Category Archives: everyday life in Umbria

Another day, another winery and lunch :-)

So Luther decreed that we had to go buy some more wine. He chose a place or two down in the Sagrantino wine district. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from our house. The day was fine. We found the first winery called Particaia which means plough. When we exited the car we were assailed with the overpowering odor of the new harvest of crushed grapes. The older gentleman who met us at the door of the office was super nice. He took us to the big building to see the vats with the piles of grape peels and juice.

Then we walked up to the tasting room where he showed us the previous years harvest aging in French oak.

We tasted three wines and bought a couple of cases. The old gentleman turned out to be the owner and vintner! He was super welcoming and I have to say, his property is beautiful.

They had a dog. His name was Flick. He reminded my of my dog growing up, Cricket.

We went to one more winery. They were not as welcoming. In fact they pointedly looked at their watch when we arrived at 12:15. I guess lunch was getting near and they didn’t want us hanging around.

Next came the really big adventure. We were looking for a restaurant called Ristorante 4 Piedi & 8.5 Pollici. It means the restaurant of the 4 feet and 8 1/2 thumbs. I have no idea why they call it that. We had a map from the internet. We tried to use the GPS but it didn’t recognize the street. We drove up to a small hill town but we knew that was wrong so went back to Bastardo. Yes it’s really called that! It is an unattractive town with little to recommend it. The review we read said the restaurant was hard to find. Boy were they right! They said it was in a strip mall. Well after driving slowly around the streets and asking two people we finally found it behind some big tents and in back of a big supermarket. There were no signs for it anywhere. Typically Italian.

It is a quirky place. Strangely decorated. The people were friendly and welcoming. There is no menu. They come out and recite what they have. We chose the Antipasti to share and a pasta. Hand made Strangozzi pasta (local specialty) with onions and ham. The Antipasti was a multi-course affair. Here are pictures and descriptions. It was a great lunch.

Started with a plate of ham, mortadella, mozarella, a grilled mushroom which was spicy and a round of bread with melted cheese inside. I didn’t take a picture of that plate. Next were slices of pecorino cheese with two little dishes, one home-made applesauce and the other a conserve of something I couldn’t place. They both paired with the cheese nicely.

Next was a hot plate with melted cheese over a bread.

Decor included big, hand drawn figures. This one, Captain Hook.

Wonderful faro with vegetables. SO good!

Finally the home made pasta.

Today I didn’t go to the apartment. I decided to let them make a little more progress and go tomorrow. Pictures to follow.

Nice hike

On Sunday it was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cool, so we decided to drive up the Niccone valley and go for a walk. We had been driving past a sign pointing to hiking and decided to check it out. It started out nearly level but got quite steep quite quickly. It passed a restaurant where we had dined once before. On up above that turnoff are a number of fields full of what looked like shrubs. After closer inspection I saw they were lavender fields. Won’t they be beautiful in the spring! I must make sure I go back to see. After we passed them there was a sign Le Tre Donne – the three women. They had a sign pointing to where you can buy lavender soap and oils.

Today I went over to the apartment and they have tiled about 3/4 of the kitchen. Looks nice. You can see how crooked the walls are when you look at the tiles!

Progress continues…

We had lunch with Susan and Gary today to catch up after our visitors left. They are off to Rome to meet up with THEIR visitors who are here for three weeks! They will be traveling with them all around from Lecce in the far south to Venice in the far north. It was good to see them.

I waited another two days to go take a look at the apartment. They finished the hall ceiling, patching the hole and cleaning the iron beam. Looks nicer for sure. The entire kitchen floor is covered with that mud the put down under tiles so I couldn’t go in there as it was wet. From the bedroom window I looked at the finished patio. So nice! Here are four pictures, two of the patio and two of the mud!

Great visit!

Well we dropped our guests off at the train station around noon today. We had a great visit. They brought great weather with them. Now that they are gone it is pouring rain.

As you know we had toured Assisi a couple of days before where we learned about St. Francis who was said to be able to talk to animals and once preached a sermon to the birds. Anyway, Kaye was taken particularly with a story about St. Francis and a wolf.

Seems a wolf was eating the people and animals in a town. The desperate citizens asked St. Francis to help. St. Francis went into the woods where the ferocious wolf lived and convinced him that God wanted him to stop hurting the people of the town. The wolf bowed his head and placed his paw in St. Francis’ hand and they went together into the town. The townspeople were astounded and agreed to feed the wolf from then on so he wouldn’t be hungry. He lived two years that way and was buried in the churchyard.

We decided to visit Gubbio yesterday. I did learn a couple of lessons with our first guests, do some research! So I downloaded info on Gubbio. A happy coincidence! Turns out Gubbio is the town where the wolf incident occurred! Kaye said she thought the wolf and St. Francis were her favorite things from her trip. Here is a link to the Wolf of Gubbio Legend.

We tried to visit the Chiesa di Pace where a wolf skeleton was found in the 1800s corroborating the legend. It was closed. Too bad. We toured the upper town, took in the view and visited another church. Here are pictures in the church. One is a fresco of St. Francis and the wolf.

Another coincidence – we had made reservations at Taverna da Lupa (Tavern of the Wolf) so we were all excited that our theme was ongoing. It was a nice place. Not as good as our previous restaurants though. We sat outside. It also turned out to be a Buon Ricordo member. This is a group of restaurants that each have a specialty dish and if you order it you get a ceramic plate (I have probably 6 of them from many vacations – indeed a Buon Ricordo (good memory)). Kaye and I ordered Faraona al ginepro – roasted Guinea Fowl with Juniper – and got our plates. The dish was very good.

The Plate!

All in all a nice day. Last night we went outside so Luther could smoke a cigar. HORRORS! Bar Mary was closed! What was this! Even Cafe Centrale was closed. This morning we found out it is now considered the winter season so they close early on Tuesday. We went back up and got wine and glasses and sat outside. Susan and Gary and Mr. Luca dropped by to meet our guests.

Renovation news

We met with Manuele last evening after our sight seeing. It was good to see much progress. The air conditioning units are installed in the living room and the bedroom. We discussed covering the pipes on the patio. Manuele wants to uncover the old ceiling in the hallway where they installed the new stairway. It is now covered with wallboard but under that is the old vaulted ceiling. Of course we agreed with that! He also discussed with us the fireplace. He wants to change it so it doesn’t look like a Tuscan fireplace (who knew!). It has brickwork and he says they only use stone in Umbria. So I was fine with that as well. I believe he is not charging extra for this as he said “I will do this for you”. Also that Zona di Notte thing was again brought up. Manuele made a pretty good case for it and I think we will have him move a glass door which is at the head of the steps into the hallway. He will tint it which will make the master bedroom and bath more private. He said we could probably start moving in in a couple of weeks! whoo hoo!

Touring with friends

Yesterday we went to Assisi and Montefalco. It was a beautiful day. Not too hot or cool. We walked through town – very crowded! We tried to tour St. Francis’ church but we forgot it was Sunday so they were having Mass. We did go down to see St Francis’ tomb where there were plenty of the faithful paying their respects.

We passed by a house adorned with beautiful decorative wrought iron. I believe it’s owner was the artisan as I could hear sounds of works in the back. They were so ornate and lovely I took some pictures. The one is a fat man. The others are dragons or griffons.

Next we went to Montefalco. It is the heart of the Sagrantino wine region. Very beautiful, scenic and with many grapes, very green. We had reservations at L’Alchimista. It is a wonderful restaurant right on the main square with outside tables where we sat. The lunch was wonderful. We had what is called Kilometer zero specialties. There is a town called Trevi where they grow the “black celery” or sedano nero. It is VERY local and is only available for a short time. They had several specials using it. I had the soup. Kaye had a stuffed celery. It was filled with pork and served in a tomato sauce. We all seemed in the mood for a secondi so we mostly had beef filet. Mine was served with sauteed radicchio and gorgonzola. Luther had it with rosemary and olive oil. Here is the square from our table:

Today we got a late start. That was OK as I was going with the flow. We had planned to go to Montepulciano to one of our favorite restaurants, La Grotta.

We thought we’d have time to stroll the town but that was not the case so we headed straight for the restaurant. We toured the famous Chiesa di San Biagio. It is a beautiful church just across from the restaurant.

We dined outside on the beautiful patio.

Here are some of the dishes we had:

First course for me. Crostini with a liver spread and Vin Santo sauce.

Luther’s Tuscan salad called Panzanella featuring stale bread.

Luther’s rack of lamb.

Kaye’s house-made tagliatelle with white truffles. (she LOVED it)

Jeff’s marscapone dessert with coffee gelato.

All in all a lovely, long lunch. We headed straight back as it is kind of a long drive. Now all are resting.

House renovation update. We went over where I took couple of pictures of the rubble in the hallway after the relocated the stairway to the attic. The place is a wreck! We have an appointment tomorrow at 5:30 to meet up with Manuele to discuss a few things.

Cake looks good!

Here is the finished torta. It is a recipe that I had saved. I wanted something we could have for breakfast and a snack. I only have metric measuring stuff here so had to convert all the amounts. Also the temperature for the oven which is in centigrade. Praise the lord for the internet which makes it very simple. I hope it tastes good! it looks close to what the recipe picture looked like. The sugar here is less granulated or finer so the topping looks a bit different.

Here is the picture from the recipe.

First guests!

First, we ran into Manuele yesterday and he told us things were moving along and they were 60% finished. He said it should be done in 2 or 3 weeks. He also talked to Pedini about the kitchen and they will deliver between October 20 and 22. Then we can move in! And BUY stuff!

So today we are having our first guests. Kaye and Jeff from Woolongong Australia. We have stocked the frig and I am going out to the Saturday market in a minute to grab a few last things. Then I am going to attempt to make an apple cake! This will be my first try at baking anything here. Gathering the ingredients was not easy. Baking powder was a challenge but I found some. Also vanilla which I found in imitation powder form (ugh). Vanilla is something they just don’t have here. I need to find vanilla beans (which I read they DO have) and make my own extract. I think I may have some in my shipment but I don’t want to uncover the door to the living room (where it is all stowed now) with all the mess over there.

I’ll take a picture of the cake and post it later whether it comes out — or not. After that my posts may be a bit sporadic. I’ll post some pictures of us touring with Kaye and Jeff.

Progress continues

It has been two days since I last went over to our house. There have been trucks coming in the early morning to pick up debris. It is the only time that they can come and not disrupt businesses etc.

They have finished pulling up all the old tiles in the kitchen, leaving the concrete that the tiles were attached to. In some places it is gone so you can see old linoleum under that! They filled in the trenches where the new pipes run in both the kitchen and the new pantry. They insulated and covered the walls in the pantry. They closed off the door between two of the bedrooms. So I am pretty happy with the progress. Looks like they may start tiling both the terrace and the kitchen/pantry soon. Here are some pictures.

Closed off door between rooms.

Pantry with new walls and filled in trench.

Kitchen floor.

Attic. Mostly cleaned out.

We also went on a fun drive to a winery (boo we were a little late to taste the wines) and then to Bevagna (we had been here before but it’s a cute town in the wine area) for lunch at Ottavius. It was good if very slow service. I had an interesting pasta with pistacchio and basil sauce. It was good.

Luther at lunch.

Here are a couple of pics of the pretty town of Bavagna. It is a very old Roman town on the old Flamenia road I wrote about a while ago.

This was very cool because there was one ray of sunshine coming from a window in the church and it was falling right on the patron Saint San Francesco.

Unpacking UPakWeShip boxes

Well I got around to unpacking our boxes. Actually I just went through them checking for damage as I can’t really unpack until the work is done. There were many things broken. Some of them were my favorites. Oh well.

I did find some things we can use right now. For instance our cat tree!! The instant we brought it into the house the cats were ON IT! I am sure they remembered it and were happy to see it. Since then they play and sleep constantly on it. Happy days!

I also found the — da dum — bathroom scale. Oh joy! So I brought it over to the apartment and in due time I weighed myself. And… I have not gained weight! Hard to imagine but there it is. And it makes me happy.

Yesterday we met up with some people that my sister virtually introduced us to. They are from the Northern Virginia area and have purchased a place in Montepulciano in Tuscany. We have visited the town a couple of times on previous vacations here but only in passing and only to eat outside the walls. This time we went up into this hill town which is famous for the Vino Nobile de Montepulciano red wines. It took only about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there from our house.

Very pretty town. Lots of shops. We went early and toured the churches and some of the squares. One thing I noticed as well. The town is crawling with tourists. I heard more American voices than since we left the States. I would not want to live there.

Lunch was fun. The food good. The conversation flowed. We went to see their apartment which they had completely renovated. Very pretty. They are right on the wall and have a view that goes for miles all the way to and past Lago Trasimeno. They have both a terrace and a garden. Lucky them. They made the two basement cantine into two bedrooms and two baths. Upstairs is a big open plan kitchen, living area and dining room.

We said farewell for now. They plan to come for about 12 weeks a year. She is not yet retired. They leave for the States tomorrow. On the way home we stopped at the Poliziano winery. It is a beautiful property, but they all are gorgeous over there. We got a couple of cases of the MUCH more expensive wine that we have in Umbria. And in my opinion no better than ours I might add.

Soon it will be olive harvest time. I am looking forward to that.

Grand finale 800 festival

Well, I lived to tell the tale. The ear plugs worked pretty well. After the first night we wore them. The weather was cool and rainy for the first two days which I heard, cut back on attendance. They made up for it after that!

I noticed they worked through a few themes. The Brigands play a big part and they are “headquartered” behind our apartment. Saturday night was when the Brigands actually took over the town. During the night they changed all the street signs!! Adding comments of their own. They took down the Italian banner in the center of the piazza, replacing it with their own. They did the same to the flag on the castle. They transformed the piazza bringing in hay and small trees and erecting walls across the streets. They covered all the Italian bunting under the windows with pictures of the Brigands. I was up a couple times in the night at 3:15AM and 6:15AM and they were still partying. Here is the new banner with the “runway” up to it. (BTW – our borrowed apartment is the top two left windows in the white building)

Sunday morning we went outside to see the banner and saw there were two mannequins dressed as Brigands. They were obscene. I hope they are not too obscene for this blog! If you are a prude skip this one!

I had to do a double take on the mannequins!! and the door handle on the new door in the wall they erected (pun intended :-))

Here are a few other pictures I took on the final evening. This is the brothel near the Brigand taverna behind our apartment.

Here is the Taverna dei Briganti.

These next two are of a strolling group of musicians. They were serenading a little girl who is rapt.

Finally, here is the Briganti flag hoisted up the Castle.

The final night Garibaldi (with his red hair) rode his palomino horse into the Piazza and saved the town from the pope! I am guessing that Garibaldi was the leader of the Brigands so it went to it’s intended conclusion. I watched the end of the otto cento celebrations from our window. There were hundred of folks in the piazza. The mayor spoke. There have been bands and others who are obviously being thanked.

This whole thing is a lot of fun and gives lots of insights into the Italians. They all do all the work for the feste to help the town. But I also think they all love the tradition so the work is not so onerous. They wholeheartedly get into the costumes and enactments. We talked to Susan and Gary over lunch on Sunday about this. Susan said they have no word for self conscious. That explains a lot.

Speaking of lunch. We took a ride in Susan and Gary’s new car, an Audi Q3. Nice. I am sure Susan will blog about the purchase (Americans in Umbria) but they told us when he brought the car home everyone in the piazza where they live came out to congratulate him and shake his hand(!)

Lunch at da Cesare over by Corciano. It was a seafood place. The seafood was excellent. Here is my octopus appetizer.

I’ll blog about the shipment next. This has gotten a bit long!

Nancy Goes to Italy

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

Category Archives: everyday life in Umbria

Another day, another winery and lunch :-)

Nice hike

Progress continues…

Great visit!

Touring with friends

Cake looks good!

First guests!

Progress continues

Unpacking UPakWeShip boxes

Grand finale 800 festival

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