit outside) were taken. We got seated haphazardly in the enotecca. We got a bottle of wine and chose from the small but good menu. The smells of grilling meat wafting from the kitchen were killing us. So, of course, we ordered way too much food! Still it was great.

The good news was, after the pasta course we got seated outside. So nice. We got two plates of bruschetta to share, we all got house made pastas and all were excellent. And we all got the grilled veal. Superb. It was a very nice lunch.

After lunch we wandered over and found a lovely little jewelry store owned by a very nice young couple. He was a very skilled gold/silversmith. Susan and I bought bracelets. They told a tale that is repeated all over Italy. They want to immigrate to Australia mainly because there is no opportunity for their children in Italy. Very sad to have to move away from all you know, all your family because Italy crushes the small business and families.

We walked up to the bell tower and the ramparts with lovely views.

I laid low all Monday with a cold. It was an odd cold. Came on very suddenly during the night with a searingly sore throat and quickly moved into the sinus and nasal passages. I was stuffed up all day Monday but by bedtime I was no longer stuffed up and got a good night sleep and felt fine today. How weird is that?!

So we proceeded with the plan to go to Orvieto to visit a winery and have lunch. We bought a couple of cases from the winery called Decugnano Dei Barbi. We drove to Orvieto – always a sight up on its tuffa cliffs. The elevators and escalators had no power today! Just our luck. So we hoofed it up about 8 stories. We wandered around town, stopping to get reservations at Il Palomba for lunch. We enjoyed window shopping and stopping in the wine shops and then headed to lunch.

We have been to Il Palomba once before with the Gang o Six (sister, husband, 2 friends and us). I remember it being popular but today they must have turned away as many people as got tables. It was as good as I remembered. We had pastas and secondi. Luther got the lamb and I got the filet with green peppercorn sauce. Both were excellent. Here is a picture of the filet.

For a wine Luther chose Gatto Gatto which means Cat Cat because we have two cats. It was a very nice Orvieto wine.

Also a miracle happened today. when I opened my computer to download my pictures it asked me if I wanted to update my software. I thought a second and then I realized I must be connected to the internet! Sure enough ZyXEL (wifi name) is BACK! Who knows why but I took advantage of it to update the blog with out Luther’s help with the pictures. Who knows how long it will last!?

November 1st

Well, here it is November already. Yesterday day on the way to the bank we passed a bar with two carved pumpkins. Last night out on the piazza the shops were being visited by lots of little witches and caped crusaders! So Halloween is alive and well in Italy!

It has gotten pretty chilly lately so we’ve been using the stuffa. That’s the little stove in the apartment. You load it up with pellets of wood and it feeds them into the hopper slowly.

What have we been doing… Well on Thursday we took a trip to Norcia. We also visited a small town called Sellano on the way. It was a place where I had fallen in love with a house before we came over. It is a lovely little town. Very nicely kept. BUT it is devilishly hard to get to. I am glad I gave it a miss.

Norcia is a really nice little town that is known for it’s cured meats, truffles, lentils and faro. We walked about and visited a couple of churches, went into some shops and bought some of the specialties and then had lunch! Here are some photos, first of the town, then lunch.

The restaurant was called la Cenoloco. They were very proud that they used only local foods from just around Norcia. It was pretty quirky and very tiny. Enjoyed the experience.

Apartmment
I dropped by the apartment after five or six days. They have cleaned up most of the trash and swept the floors in the bedrooms and hall. Probably preparing to refinish the floors. They have to do that in two steps. First the back of the house while it’s empty. Then move everything in the living room back to the back and paint and finish the floors in there. Other than the lights it is mostly done now. Here are a few pictures that don’t really tell you much. Shows the new paint and cleaned up rooms.

Nancy Goes to Italy

A record of an American's dream to live in Umbria

Category Archives: Eating

Outing to Florence

Calagrana has reopened!

Bay leaves

Follow up

January 2, 2015

Thanksgiving!

Cantine Aperte a San Martino

Beautiful Fall day!

A couple of trips here and there

November 1st

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