Category Archives: Italian life

Happy Women’s day!

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Today is International Women’s day. Here in Italy, women are gifted a sprig of mimosa to celebrate. I worked at Books for Dogs this morning and the town was festooned with mimosas. There were big buckets of it on traffic islands, and in front of stores. Women were walking everywhere carrying their mimosa. It is said the mimosa was chosen because it manages to flourish even in difficult conditions and is associated with women’s own resilience and ability to win their rights. Here’s mine. Gifted to me when I went into the Farmacia to fill a prescription 🙂

I normally park on the other side of the river when I drive to town on market days. The river was pretty and I saw my first fisherman!

My little kumquat tree is loaded with fruit. Most isn’t quite ripe yet. You can tell when they are ready because they get extra orange and soften. I have a great recipe for Chicken and Kumquats which I made tonight. My tree.

We have a plethora of pizzerie in our town 😁. They have all different types of pizza. From the super thin, almost cracker crust that is called Roman style to the thicker crust of the Neapolitan style. Last Thursday we went to Degusto which is very near us and Neapolitan in style. Delicioso. This is Luther’s. Mine was prettier but I didn’t take a picture before I destroyed it, by cutting it. Did you know they don’t cut pizza into slices here? You get the whole pie, uncut. I use scissors to cut it if I get it “to go”.

No bathroom updates to speak of. They finally got the wooden form that they needed to use to cut the tiles around the shower stone. But that’s as far as they got. I hope next week we have more progress. This has been a major roadblock. I realize things happen on “Italian Time” here but this is getting tiresome. Oh well. Piano, piano.

Feels like springtime

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We are heading into a slight warming trend. The earliest fruit trees are blooming pale pink. The almonds are white. It’s uplifting. We decided to go to Calagrana for lunch. They have begun to open for Sunday lunch again. It was fun. There were three tables of English speakers and two tables of Italians, one of which was 14 people. So I think we English speakers were overpowered today. This is a change from the past when it was primarily English speakers. I’m actually very happy about this. We saw some friends from North Carolina who have a home here. And the other table were all Books for Dogs people. The big Italian table were having fun and VERY loud. As always, the women sat at one end of the table, the men, at the other. 🙄

The food was delicious. I chose the Crostone topped with roasted peppers, anchovies, capers and tomatoes. So good. The combination of sweet peppers and tomatoes, tart capers and salty anchovies really worked. Picture by Ely of the ingredients.

Luther had the house smoked Umbrian trout with pickles and toast. No picture. Our second course choices were lamb chops for Luther and Guancia (beef cheeks) on puréed potatoes both really good.

Calagrana had a tough week this week with the loss of Archie, everyone’s favorite terrier. He worked the front of the house and had his own bench, which if you sat there, you shared with him. He had been at Calagrana for all the years I had been going and I really missed his sweet little self today. 😔 RIP Archie. 🌈

Bathroom. Last week they began the process of waterproofing the floor and walls. This is the future shower space. We are getting closer to the “pretty stuff” 🙂. Here are the latest pictures.

Buona Domenica a tutti!

Sanremo Music Festival

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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.

Bathroom

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I promised some photos. The first two are of the bath after the appliances and plumbing was disconnected. The next one is today after all is gone.

Now, it’s ready for the plumber who’s coming on Monday. Then I think the muratori (wall guys) will come back and smooth the walls and floors and finished the enclosure for the toilet. After all that, the pretty stuff happens 🙂.
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Our weather has been quite mild for the last couple of weeks and lots of rain. Weekend coming up. We have a few things on. Tonight we are going to our Italian family’s house for dinner. This is Vera and her husband and a Danish couple that she works for. We’ve met them before. They are wealthy and that’s hard to do in Denmark! Tomorrow, I’m working at Books for Dogs then I’ll go to the market. Sunday we are meeting American friends who live nearby for lunch at Calagrana. They are the ones that we help with the olive harvest every year. Calagrana is closed for the season, but they open now and then for a lunch or dinner and we get an email when they do. We have not been since Thanksgiving, so I am looking forward to that!

Buon Weekend! (Yes that’s really a thing they say here. Much easier than fine settimana!)

Umbertide Christmas street art exhibit – Buon Anno!

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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 note they mis-spelled her name.
Nicely done. Love Mary and Joseph’s awed expressions.
The rabbit.
A Presepe

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!

New Supermercato in Umbertide!!

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Big days in Umbertide. We had heard rumors for years about a new super store coming to Umbertide. We waited, and waited. They had been repurposing the old Molino Popolare facility. It is a big piece of land on the main road south out of town. The old mill had been defunct for a long time. They tore down, and cleaned up all the small superfluous buildings but left the big four story old mill building. Rumors had it that would become loft space. Anyway, we had noticed them building a new road etc, but somehow, seemingly in the dead of night, someone snuck in a big, shiny, new supermarket! An EMI to be exact. Today we went over for a look see inside. It is open all day Sunday, not the usual here.

Front of store
From the back, to show the old mill building.

We went inside and applied for the EMI membership card so we could get the discounts. Then we explored. For you Americans out there this will seem mundane for the most part. But much of it is very unusual, especially for our smallish town. Here we go, captions if needed.

Interior of store
Fresh squeeze-it- yourself orange juice. Yay!
I guess I’ll try the guac someday.
Can you feel me rolling my eyes?! 🙄 puleeze.
Lots of fresh pasta both here and in the case.
Well it is almost Christmas after all…time for panetone!
Hah! Hamburgeria.
Aging beef
Prepared seafood. Fries with eyes! The fresh seafood looked great as well.
Prepared foods.
Disappointed in the cheeses. Nothing interesting.
Pizza by the slice.
Here’s something you don’t see here…donuts!
Freshly baked bread.
In the US the biggest aisle is cereal. Here….it’s pasta of course!
Prosciutto for Natale!

Luther gave the wine selection a three🫤. I found a few nice things. I bought a rack of lamb from the butcher. I found pork tenderloins which I haven’t seen in a few years. I bought three! I bought fresh bread and a few other things. There was no international section which I had hoped to see. Overall, it is a nice store. More variety than the Coop. But not a great store.

My little tree

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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!

Cinghiale stew

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The weather has gotten cold and damp. We had our first hard frost. The days are so short now. But the Christmas lights have been going up, which are cheery, and I saw pictures of the Christmas tree going up in the piazza. The big tree lighting day is December 8 on L’Immacolata Concezione, or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Photo credit Helen Harrison Jefferson

Cinghiale! That well loved beast which runs wild here in Italy. Well they are well loved for their meat but little else. I don’t know any hunters, but I have a store here in town that carries the meat. Occasionally I buy it and make a warming stew or ragú. Yesterday it was a stew.

The raw ingredients.
It has to marinate for at least a day

The meat can be tough. And it can have a strong taste. So it must be marinated a good long time. I used celery, carrots, onion, juniper berries, rosemary, bay leaf and red wine. When ready I drained it from the marinade. Meanwhile I chopped a carrot, celery, and onion which I sautéed until it softened. Then I added the meat and cooked until no longer pink. I added in more rosemary and bay leaves and then deglazed with a robust red wine. I used Primitivo which is said to be the grape from which Zinfandel evolved. Once the alcohol had evaporated I added some of the marinade and a little water. Then I covered and braised it in the oven for 2 hours, checking every so often to be sure there was still liquid. When it was done I thickened the sauce and checked for seasoning. It was meltingly tender and delicious. The recipe said serve over polenta but Luther isn’t a fan so I used mashed potatoes.

The finished dish.

It was delicious. 😋

Thanksgiving 2024

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We had some wild weather last week with strong winds and rain. After the storms, all of a sudden all of the surrounding mountains changed to gold. I couldn’t get a good picture but this is our Monte Acuto. Doesn’t look so golden in this one but take my word for it, it is!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had nice weather, we got to see a lot of friends and we ate lots of food!

We were guests of Susan and Gary at a table with nine people. Luther and I treated everyone to the wine. We had four italiani and five americani. We are all old friends. I sat at the end of the table with the Americans who mostly don’t speak great Italian. Me, Roger, Gary. Luther was seated next to Antoinetta. She is mother to our old Geometra, Manuele who did our first renovation here. Manuele’s wife, Barbara came with her mother in law. Then there was Fabio, our most enthusiastic thanksgiving Italian friend. He wonders why we only do this once a year?! And his girlfriend Chiara.

As always, we went to Calagrana. They always have a Thanksgiving lunch every year. The dining room was full. Quite a few British friends also like the feast. Here is the food starting with a plate of four little bites.

Then a gamberi appetizer served chilled.

The main event. A Tom turkey who weighed in at 18 kilograms or about 40 pounds. The entire dining room was fed from this bird. They made a smaller one just in case, but it wasn’t needed.

The turkey was probably the best I have ever had. The entire thing was moist and delicious. There were many sides. A roll of sausage, dressing mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans. I provided the cranberry sauce. I used up my last cranberries on this one.

For dessert we had a delicious, and light, semifreddo.

After dinner we had a delicious coffee with cognac and whipped cream. I didn’t get a picture.

It was a really nice lunch. It was so good to see everyone. I am very Thankful for my life here in Italy and all the blessings we have. I miss family on this holiday where families are the most important part. I hope all of you folks who read this journal had a wonderful day as well.
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Baci e abbracci a tutti! 💕

A visit to the hospital

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I had a routine checkup today. I normally I see this doctor here in Umbertide but I could only go private to choose her as my doctor at the bigger, newer hospital in Città di Castello. I am never happy going to doctor appointments here. Especially if I am not familiar with the hospital. I wanted to see only her so I bit the bullet and made the appointment.

So, first thing one must do is pay for the appointment. You go to the CUP counter there. You pay and they give you a receipt. I paid €132.00. For an appointment and an ultrasound. Then you must find the department and doctor. Never easy.

It was a bit of a wait but it was also kind of sweet. This waiting room was just outside of the obstetric ward. While we were there a new dad and a very worn out looking mom slowly, slowly came down the hall with the new bambina in a rolling crib. A little girl. Waiting for them were both of the mom’s parents and one of the dads’s parents. Oh my. The emotion. It was pretty incredible. The pride that the parents had in their daughter for giving them this grandchild was just — wow.

Finally I saw my doc and she gave me double kisses when I arrived. It is the Italian way.
She said they had had three babies born that day, and that that was a big day. All was fine with my checkup and we headed back out. All doctors offices and hospitals have a lot of religious icons. This office has this.

Just another day in the life.