Category Archives: everyday life in Umbria

Otto Cento

Well, it has started. We went out and checked out all of the town. People are all about, many dressed in 1800’s costume. I had it wrong. Although otto cento DOES mean 800 it also means the 1800s as in the century. Who knew!? Anyway, that’s why they dress in costumes from that century. There were all manner of costumes. From the serving wench, the whore, the tradesmen, the brigand, beautiful women obviously from high castes and their consorts in top hats and morning coats. Many of my pictures didn’t come out because it was dark and I tried not to flash in peoples faces.

They fired the cannons!

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Musicians.

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Ballerinas from the dance school.

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Beautiful lady!

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Handsome top-hat man.

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Mary from Bar Mary!

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One of the drinking and eating venues. As you can see they are quite elaborate.

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We came back upstairs. The most rowdy group were the Brigands and the brothel people who – WHAT LUCK! – were situated right beneath our bedroom. They sang and drank and shot off guns until around 2AM. Needless to say we didn’t get a lot of sleep. AND we have that to look forward to for the next 3 nights!

SO first order of business today was… buy earplugs! Which we did. We’ll see if they help.

Today was the day our box was supposed to get delivered and it would have been a good day. Yesterday I got a call from the company saying the truck had a flat in Germany and was stuck there. He wouldn’t get here until tonight or tomorrow. I told her tonight is out of the question. And that tomorrow morning is our market. I am hoping I can persuade him to come after the market. We shall see!

Final concert and buying wine

Last night was the most amazing finale to the week of concerts we have had here. The Piazza was completely full of people. I have never seen so many. There were tables and chairs across the piazza as well. When we went down turns out they were all reserved!! Lucky for us a nice couple who were seated at a table for four invited us to sit with them. He was a policeman. They had a boxer named Brenda. I can’t remember their names. Why do I always remember the animals names but not the people?

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Once the concert got going we realized why the piazza was packed!! It was OPERA! Nothing is nearer or dearer to an Italians heart.

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I went on back upstairs to watch the rest and make a recording. After a while I noticed Luther standing in the middle of the emptiest part of the piazza waving both arms. I waved back. He started gesturing at the door. Finally I realized he didn’t have his key!! I went and let him in but I am sure the Italians had a good chuckle at the Americano. Here are two videos I took. They are kinda shaky but still you can hear the tenor. (note the dorky little girl dancing (sorta) in the second video. She is at every musical event we’ve seen. The parents just let ‘er rip.)

Today we went to buy some wine down by Lago di Trasameno. The first place was called Terre dei Carpine and was another of those places with the wine-pumps. You could get a liter for 1,35 euro in your own bottles (cheaper than gas!). Luther is getting a little better at letting 3 euro wine into his life. We bought two Chardonnays and two reds that cost about that. We have tried them out and they are quite good, not great but good everyday type wines.

The second place we went was called Castello di Magione. It is a castle on top of the hill town of Magione (hence the name). It had been a shelter run by the Knights of Malta dedicated to protecting the pilgrims on the road to/from Jerusalem or the Campostello di Santiago so they could find shelter there. The building was beautiful. We tasted a bunch of the wines and bought some but I was mostly unimpressed by them. Pictures…

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And the preparation for the Otto Cento (800) Festa is continuing. The brothel has been installed behind our house!! 🙂 It starts tomorrow. Crossing fingers for our shipment 🙁

Holiday in Umbertide

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Blue skies and warm. We went with Susan and Gary to an agriturismo that is one of their favorites. It surely was wonderful. It is called Calagrana. The chef is pretty amazing. He is an Italian and his wife is British. They have a working farm where they raise what they make and she rents out rooms in the agriturismo. I had a wonderful chicken liver spread with tomato jam that you spread on toasted bread. Then I opted for a secondo of sliced beef perfectly grilled. This came with fried potatoes and sauteed vegetables. Luther and Susan had the roasted chicken. Afterwards Gary and Susan split the tiramisu. Here is the patio where we dined and a view from my seat across those green Umbrian hills. Lovely.

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We had a fun conversation catching up with them as they just returned from a trip to Amsterdam and Bavaria. They didn’t have very good weather and even worse food. I should say, there is good food in Germany but you need to do some research. If they ever go with us to Austria or Germany we will be sure to find good places to eat.

Today is a holiday here. I was informed that it is the day they honor the Madonna. Last night the church bells rang energetically at about 10PM. The church was lighted and now that most of the scaffolding is gone it is beautiful. There was also almost a full moon. Then I could hear mournful music. I looked and there was a procession coming from one small street and going across the piazza. They carried banners and had candles and the band played. Behind this procession came hundreds of people. The band stopped playing and all I could hear was the tread of the many feet across the silent piazza. It was almost spooky.

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Tonight we have a concert. The final one of a week of the feste. Now, all around town the people are readying for the BIG 800 fest which starts Thursday. I am enjoying watching the changes taking place.

Carsulae, San Gemini and goings on…

So we finally met up with Emanuele at the apartment after the ceiling incident of which he was aware. He found it incredibly amusing that Josephine (the one with the key who showed us the damage) only really wanted him to pay her 10 euro to clean up the dust. And even more amusing was that our downstairs neighbor came to him complaining about the construction and that she was going to the police. Emanuele explained he had all the permits. You may remember this is the same neighbor who called us banditos when we were trying to determine which meter was ours. She went to the police that day as well. After Emanuele explained he had the permits she asked about the floor in the kitchen which he had torn up. Turns out she was just trying to shake him down. She asked him to give her the wood to burn in her fireplace and she wouldn’t go to the police! He was fine with that so everyone is happy. And laughing.

Here is a picture of the pasta I made last night. It is called Bucatini number 9. It is fat spaghetti but it’s hollow! Very popular here and I like it too.

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Today we went on a day trip way down to the southern tip of Umbria to a Roman ruin called Carsulae from the 2rd century BC. There is a road called the Via Flaminia that runs from Rome to Remini. It is long! The Romans built that road. There are highways that run it’s route today. This ruin contains a small portion of the original road along with ruins of a town with a theater, forum, and amphitheater. Here are some photos. This is the road, it even has curbs and gutters and you can see the worn places where the cart wheels rolled.

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The archway entering the town. Still standing; no mortar!

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What’s left of the forum.

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We were looking for lunch and were near a town that the books said was one of the prettiest in Italy, and that’s saying a lot! San Gemini is the town. Up on a hill. We did indeed find a nice little restaurant inside the walls called Taverna del Torchhio. We sat outside. It was a beautiful day with light breezes, perfect temperature (finally) and blue skies. I had the beef carpaccio with arugula and cheese and then orecchietti with pesto and a cheese I was unfamiliar with. Luther had panzanella – the typical bread salad and then roasted lamb. All very good. Here is the view from our table.

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Here are a few pictures of the beautiful town. The first is a little walkway along the walls. The next is a 11th century church, then the courtyard outside the church and finally a passage through to the walls with the view over the valley.

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As I mentioned we are in the middle of the band festival. Last night we were treated to an orchestra with a rock group from Pisa. They even had a man and a woman who danced. It was all very wonderful. The guitarist, bass and drummer in the band were some of the best I’ve ever heard. We actually went out to the piazza to watch. Here’s a picture.

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Motivations

As you know, we are supposed to get our shipment on September 12. I just found out the big 800 feste is starting on September 11. I am pretty nervous about getting it.

I spoke with Emanuele about it and he told me to call him when they are coming and he would run interference with the police if need be. Emanuele is our “patron”. His family is now our family. They will look out after us as though we were their own. This sparked a conversation with my sister about differences between here and the US.

In Italy everything is about the network, your family first, then friends and acquaintances. The Italians are not motivated by money. Their wealth is in their influence and favors owed. Totally opposite of the US where the dollar is King. Remember in the Godfather? Everyone owed him. It was understood that he might never ask for anything in return for his favors… or he might. It is just like insurance. You may never use it. Or you might have to. The Godfather said, “If you were my friend, people would fear you”. Influence.

One never does anything alone here. You call upon your friends and family. Want to buy a car? Get friends to help. A refrigerator or TV? Same thing. Emanuele and his family are now “our” family. We are expected to ask them for help in all things. I admit I have a hard time with this. I am used to doing things on my own.

My sister asked why he would do that. How do we compensate him for this? And what do Susan and Gary get (they introduced us to this family)? She asked if he has to adopt every new client. And if they bring new obligations to him if he does.

Again, she is thinking like an American. He doesn’t expect compensation. But he knows he can ask something of us and we’d do it if we could. It is not a material thing. It is not about the money. In America it matters not who you are, as long as you have the money. Totally different mindset.

He has not asked for any money from us yet for instance. He has a lot of workers working for him at our house but I am betting they just wait until he is ready to pay them.

Yes it is a strange land. Very, very different attitudes.

Big doings in Umbertide

So, let me set the record straight. The Feste that we are in the midst of right now is called Rassegna Bande Musicali. It is from September 2 to September 8. It is not the big festival that I thought it was. It is marching bands. So far on the 2nd we had one band who played one song on the bandstand and marched off playing into Umbertide never to be seen again. I think things may pick up nearer the weekend.

That said the BIG 800 festival is to start NEXT week on Thursday. That would be September 11. It goes through Sunday the 14th. As we walked down the street this morning we saw many things changing around here. We see there is a costume rental place opening up just down the street. How cool is that? I could rent a 17th century costume! I think I will hold off for this year to see what it’s all about 🙂 There are other changes. There is an interesting canopy in the alley beside our house that wasn’t there before. Also another shop down the street is a Taverna del Tintorio. Not sure what that is. We took a drive to Montone to walk around and got stuck in a traffic jam! It was because the streets were blocked. They are removing the huge crane on the church. I had heard it would be gone for the big 800 feste and so it will be.

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The Via Roma was completely closed!

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Last night I made the fish for dinner. We had bought fish from these folks before but only trout. We always ask them to clean it which they do. This time I was very disappointed that the fish had not been scaled. Drat. I had to do it myself and I hate that! The fish were very good but next time I have to figure out how to ask for it scaled as well.

I had made an order from Amazon in the UK for a couple of Michelin maps for Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. I used our Via Grilli address for the first time. Until now we’ve had everything shipped to Emanuele’s address. So Luther checked the mail and there was a mailing sticker in our box. The maps wouldn’t fit. The sticker had the words “amazon” and “Bar Mary” on it. HA! When someone orders something too big for the box they give it to Bar Mary and we pick it up there. What a hoot.

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It is a very cool day and again overcast. We did take our trip to Montone for a little walk about. It is a very pretty, very small hill town. We kept our eyes peeled for the garden of John and Libby which we had heard much about. We did spot it and Libby was outside working in it. We had a small chat with them and headed on back to Umbertide. Here are a couple of pictures of the view from there as well as a small street.

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Perugia, more on reno, market day in Umbertide

A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Yesterday morning I said we were headed for Perugia. We left and it was pretty sunny but by the time we got there it had gotten blustery and cold with glowering skies. It did not really rain though, just spitted a few times. I need to get some warmer clothes!

We were headed to scout out the MiniMetro. We found it with no problem. It is small with only 6 stops and goes from the bottom of the hill near the stadium to the very top of the hill town in the center. We purchased our ticket and boarded. It’s fun to watch them operate. They attach themselves to a continuously moving cable. When they reach a station they unhook and small tires convey them to the platform and stop. Then they propel them forward until they hook back onto the cable. They run about every 2 minutes so no waiting. They reach the end of the line then spin around on a turntable and go back. Very steep trip up to Perugia. Takes about 15 minutes to go from end to end with free parking at the bottom and it drops you right at the top in the center of town.

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Arriving in the center on a spectacular overlook of the countryside from up there we head up just a short way to the main area of town. We visited two churches. First was Chiesa di Filippo Neri. I had heard it was incredibly ornate. And it was. I was sorry to see huge cracks in the domes which could have just been in the frescoes, but who knows.
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We walked up the steep narrow streets. It is really a beautiful town with hundreds of tiny, almost cavelike streets.

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We visited the Duomo, or the main cathedral. It was enormous.

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Then we visited the National Gallery of Umbria. If you want to see pre and renaissance art this is the place to go. The works start in about 1230 AD and work up to the 18th century. It is almost all religious in subject matter. Many of the works were beautifully rendered, the colors vibrant. But it was all meant to scare the crap out of the people. Their lives were dominated by the church. I never saw as many “Adoration of the Christ”, “Escape to Egypt”, “Annunciation”, “Cruxifiction”, “Flagellation of Christ” and “Christ going into Heaven” as I’ll ever need to see again! The subject matter varied little. The saints changed over time. I did enjoy it, but I was very done at the end. The first picture is the Griffon which is the symbol of the city. Reminded me of Buckbeak for any Harry Potter fans out there.

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We spent 2 hours in the museum! Then headed out to find lunch. We tried two of Luther’s recommended ones, both were closed, either for good or for lunch that day. We fell back on Da Cesare where we had dined with the Gang on our last trip to Umbria. We ate inside since it was so cold outside. The food was classic Umbrian and we split a mixed Bruschetta antipasti and both had pasta. It was good. Since we returned we have gotten a good recommendation for our next trip for Bottega del Vino from our friend John in Montone. It sounds great and we look forward to trying it.

We headed back on the MiniMetro and then home where we had a meeting with Emanuele at 4:30 at the apartment. We met up with him and his partner Paolo and the Electrician and the Plumber. I had sent a rather curt email in the morning about the fact that the sofa was STILL uncovered which may have lit a little fire under him because they covered it while we were there. We had discussions about the pantry space. It will be a nice big space and he has good ideas for shelving across one whole wall and then on the otherside for part of it. We explained that we wanted some floor space dedicated to the cats which is always a priority. So all is well at Via Grilli – for now.

Today we did a bunch of errands. We first had Cappuccini at Bar Mary and did people watching at the market. Then I did my shopping to include tomatoes, potatoes, onions, arugula, and those red and white beans that are so good. Look at all these peppers!!

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Then we got our porchetta pannini. That stuff is like CRACK! I thought about it all week since last Wednesday. This time Luther didn’t make the mistake of not getting one. Don’t you love the pig face!? Poor pig but I have to see he was much appreciated in his final form.

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Next we hit our favorite seafood stand to buy fish for dinner tonight. We got whole sea bass to try.

Then we split up with Luther going to the barber to get his first haircut. It cost €8.00 (!) It looks way better than the scalp job he got just before we left at the hair cuttery. I went over to the shopping part of the market to see if I could buy some warmer clothes. I scored two nice hoody shirts that are more like sweater material, one has a zipper and is black, the other purple. They cost €3.00 each (!) This stall, like many, you just dig through piles of clothes to find stuff. Then I hit a nicer stall. Everything was hung up and it was nicer quality. I bought a quirky pair of pants with a tweedy look and rolled up bottoms. It is stretchy material, snug in the legs. And a pretty sweater (beige) with a matching infinity scarf. It is very long tunic style. Maybe now that I have an Italian haircut and Italian market bought clothes they won’t immediately know I am foreign! Nah, it’ll never happen 🙂

We headed to the bank next to put down a 50% deposit on the lighting for our house and dropped it off at Emanuele’s office with Paolo. Whew! all done and glad to get back to the apartment to eat our Panini, get out of the cool weather and read a bit.

Boxes scheduled; work progressing

We got the notification that our UPak boxes will be delivered on September 12. That works out pretty well for us. It is a Friday so not a busy day on the Piazza. And it is after the big Feste in Umbertide.

I have not told you about this. Every September Umbertide has a huge festival. It is centered around 18th century Umbertide. Everyone wears 18th century costumes. This varies from most other towns around here who almost all do medieval festivals dressing in medieval costumes. The citizenry set up all manner of recreations from that era to include a brothel, a hospital etc. Having never experienced this festival I don’t really know what will happen. All I know is that it starts on September 2 and goes until September 7 – Every night a live performance on the piazza. I am told it is loud. Susan and Gary have been known to leave town to avoid it. Since it is our first time we are eager to experience it. We may be sleep deprived but that will have to be OK. I will post alllll about it once it starts!

Work continues on our apartment. I went up Saturday and they had removed all the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. The electrician had also removed all the switch plates and was working on the wiring. Here is the former kitchen which will become our pantry and store room.

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We also received our invoice from the lighting place. We have to go to the bank and send them half for a deposit.

Last evening and all night we had intermittent thunderstorms. I shut all the windows. This morning dawned gray and pretty chilly. I have no long sleeved shirts. The shipment can’t come too soon. They predict cool and wet weather for the next couple of weeks. So sorry for the wine makers. It is very bad timing after a too cool summer. Not a good year.

The work has started!!!

I was so excited to run into Emanuele in the Piazza last night while Luther was smoking his cigar. He told us work had started in the apartment today! I went over this morning and sure enough they have moved all the furniture into the living room and have removed the TV and refrigerator. Sorry to say they also removed the built in bookcases in the office. That took me by surprise but oh well, what’s done is done. I believe they started cleaning out the attic too. Here is a picture of the future kitchen with pull down attic stairs.

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Today we went to Sansepulcro in Tuscany only 30 kilometers from Umbertide. It is a pretty little town with lots of little streets. They also have a museum with many 15th century paintings which we visited.

Aldous Huxley called this painting the most beautiful painting in the world. It is called the Resurrection. When up close and personal it is extraordinary which this photo doesn’t really get across.

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There was an amazing collection of old locks and keys. They were extremely intricate and many were beautiful. This picture shows one of them with its key. Notice the triangle and below it the flower and then below that another shape in the key. The lock is just beside it and you can see where the triangle and the flower fit (you need to click to enlarge). They were pretty incredible.

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This is the madonna in a picture from the 1400s by Santi di Tito. She is looking at the Christ child. All of his paintings were wonderful.

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These were random items that I was drawn to.

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After the tour we went to Ristorante Al Coccio for lunch. It was a very “traditional” looking place with lots of knick knacks.

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We chose it because of the aroma wafting from it. It just drew us in! The food was quite a bit different than the Umbrian food we have gotten used to. We started with a traditional Tuscan bread salad as an amuse bouche. The thrifty Tuscans use up old bread this way. By moistening it in the salad dressing of oil and vinegar it softens it up. It was quite refreshing. I had a mushroom flan (never saw that in Umbria) with a cheese fondue and truffles as an antipasti. Then I had the ravioli with Chianini meat sauce from the famous Chianini white cattle. Luther had taglietelle with duck ragu. It was all very good. The people behind us tucked into two big Chianini steaks. We’ll have to go back and get that sometime instead of a primi. It sure smelled wonderful. Here is a picture of my ravioli.

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This evening we met up with Michelle and her partner Paul for a drink in the Piazza. She will be leaving in just 3 days. I will miss her a lot. Paul was interesting and he will be here for 10 days after she goes. He is Dutch. Perhaps we’ll see her again before she leaves. We swapped contact info so we can keep in touch. Maybe someday we will meet again…

Tomorrow I will go over to the apartment so see how Giovani did today. I met him while I was there this morning taking a look at the work.

Porchetta

Yesterday was market day. I decided to get my first porchetta panino. In Italy panini are not grilled or heated. It is just the word for sandwich. Porchetta (pronounced por-kay-ta) is sold from trucks and is the most wonderful concoction. It is a whole pig that has been boned and then wrapped in it’s own skin and roasted for a long slow time. The outside gets crunchy crispy and the inside is soft and juicy. At the Wednesday market there are 3 different porchetta trucks. All the time I’ve been going to the market there is always an enormous crowd around one truck. I always figure that that would be the place to get porchetta as obviously everyone else seems to know.

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For some reason when I was passing THE truck I noticed there were way fewer people. In fact I was served almost immediately. I asked for a panino and they sliced the pork up right onto a soft roll. I intended to save it for lunch but alas I almost didn’t take a picture of it before it was gone! My favorite part was the unexpected crunch of the salty cracklin’ skin.

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My cousin Meg asked me to put up a picture of our sofa in situ in our living room. So here it is. It is very large but fits the space perfectly. It will seat a bunch of folks or two lying down 🙂 I put our two new pillows in the corner.

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We have a friend here whose name is Michelle. She is living in a house just behind us owned by a woman named Hillary who owns Alpacas. Michelle is house/alpaca sitting for 10 weeks while Hilary goes back to England to see her new grandbaby. We met Michelle just when she arrived. She was born and raised in Bermuda and speaks with an American accent. She is adventurous and has lived in many places most recently Cypress in a goat shack as she describes it. She likes to garden on the terrace of Hilary’s place so I brought some of the plastic planters with succulents from our terrace to see if she would like to replant them. In turn she brought me a bag of alpaca shit. I spent a bit of time getting it up to our terrace in stages as it weighed a ton. She tells me that unlike horse manure it doesn’t need to “cure” to be used as fertilizer. I will save it until I get new planters. Michelle will only be here a few more days. I will miss her as she is an interesting person. She is going to get her teaching certificate from Montessori and then she thinks she will move to Vietnam for a while. Her partner crews large tanker ships around Africa. Scary nowadays with all the pirates.

Yesterday evening around 9PM or so we heard a lot of people talking from BEHIND our house. This is unusual as it is a tiny little alley of a street and is normally very quiet. It is the same street that has the cat ladder I mentioned. I peered down from our window and saw a bunch of folks and several long tables with benches all set for feast. And feast they did!

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It got very loud and they had an accordion. It sounded like the perfect Italian celebration. We weren’t sure of the occasion but I think it was an engagement party. I suppose it could have been an anniversary party for a long married couple. Whatever it was it was obvious they were having fun. I got up at 12:30 and it was silent and there wasn’t a trace of the party. The picture above isn’t very good but it will give you an idea of the tiny street and the people gathered there.