Category Archives: everyday life in Umbria

Energy shortages this winter…

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As most people know, energy costs have always been high in Italy because it buys most of it’s energy from other countries. Always has. They have promoted sustainable energy and give big supplements for solar and there are a lot of wind farms. This is a drop in the bucket but better than nothing.

Thinking about heating in August seems pretty weird, I know. But there have been a number of articles and posts in the expat websites about the shortages of solid fuel already being reported. Most of us heat with gas. As anyone probably knows, the Russians control the gas that Italy buys so this is also problematic. Costs have always been three or four or more times higher than the rest of Europe. Now it is even worse because of the Ukrainian war. Not to mention the uncertainty of even having gas.

Many here in Umbria supplement their heat using wood or pellets. A lot use those as their primary heat source. There are systems that use pellets in their central heating systems. We also supplement with pellets to warm our living room.

This year pellets have become very expensive. They have nearly doubled in price, from €5.50 a bag to €9.50 a bag. IF you can even find a supplier who actually HAS them. Our pellets came from Austria. Ukraine also produced a lot. Now, it seems, Austria, afraid of shortages itself, is not exporting as usual. So, our future winter has become uncertain. We plan to buy some pellets since we will be here until the first of the year. If we can find a source.

We have not looked into firewood. Since we are nearing our move, we won’t be buying any yet. In our new house, we will have a need for firewood. There is an outdoor BBQ which uses wood, an outdoor wood fired pizza oven, a fireplace in the family room and a wood stove will be in the living room. I guess we will find out about firewood later.

The newspapers are warning of real problems this winter. It is hard for us, since we are moving, to try to make alternative plans to augment gas heating if we don’t have it. We cannot stockpile anything. It looks like we may have to bundle up!

Artisanal products Umbertidese

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Today I want to showcase two new products being produced here in Umbertide. We had heard of one of them from friends, but still had not visited. The other we just learned of from our recent dinner guests. I decided to showcase them both here.

First the cheese shop. Caseificio which means dairy is painted on the building. The shop is Fattoria Palazzo Rosa – Famiglia Monni. It is on the small road that crosses the river to Montecorona and the Abbazia di Montecorona which is run by the monks of the Eremo di Montecorona. So it wasn’t surprising to have a monk drop in to buy some cheese while we were there. The Eremo is a hermitage with a number of working monks. They take care of the Abbazia. The Eremo is in top of the 700 meter high mountain behind the Abbazia.

The back room, which you can see through a glass window is chock full of cheeses being aged. We bought a Pecorino peperoncini and some butter. The butter was not made here but I love trying new butter. The cheese was piquante but not too spicy. They had cheeses from other areas as well such as a creamy Gorgonzola. One of my favorites. This was an excellent find.

Then we decided to visit the Pauselli pasta fattoria. Our friends Joseph and Paul brought us three boxes of the pasta last week as a hostess gift. So generous — a box of Gemelli, Penne Rigate, and Linguine Ruvide. It is all made from artisanal grains grown in the area.

We followed the directions they gave us and found the negozio, but it was closed. I checked the hours. They are open 5-7 Wednesday and Saturday.

We tried the Gemelli last night. The name means twins. and each piece of pasta is made up of two pieces. Hence the name. The pasta is slightly darker than usual wheat pasta because of the grain. it has a rough texture and this shape is good for catching sauce in it’s crevices. I served it with a tomato, red and green pepper, onion sausage sauce, with a little sour cream added in. It was delish.

I am happy to live in a place with so many people producing such excellent products. They are just very poor at marketing. I think they could benefit from coming to the Saturday market and maybe even opening a temporary storefront to test the waters. At any rate, we will support them by buying their products. I hope they thrive.

Lazy Saturday in the Big City

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Yes, Luther calls Umbertide the Big City. It certainly is not a big city and here in Centro, it feels like a village. Today the Vespa club is having a “do”. I don’t know what exactly they are doing. It could be the end of a rally. Luther thinks it’s a concours, where they judge the best looking bike. Anyway, just after I took this picture they all mounted up and roared (heh heh) out of the Piazza.

Since I was snapping, I got a picture of the old dudes who play briscola (a card game), everyday. They are there all afternoon and right about 6:30 or 7:00 they head home to the wife or family. I always imagine the wife kicks them out every morning. As I have mentioned before, they take up table space, they never buy anything, AND they expect Bar Mary to provide the cards! It is tradition. It is repeated at Bars all across Italy every day. It is only at selected bars, maybe the oldest ones…As you can see the tables draw crowds of kibitzers. The games can get heated.

Meanwhile, during all this action at Bar Mary, over at Cafe Centrale, it is the quiet before the storm. One lone table of Spritz drinkers. This, being Saturday night, it is guaranteed to get busy soon. Cafe Centrale is party central.

Never a dull moment in the Big City! Buona domenica!

Glorious sabato!

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What a beautiful day. We are in a lull in our summer heat. We are totally enjoying it! Last night we had thunderstorms in the wee hours and nice rain. I woke to very cool temperatures — 61 F. And fog hanging in the valley. Refreshing. Here is a picture of the super moon rising over our Piazza.

Yesterday we took a trip down to Etrusco, our favorite butcher. We don’t get there often so we buy a lot when we go. We bought a beautiful Tomahawk steak, two fillet mignons, a flank and a skirt steak (I think? I am never sure), two tomahawk pork chops, sausages and hamburgers. He brought out big tubs of shrink-wrapped meat for us to see. For each piece of meat I bought, the butcher went to great lengths to tell me how to cook it. Mostly it involved holding the fatty edge on a hot griddle or pan and letting the fat sizzle and melt. Then cook one and a half minutes on each side in the rendered fat. He also was super proud of his lamb. I am excited to try it because he explained the lambs were two years old and castrato. This is a lot older than most “Lambs”. Perhaps it is the castrated part…I don’t know. He again told me how to cook it, even to giving me a big piece of fat to use. I know this butcher well. He only sources from local farms and knows that they were raised humanely, and treated well during their life. I prefer to buy meat like this. He wished a buon Ferragosto! Happy feasting.

The Saturday market was abuzz with activity. It’s high summer now and the produce is abundant. I probably got a little carried away. I bought a ton more of the wonderful tomatoes, green beans, baby zucchini, arugula (super bitter to go with the steak tonight), sweet new red onions, a pepper, friggatelli, eggplants and a melon. I visited Angelo to buy prosciutto crudo to go with the melon. A feast for a festa! This picture is only some of the bounty! I love our local market and am really happy I will still be able to walk to it from our new apartment. Not many towns have a market like this. I feel blessed.

I will take a picture of my dinner tonight if I remember. Here is a picture I took of my Rocky-cat helping me out while I am preparing dinner. I am constantly stepping over him or around him. He is very helpful!

Finally, an unbelievably beautiful sunset a couple of days ago.

Buona festa a tutti!!

Concinnate winery

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I am sure some of you wine lovers will recognize the name Heitz. Back in the US we drank good California wine and Heitz was a well known producer. I read an article recently, published by Wine Spectator about the couple who had sold up in California and relocated here to Umbria…to make wine, of course! They purchased their property of about 50 acres… but only just over two of them were planted in vines.

Today Rollie and Sally Heitz were kind enough to allow us to visit them and try their first vintage. We tried four. Starting with a lovely Rose. I am a big Rose fan, especially in the summer. And it was the perfect summer wine! Crisp and dry.

Then we tried a Sangiovese, a Cabernet, and a Merlot. Sally provided a plate of tasty things to eat during the tasting. We very much enjoyed the wines. My favorites were the Rose and the Sangiovese, which was soft and round and lovely. They told Luther their production for the 2019 vintage (their first) was 12,000 bottles. Pretty good for just one hectare.

Our conversation was far ranging but centered around our mutual love of Umbria and our separate relocations from the US. And wine of course! I hope they come up to visit us in the far north when they can get away. Right now, understandably they are busy getting their new business on its way. We stopped to admire their view of Todi.

Todi is dead center in the distance on its hilltop.

It was really broiling out. We tried to put the top down but it was just too hot. On the scenic route back home I snapped a couple photos. Near Bevagna and Montefalco.

Despite the intense heat the fishing contest on the Tiber in Umbertide went on as scheduled. These people were out in this heat for hours! At least they had their umbrellas.

Buona domenica! Stay cool!

It’s Saturday night in the Big City!

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We went out for Campari Spritzes. It was cooler (yay) and we wanted to check out the scene. Irene was working her shift at Bar Mary. She is so sweet. Today is Angelo’s birthday… We made a point to stop in his shop to wish him a buon compleanno.

We chose a table. The passeggiato was under way. Plenty of people watching. I said to Luther that the tables at Bar Mary really feel like an extension of our living room. It is an odd feeling but it is apt. We walk out our door. Ten steps, order our drinks and enjoy the evening with all the cittadine of Umbertide. The fashion show is interesting. I can’t say Umbertide is the fashion capital of Italy! Some very strange outfits were on display.

Tonights band was setting up. Sound checks. Drummer testing his sticks. Singer (if you can call him that) stretching his vocal cords. Here is a short clip.

Later — Right now I am listening to the band in our living room. The window is open. I could close it and not hear it, but, well, it’s fun to listen. They play all Italian music. I have gotten used to it. To be honest, it has no real beat, you can’t dance to it, the singers emote big time. It is Italian. What can I say?!

We will definitely miss this scene right outside our door. The good news is, if we get our offer accepted on the new house it is only a ten minute walk away. No, not quite the same…sadly, but we can still borrow the ”living room”.

Sunday dinner – mmmm

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The weekend was REALLY hot. We made it through it. Sunday dinner was a salad medley. I bought borlotti beans yesterday at the market and cooked them this morning while it was still cool. I also cook hard boiled eggs in the morning. Always good for protein. I bought a sweet cantaloupe which are just coming into season. Luther had gotten prosciutto crudo to put with it. I got some mozzarella, and of COURSE tons of tomatoes. That was our dinner. All cool and delicious. Perfect on a hot summer night!

Tomorrow house hunting resumes…

It is HOT 🥵

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Thats 102.2 in Fahrenheit. We are hunkered down. To make it worse there are fires. Most in Umbria are small (so far) but there are big ones in Tuscany, Lazio, and Trieste. The ones in Tuscany are said to be arson. I don’t get why someone would do that! It has made it so hazy you can’t see very far. Yesterday when we were driving back from Spoleto the mountains were just shadows.

Tonight we had a salad for dinner. I cooked the eggs, beans and potatoes in the morning while it was relatively cool. It was a perfect dinner. New potatoes, amazing tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, pickled onion (a new thing I tried), hard boiled eggs, avocado, olives and feta cheese. To finish it was drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with sherry vinegar and torn basil leaves from my plants. My idea of a perfect summer dinner.

We eat outside and then stay out and watch a movie. Once the sun sets it starts to cool. Every evening massive flocks of rooks fly over us to roost for the night like clockwork at nine pm.

I hope everyone is staying cool. We have no plans for the upcoming weekend, other than the Saturday market. Ciao for now!

New week!

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This will be a little newsy post. This and that. It has been hellishly hot. There is a heat dome over Europe and all countries are suffering. Since air conditioning is not the norm throughout Europe it is even worse than the US. We have two units, one in the living room, and one in our bedroom. In a normal summer, we use these units seldom. This year has been different. It is not a normal summer. We used the bedroom one only once so far. The living room tends to get hot in late afternoon, it has a big roof and the wall with the picture window faces west. So they both catch the full sun all day. The unit is small for the size of the room, but now I turn it on around 1 pm and it keeps the room comfortable. This means we mostly stay inside. We go out early for errands and exercise and then close up the shutters and encave ourselves for the day. I don’t cook a lot in this heat either. We eat a lot of vegetables and salads. If we have fish or meat, it is quickly sautéed. I sometimes prepare cooked things in the early morning which we eat later at room temperature. Caprese salads, gazpacho, and panzanella are my friends!

Today we had errands to do. We had to get cat food and groceries. We had been putting this off as long as we could. We normally go to the Coop in our town for major shopping. It is the biggest store in Umbertide. But it isn’t a super-store. Monday morning would normally be a good day to shop. But today! It was chock full of vacationers who arrived here and need to stock up their homes or vacation rentals with food. This usually happens right around now or in August. The two big months to travel. But I had never seen so many. It must be that pent up desire to travel this year after all the Covid lockdowns. I saw two Belgian cars, five UK cars, four Netherlands cars, one German, and one from France. Wow!
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All has not been chores. We were invited to lunch on Friday by good friends who live in the mountains between here and Gubbio. You might remember during my lock-down postings here Jill kept me cheerful by sending pictures of her beautiful gardens. Lunch was lovely as always. The food was yummy and the conversation ranged far and wide. We also met a new friend, Jane. The gardens and the views are beautiful.

On Saturday our friend Doug, who just arrived here to live full time, came up and I helped him fill out his packet and make copious copies of documents needed to apply for the Permesso di Soggiorno or Permit to Stay. A new resident here has just 8 days to fill out and apply for this permit. When a non-EU citizen moves to Italy they must first get a Visa to come here. A good analogy is the Visa is like the taxi that takes you to your house. The PdS is what allows you to LIVE in your house. So the Visa gets you into the country, the PdS allows you to live here. It must be renewed annually and it takes the place of the Visa which never needs to be renewed. Doug has now embarked on the merry-go-round which is Italian bureaucracy. 🙂
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House hunting — This coming Thursday we have an appointment to view three more houses. These are in Spoleto. I have high hopes for one of them. The other two depend more on the location than anything else. Watch for a house hunting post later this week!

Beautiful Sabato!

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Last night, I said to Luther, we should go to a winery tomorrow, while we have this nice break in the weather. We haven’t gone wine tasting since we had our last guests in October. Quick phone calls ensued. Mevante, a winery near Bevagna which we had not visited, were happy for us to come for a tasting. Luther thought lunch at one of our favorite places, L’Alchemista in Montefalco, would be a fine idea.

What a glorious day, if a bit windy. The winery sits on a hill overlooking the valley over to Monte Subasio. They were hosting a big event this evening, a christening for 100 people, so they set up a table just for us outside. I felt like royalty! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. First two are views from our table.

Tasting room
Grecchetto white wine was one of the best we have had
Their olive oil was some of the best. super peppery in the throat. I loved the itty, bitty bottle.

The owner was our host and he was very welcoming despite that he was very busy with the expected group. Of course we bought quite a bit of their wine.

We drove to L’Alchemista. I love the round square that Montefalco has. It was a lively place today. Fun people watching. Our food was good as always.

We headed home for a siesta as is called for after a satisfying lunch. Here’s a picture of the small street in Umbertide which we cut through to stay in the shade. It looked pretty today. I love all the layers, balconies, lamp, stone balustrade, rooflines.

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Finally, good news! We see they are finally bringing back our Otto Cento festival, gone since Covid. (put Otto Cento in the search bar to see pictures of past festivals) It will be the end of September. I am thrilled.

In other news, the little hill town near us, Montone, is gearing up for its annual film festival. It lasts a week with multiple screens for films around town, each with food and drinks served. This year, the really big news is that Stanley Tucci is the guest of honor. He will get the keys to the city. I have to think he will show up at our Saturday slow food market in Umbertide since he is all about food. I will be hanging out! Hope he does.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print! ciao!