This was a last minute invitation that was communicated to us by Gary from Emmanuelle. His mother was making her famous cinghiale or wild boar. We were invited to join the famiglia. What fun we had!

They were such a nice family, so inclusive. There was Antoinette, the mother of Emmanuelle. Her husband, Lucio, Emanuelle and Barbara, his wife and their two boys who did not join us at the table. And of course Susan and Gary. We started with American hot dogs! they were on actual hot dog buns. They had cut the dogs in half long ways and then in half the other way. They had mustard and catsup too!. It was because it was July 4th and they knew we celebrated. They thought we would want turkey! Ha! I guess because of Thanksgiving they think all of our celebrations involve Turkey. Susan had told her no, just at Thanksgiving but for July 4th we had hotdogs and hamburgers. Hence the hot dogs! I got a nice flatbread with proscuitto. It was great. Then the main event, the cinghiale. It had been marinated and stewed until it fell apart. Lovely dish with a tomato base. Also there was a spinach and beet green vegetable dish. After that we had a nice green salad with cold green beans. Finally for dessert we had watermelon! It was perfect and light. There was much wine and the patriarch of the family brought out his home made sweet liquor. It was based on hawthorns (but I don’t know how – as far as I know hawthorns don’t have fruit) and it was very sweet, pretty potent, and very good. I had a small glass.

Well it was all just such fun. Susan and Gary said now WE are famiglia and all will be right with the world.

We walked over to the Piazza where the world cup was on and there were lots of people watching. Luther had his cigar with some grappa. Emmanuelle and Barbara came over to see their friends.

Today marks the anniversary of our first week here!

Today is Wednesday which is the big market day here in Umbertide. It it HUGE. In front of our apartment in the Piazza is the food part of the market. There are maybe 6 or 7 vegetable and fruit vendors, probably 5 or 6 Porchetta (whole suckling pig that they slice for you) vendors, 2 fish dealers, 3 or 4 cheese vendors (some specialize in Mozzarella di Buffala others in fresh ricotta), two flower and plant dealers. Then the market sprawls around the castle complex and there were probably 30 clothing, shoe, household goods like sheets, dealers. It was amazing. Here are pictures of the castle (first) and one of the aisles in the clothing market.

I bought some vegetables and fruit and some little, tiny clams and calamari to make a spaghetti dish. Love those little clams. Everything was very crowded and you had to compete with a lot of people.

I ran into Michelle who I met at the Cuba Feste. She is the one taking care of the alpacas. She told me a funny story about the first morning she went out to tend them. The male had gotten in with the females. She has NO IDEA how but they were very calm after a busy night 🙂

We decided to go across the bridge to the wine shop we had visited a couple of days ago. They served lunch several days a week. They had 3 tables out front under umbrellas. The food was very good. We had some good bread with olive oil, and a couple of slices of proscuitto and cheese. Then we both had the tomato eggplant pasta. Perfectly al dente. The funny part was that both of the other tables were full of english speakers! One was all Brits. The other was a couple of American women who had been on a painting holiday in Tuscany and their friend Geoff who lives in Umbertide and is British and another man who is German. One of the women heard us speaking and came and sat right down with us and asked us where we were from. We had a nice conversation. Turns out she is from LA and the other woman lives just near the French Embassy in Georgetown in DC. Small world. I got contact info from her and Geoff. Geoff is a builder and real estate agent here. He is interested in having a website so I may have a little work from our encounter.

Another interesting day. It is warm with brilliant blue skies here right now.

Our friend John sent us an email about a concert being held at Civitella Ranieri. It is a 15th century beautiful castle on top of a hill just outside of Umbertide. We decided to go last evening. Civitella Ranieri is a non-profit foundation (based in NYC) which hosts Fellows and guests who are musicians, writers or artists. Lucky Fellows! This place is magnificent and they cater to the artists every whim. The concerts are free and start with a reception with wine and snacks. Then the concerts starts around 6PM or so. They do it early because the artists go to dinner at the castle after the concert.

It was not what I expected at all. First off the castle was just amazing. Here are some pictures:

The room where the concert was held was one of the visiting artists studios. Each artist gets a private room and bathroom and a study or studio. Here is a picture during the performance:

There were 7 performances. They ranged from classic to extremely modern. The first one was a flutist. It involved a lot of percussive movements of the lips. Not my favorite. Next was a beautiful pair of songs played on the violin and sung by a mezzo-soprano. She had a beautiful voice full of passion. They were adapted from medieval French folk songs. I liked it. Then came a saxophone quartet. It was amazing and impossible to describe. Very modern but I liked it a lot. The next thing was a violinist. The piece was all harmonics. It was kind of “look what I can make my violin do”. It was interesting. It sounded like we were listening to the violin from a great distance. Sometimes it sounded like birds. Sometimes it reminded me of music from a film like The Exorcist. Then there was a flute and piano piece – modern too – the composer was sitting next to me. It was titled Ruin of the Cypress. Next was a pianist playing a very modern piece. Last was the mezzo-soprano and a pianist. The song was an ode to a sub-culture of Peruvian people who are oppressed. She sung it so plaintively! It made me cry.

It was a great evening and I look forward to going again soon.

Here are a couple more pictures. First is a flower in the garden and then a picture of the table set for the Fellows to eat dinner al fresco. Nice.

We returned to the apartment and a quick dinner. Here is the sunset from the apartment. So pretty!

This was Sunday so not a lot to do with house renovation or Italian paperwork. A nice break. The weather was just gorgeous.

We had been invited to lunch to celebrate Susan’s birthday. They took us to their favorite place near Deruta called Antica Forziere. It was a beautiful stone farmhouse up on a hillside. They had pretty outside tables. We dined inside and it was beautiful with vaulted ceilings. The food was wonderful. I had a beet ravioli (picture did not come out sorry!) and a veal steak that was coated in sesame seeds with an artful pile of eggplant and mozzarella. A beautiful presentation.

I think their real claim to fame though are their desserts. The presentation is amazing with sugar “cages” and spun sugar. The first was a selections of 3 parfaits. The second is their main dessert plate meant to be shared, which we happily did!!

We returned to Umbertide for a rest to let that lunch settle and digest. This evening was the Arts on the Piazza and later in the evening there was the Cuban Feste. Don’t ask me why Cuban or what the relevance to Umbertide is but we enjoyed it. As Susan said, it is very disorganized but oh well! First we sat at a table at Cafe Centrale and shared it with a bunch of British folks who live around here. One of the women owns an alpaca farm. She lives in Umbertide and the farm is on the way to Montone. She is going on a 10 week vacation so has another woman who will be taking care of the animals and house etc. The housesitter lives a rather peripatetic lifestyle. Most recently she’s been living in Cyprus which she liked very well. She also lived in Bermuda, Georgia (US) and I forget the rest. I liked her. I hope to see her around because the house is just behind us.

The Feste was both funny and good. First they had a bunch of the local children dressed up in costumes who danced (badly). There was a Tango demonstration and the two dancers were very good! Also a group of Ecuadorians in costume danced. There also had been lots of World Cup cheering from the two bars. I was pretty ready to turn in by this time and since our window is up above the piazza I could watch from there. Joseph and Paul showed up after picking up a friend in Rome who flew over from San Francisco. Her plane was late so they didn’t arrive until the end. It was good to see them.

After we went upstairs the main event started on the stage below. A very good Cuban Salsa band. I was impressed but it was VERY loud. Here are a couple of pictures: