It is Christmastime again. I am wishing you all a nice holiday season, whatever you celebrate. It will be quiet for us and that is just fine with me! I am having fun cooking. I have cinghiale which I’m making into a stew today, and a tacchino piccolo, baby turkey, for ourselves tomorrow. Turkey sandwiches here we come! Buon Natale a tutti! Let’s all be kind to one another, ❤️
Today was l’immacolata, the feast of the immaculate conception. It is a national holiday. I wrote about it in another post a while ago. The weather was not as cold as usual. It was another piazza filling event with loud Europop music blasting but also a children’s choir which was nice. Then, the big event, the tree was lit signifying the beginning of the Christmas season. I shared the event with our new American neighbors, Don and Sarah. They kindly gave me a ride. A few pictures.
And so it begins. Enjoy the season!
Hey everyone. We had a great day with eight of our good friends. We all went to Calagrana for our Thanksgiving feast as always. This has become a tradition for this group. The story is kind of fun. Gary and Susan treat the meal, Luther and I treat the wine. Here is the story…
Once upon a time, twelve years ago, Susan wanted to have a Thanksgiving feast for her Italian friends. But her oven was small and she had no cooking skills. So she contacted Eli of Calagrana fame. She was happy to cook her turkey. But wait…she was British and had no idea how to cook a whole turkey. Seems only Americans cook whole turkeys. As luck would have it, Eli’s sister lived in Philadelphia and they consulted through the night to cook this (enormous) turkey.
At this time Susan and Gary hosted the feast in their home so they picked up the turkey and some appetizers and served them at home. They did this for a couple of years. Then Susan and Eli conspired to do the meal in Eli and Albi’s house. We were guests there and the turkey was roasted. By now, Eli was a pro at cooking an entire turkey, and because it was popular, even with the others around here, it morphed into a yearly feast in the restaurant with them taking reservations. They always have a full house. It is popular. So that is how our tradition began.
Our group is about 50/50 Italian/American. All of the Italians are “all in” for the feast. They have embraced it. It’s so nice to share traditions with our Italian friends. I will say, some really couldn’t embrace the concept of having all the food on one plate…you know…actually touching 😳. And gasp! There were no individual courses like they do here. But this group, have embraced it and all are just fine…especially our most enthusiastic Italian friend, Fabio 🙂 He exclaimed the first year he came, “why do you only do this once a year!?!?”
Here is the 2025 feast in pictures. Captions have descriptions.
Hopefully we can continue this tradition for a bunch more years. I hope you all had a lovely day too! Happy Thanksgiving!
Montefalco is the capital of the Sagrantino DOC wine producing area of Umbria and this weekend it was the epicenter of the completed grape harvest. Every year they have tastings and events culminating in a fun, hokey parade (of sorts). We just happened to have made reservations for our group of friends who enjoy lunches together. Then, yesterday I heard the ”parade” was starting at 3pm. I knew what it was about because I had attended this festival once before.
We all arrived and had a great table in the Piazza del comune. The main public space in the small hill-town. It was a gorgeous autumn day. As we sat there choosing our food and getting wine the other tables filled with groups and families. The hum of conversation and laughter filled the air. We asked ourselves more than once what it is about going out for a meal in beautiful weather surrounded by Italians that was different from every other place on earth. You can dine outside in nice weather in most cities, but you’ll never get the happy vibe you will in Italy. We love living here.
Here are some photos of the food, the piazza and the Harvest Festa. It is pretty clear the participants have been sampling the harvest wine! and having fun, of course.
The Piazza before.
The Lunch.
The Harvest Festival. It consisted primarily of tractors of all shapes and sizes pulling wagons full of celebrating people usually with a grape press and plates of food which was shared with the crowd. Very loud music accompanied each float.
Ciao ragazzi! I know, I know and I feel really bad about being Missing-In-Action. But I have some pretty good excuses 😉. First off, I have had, and still am having issues with the website. It is down intermittently and this makes it hard to make updates. I am still working with my ISP. They are pretty inept.
Then, I got a mean virus that was going around. Not COVID. But that is going around here too. I ran a high fever, 102F or 38.9C. That is higher than most fevers I have had. I had a headache and intestinal upset. I took ibuprofen and checked in with my medico who said it was going around and she had many patients with the same symptoms. After 3 days the fever and headache subsided but the intestinal upset lasted a week. The worst was that, unlike most weekends, we had a lot of plans for this one. I, sadly, missed our entire Otto Cento festa. I had, planned to meet new residents and friends to show them around. Luther had to be my stand-in. But they got me some pretty sunflowers to cheer me up. 🙂. Then, Sunday, we had plans for lunch with our lunch bunch, the gang o six in Montefalco at our favorite restaurant, L’Alchemista. That, too had to be canceled.
Anyway, all that is past and since then we had our annual street fair which is non-stop vendors from the train station past our house. Probably 10 blocks. I watched from our aerie. And once I got over my malady I began to cook again. I had had no appetite during the illness. I grilled a few times outside on the wood fired BBQ. A whole grilled fish one night and I got very adventurous and made a Lebanese dinner. I made home made pitas which cannot be found here. They were good enough for my first try. And with them we had tzatziki and fresh tomatoes with sliced new onions and a kebab of spiced ground beef and pork. It should’ve been lamb but well, that’s not easy to find. I grilled the kebabs and it was a yummy dinner, and different!
I worked a shift at Books for dogs and someone donated some art which I really liked, so I bought two. I love them.
I always grow a pepper plant or two. This year I tried Tabasco. Tiny little heat bombs. I’ve been tossing them into stews etc and they really perk it up. The photo is after I harvested most of the ripe red ones, which were many. My tomato plants are still producing but have slowed down. The Sicilian one gives lots of small tomatoes. The beefsteak gave a lot of big juicy tomatoes but now it has stopped. There are a number of still growing green ones that I hope will mature. Our weather is the terrific autumn weather we always get here. Our fall season is long and perfect.
Last week we attended the annual silent auction that is held by Books for Dogs every year. They get donations all year and save the best ones for the auction. It was combined with a wine tasting. I had not been to one before. They published a catalog so I had picked out a couple things I was interested in and I was successful. I bought a pretty agate and glass vintage necklace, and a contemporary carved stone rhinoceros. It weighs 3 kilos. I have another soapstone collection of Inuit soapstone carvings and this reminded me of them, but much larger.
We have a few things planned for the future. We rescheduled our lunch with the Gang for the 21st. And we will finally get to Calagrana with other friends we haven’t seen in a while. Tomorrow we are trying a restaurant nearby we have not ever been to. We will enjoy this gorgeous fall weather. I hope you do too, wherever you are! Ciao amici!
Umbertide, previously known as La Fratta, is gearing up for our big festa— Otto Cento. 28-29-30-31 August. It’s a great festival which reenacts the creation of Italy in 1862 called the Risorgimento. Entertainment, competitions, music, food all in keeping with that era. Stilt walkers, street grinders, dancing, cannons! Garibaldi, the briganti and the ladies of the night! Our town produced an excellent video of the festa. Here is a link. Hopefully it will work for you.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1283586796745728?fs=e&fs=e
Now that I am back home with all my cooking things and spices I have been trying some new recipes. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take photos. One night I made my own tostada bowls out of flour tortillas. In the oven. It was a bit finicky but it came out nice. Brown and crispy. I used them as bowls. I made a mix of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions, avocado and a can of tuna. The sauce was made of lime juice from a whole lime, garlic, spicy peppers, mayonnaise. I tried out our peppers that I grew this year. Tabascos. Wow, they are hot. When I minced and mixed the two I had harvested into the mayo, lime garlic it was perfect. Spicy, but not too spicy. I tossed the other ingredients with this mix. It was really tasty, and pretty too. I wish I had taken photos! I also made ceviche which was nice.
August is winding down. The days are noticeably shorter 😔. Enjoy what is left of summer!
When I first moved to Italy, I had never heard of the Sanremo Music Festival (officially called the Italian Song Festival). Over the years since, we usually have watched some of it every night of the four nights it is on in February. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level. It started in 1951 and was broadcast live on Rai 1, the Italian public Radio station.
It does not celebrate the singers. The songs themselves are rated along with the musical arrangements. The songs used to be sung by two different artists, each one using an individual orchestral arrangement, to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers’ competition. During this era of the festival, it was customary that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist. I think it would be more interesting that way, than it is now with just one singer.
I enjoyed it better this year than normal. Maybe it is growing on me? Maybe I have been here too long? Who knows! Anyway, it’s fun and over the top Italian. The songs selected in the competition are in Italian or in any regional language and the three most voted songs are awarded. You vote by calling a number on your cell phone during the song if you like it. I even voted once this year 😁. I snapped some pictures. It is a very inclusive festival. For example, they had a piece performed by a group of people with physical or mental disabilities. It was very well done . That wouldn’t go over so well in the U.S. right now I think 🤔. Here they are.
See, I told you it was over the top Italian. 😉 that guy with the long train? It was 15 meters long.
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Bathroom. They set the round shower stone and concreted the floor. I had Irma and Alesandro here this morning and it’s going to start to get disruptive tomorrow. They will need to be cutting the tiles to fit and that will be messy and loud. They will be coming upstairs where we are living and going through to the terrazzo to do this. Oy. Oh well, it must be done.
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 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!
I got the little tree planted in a pot and have brought him in to decorate. I just finished that and he is quite pretty, if quite small! But he will grow. I used many of my old ornaments. But many I couldn’t yet since he is small. Here are some pictures.
It is pouring rain today. Horrible weather. A proper day to get a colonoscopy. I don’t want to over-share but I kind of think it is interesting to know. Luther had this procedure scheduled for today. It was necessary to get it fast so we opted to pay private which is always an option here. The medicine that we must all take before this procedure was different this time. Less liquid needed to be imbibed. Luther told me this medicine would cost $200 in the U.S. and here it cost €20.
After the procedure, all was OK. It is always a relief. It cost us €450.00 in total. Not bad at all if only needed every 3-5 years. But to be clear, this would be free on the national health system, if you’re willing to wait. I imagine a colonoscopy in the U.S. is more expensive that this. You can let me know!
Cold weather this December. We are staying comfortably warm in our upstairs space. Downstairs we don’t heat consistently. I’ll turn it on before I get up and want to take a shower, then turn it off again.
I have finally decided how to use this apartment. I’ve been having trouble with the two floors and two kitchens. We will move downstairs after the holidays for the coldest part of the winter. Normally January and February, but probably March too. It will be our “winter apartment”. This makes sense because we can use the stufa which has been going unused this year so far. Then, when spring has sprung we will move back upstairs. Most painful bit will be moving the kitchen things. I think most of the things that I use all the time I already have two sets. The food needs to move and the spices. Maybe some cast iron pots. Luther’s workspace. So I feel a little better having decided.
Christmas will be upstairs. I drove up to this really great vivaio – nursery in Italian. We get plants there in spring. They go all out for Christmas. I have never seen such an elaborate set up. They created a maze with Christmas trees galore, life sized reindeer and all manner of decorations. Hundreds of poinsettias, all sizes and colors. These are called stella di Natale, Christmas stars. It’s a pretty name.
I bought a smallish stella di Natale which they beautifully wrapped in red paper with gold ribbons. And I got a white wreath frame. I plan to try to make a wreath for our door.
I had thought to buy a smallish, living tree. I figured we could keep it on the terrace in summer. They had quite a few there at the vivaio so I bought one. A Charlie Brown Christmas tree 😁. Well maybe not that bad, but it’s small. I will plant in a pot tomorrow.
I will decorate it tomorrow and take pictures. It looks like it may be hard to hang ornaments. Speaking of which, one of the things I brought back from our storage facility this past March was all my ornaments. I’ve missed them all these years! So it will be a treat to use some of them.