Category Archives: everyday life in Umbria

Bathroom

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Hi everyone! I haven’t written a post for a while. I’ve been a bit busy with doctor appointments. I mentioned one small thing I wondered if there was medication for to my doctor. Well, from there it has spiraled right down the rabbit hole!

First, I will say I am feeling just fine so don’t worry. A couple small things not quite normal in my blood tests led to further blood tests and I mentioned my sister is being treated for Multiple Myeloma right now which does raise my risk level. So in an abundance of caution she recommend I visit a hematologist. Which I did last week. She didn’t seem concerned (definitely not Multiple Myeloma) but she wanted MORE blood tests, an ultrasound and a chest X-ray. Each thing needed to be done separately and entailed a trip to the hospital in Città di Castello, about 20 miles north. I like the hospital, there’s easy parking and there is zero traffic so it’s not terrible. Anyway. I’ve done the X-ray and ultrasound and the technicians both said no problems found. So just the last blood work to do. I guess I’m glad they are so thorough but it’s a lot of trouble! So that’s my world right now.

Otherwise, we have been having typical March weather it’s been warm for a while but now we are having a cold snap. It will go below freezing tonight so I covered my citrus trees. But I have a wonderful little display of Narcissus which are beautiful and up-lifting. Completely enjoying them.

Bathroom. Well, it’s been moving slowly but we are getting closer. My architect has returned from a trip to Sri Lanka on an architectural and garden tour. Maybe things will begin to go faster now. So the progress so far. Almost all the tiles are done and the floor is done. There is a niche in the wall I wanted and they were going to frame it in the same stone we are using for the shower and sink counter. Well, they cut the stone wrong so it’s waiting for the new pieces to be cut. Then the walls will be finished. Irma said the cabinet for under the sink is finished and they will be putting that in this week. The glass guy will come soon to measure for the glass and mirrors. Next week the plumber and electrician are being sorted to come. So we are getting there but aa always…piano, piano.

We have had some fun too. We invited friends who live here part time over to lunch last week. It was great fun. We met a new couple from Australia for aperitivo, also part timers here. They have a villa nearby and I am excited to see it sometime when they return. Other friends are just beginning to return for the spring. All of them part timers here. Winter is always very slow.

So that’s all the news fit to print! Take care everyone. Ciao!

Happy Women’s day!

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Today is International Women’s day. Here in Italy, women are gifted a sprig of mimosa to celebrate. I worked at Books for Dogs this morning and the town was festooned with mimosas. There were big buckets of it on traffic islands, and in front of stores. Women were walking everywhere carrying their mimosa. It is said the mimosa was chosen because it manages to flourish even in difficult conditions and is associated with women’s own resilience and ability to win their rights. Here’s mine. Gifted to me when I went into the Farmacia to fill a prescription 🙂

I normally park on the other side of the river when I drive to town on market days. The river was pretty and I saw my first fisherman!

My little kumquat tree is loaded with fruit. Most isn’t quite ripe yet. You can tell when they are ready because they get extra orange and soften. I have a great recipe for Chicken and Kumquats which I made tonight. My tree.

We have a plethora of pizzerie in our town 😁. They have all different types of pizza. From the super thin, almost cracker crust that is called Roman style to the thicker crust of the Neapolitan style. Last Thursday we went to Degusto which is very near us and Neapolitan in style. Delicioso. This is Luther’s. Mine was prettier but I didn’t take a picture before I destroyed it, by cutting it. Did you know they don’t cut pizza into slices here? You get the whole pie, uncut. I use scissors to cut it if I get it “to go”.

No bathroom updates to speak of. They finally got the wooden form that they needed to use to cut the tiles around the shower stone. But that’s as far as they got. I hope next week we have more progress. This has been a major roadblock. I realize things happen on “Italian Time” here but this is getting tiresome. Oh well. Piano, piano.

It’s Marzo!

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A gray Sunday but it’s my normal laundry day, because the electricity is cheapest on a Sunday, so I’m just enjoying a quiet day. Starting Tuesday the temperatures are really warming up. Daytime from 15 to 18 or about 60 to 65. Not too bad.
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This past week I made progress on the inscrutable Italian health system. It can be hard to get appointments here, especially if you want a location or a doctor specifically. But my doctor wants me to see a Hematologist because she has some concerns about my blood tests. She specified the appointment was urgent and was to be within ten days. Mainly this was to speed it up, not because it was really urgent. I went to the CUP in the Farmacia (they make appointments) who said I would get an SMS with the appointment. Which I did, the next day! So I’ve got an appointment next week. I’m not concerned at this time but it needs to be checked I guess. And I really am only writing about the process, which involves a steep learning curve. I am on the wait list for two other appointments. If it’s not an emergency it can take some time.
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Meanwhile I worked at Books for Dogs/Libri per i Cani yesterday. I’ve written before but this time I took a few pictures so you could get an idea of the shop. The charity supports two canile which are kennels for rescued dogs plus one other which rescues anything that needs help. I love that she, and she does this all alone, does this.

We get a constant stream of people either donating things for us to sell or those who love to browse for a bargain. We keep busy checking people out and also pricing and displaying the goods. There are a lot of regulars too. Some I like. Some are a bit of a pain. Yesterday a woman came in just at closing and spent a lot of time browsing. She had several things but wanted me to throw in a set of measuring cups that were priced at €2.00. Well, I wasn’t in the mood at that time so I looked at her and said “it’s for the animals”. She put them back. 🙄 Here is the shop. You may notice the Italians are dressed like for the Arctic? Stocking caps and puffer coats. Yeah. They wear these until June. They dress for the calendar, not the weather. To each their own, right?! 🤣

You can get some bargains there for sure. People sometimes bring in Armani designer items and other designer things. The goods do tend to turn over pretty quickly. They also sell furniture. They rent a garage for the bigger things and there is a catalog with pictures. This three piece set of antique inlaid dresser and bedside tables is in the shop. They are asking only €240 for the three.

They also sponsor fun things like quiz nights and bingo at a local restaurant. The quizzes are in English but the bingo is very popular with the Italians too.
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Bathroom. Slow but steady progress. It is amazing how much work goes into a small bathroom. Floor with spacers.

Grouted floor.

Grouted wall.

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Italians have something similar to our chicken soup. Not literally but the food that you eat when you’re not feeling great. Called pasta in bianca, pastina in brodo, riso in bianco or maybe straciatella (egg drop soup). All light and comforting. I made my version this week. It is a soup of pasta in a nice home made chicken broth with a bit of greens. Very much a classic and light comfort food. This is mine 😋

Buona domenica a tutti!

Feels like springtime

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We are heading into a slight warming trend. The earliest fruit trees are blooming pale pink. The almonds are white. It’s uplifting. We decided to go to Calagrana for lunch. They have begun to open for Sunday lunch again. It was fun. There were three tables of English speakers and two tables of Italians, one of which was 14 people. So I think we English speakers were overpowered today. This is a change from the past when it was primarily English speakers. I’m actually very happy about this. We saw some friends from North Carolina who have a home here. And the other table were all Books for Dogs people. The big Italian table were having fun and VERY loud. As always, the women sat at one end of the table, the men, at the other. 🙄

The food was delicious. I chose the Crostone topped with roasted peppers, anchovies, capers and tomatoes. So good. The combination of sweet peppers and tomatoes, tart capers and salty anchovies really worked. Picture by Ely of the ingredients.

Luther had the house smoked Umbrian trout with pickles and toast. No picture. Our second course choices were lamb chops for Luther and Guancia (beef cheeks) on puréed potatoes both really good.

Calagrana had a tough week this week with the loss of Archie, everyone’s favorite terrier. He worked the front of the house and had his own bench, which if you sat there, you shared with him. He had been at Calagrana for all the years I had been going and I really missed his sweet little self today. 😔 RIP Archie. 🌈

Bathroom. Last week they began the process of waterproofing the floor and walls. This is the future shower space. We are getting closer to the “pretty stuff” 🙂. Here are the latest pictures.

Buona Domenica a tutti!

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!)

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.

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!

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.

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. 😋