Category Archives: Italian life

Pizza night at casa Vera

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As I mentioned recently, we were invited to pizza night with Vera’s family. Our famiglia italiana. There was an interesting group. Of course there were Vera and Graziano and their two girls Maya and Desiree. Then there was Graziano’s mom and dad and his brother and his wife and their two children. A couple from Brazil who were unrelated friends with their two children, one, a 2 month old. Finally Vera’s nephew and his wife who was visiting from Slovenia. Many languages a tavola. 🙂

It was a hot evening after a hotter day but we dressed for it and it was shady with a light breeze so not too bad. During this past winter Graziano had build a new pizza oven with prep area under roof. It is a beauty. He said it was a lot of work. It replaced the old oven that was 40 plus years old and had done its duty. This was the very first use of this oven so Graziano and Vera were nervous to see how it went. One of the things I was surprised at was that they have no refrigerator downstairs. Everything cold is up one or more floors and has to be carried down. I mentioned to Vera they need a frig in the shelter. Make life so much easier. I’m pretty sure she will do it. 🙂
Photos have captions.

The new oven and place for making the pizza.
Graziano and Luther in the yard before the activities began.
Desiree and the new bambino
Dog that was abandoned which Graziano’s dad took in. He is very frightened. Obviously has been abused.

Now for the action. Pictures of the oven.

Moving wood and ashes.
Oven is ready for the pizzas.
Cooking it up. Margherita. It takes less than a minute to cook..

This is where Vera assembled each pizza, and her mis en place with all her ingredients.

All important tomato sauce.
Mis en place

Now for the pizzas.

First Margherita next to a pizza bianca. They started with three of the bianca sort of as a test run.
Salsiccia – sausage.
Gorgonzola with salumi piccante – spicy salami.
Zucchini with blossoms pizza. My favorite.
Salads. Melone e prosciutto is a standard for summer in Italy. The watermelon, melon and feta with mint was cool and sweet.

And finally…Vera sat down to eat the fruits of her labors.

I ate a ton. It’s impossible not to taste every single one. Their salads were delicious. Graziano’s mom, who is an excellent baker, made a delicious dessert, coconut cake. We stayed until well after dark, and headed home.

Below are links to three video I took of the action for the first pizzas. They are short. You may notice she and Graziano are a good team. He holds the pizza peel on the table so she can place the dough right on it then add the ingredients. She says “vai!” Each time and he takes it and slides it into the oven. A minute later the pizza is done and they repeat the process. Boom boom boom! Pizza’s on!

Catching up

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It has been busy here and there, but it is mostly very mundane! I’m going to show a few photos and tell you a bit about what we’ve been doing. I finally finished my medical things. Navigating the system is hard for us stranieri. We don’t ever really understand it. But I did it and all is ok and I’m happy. Our two cats will be 16 in August. That’s a pretty old age for cats. So far they seem OK. We can’t decide if Simba is getting deaf. Rocky, pictured below, loves the terrazzo but he doesn’t go far unless we are out there with him. He seems to love the heat(!) which is inexplicable given that thick coat of fur! 😳

On Sunday we were invited to Pranzo at our friend Doug’s beautiful home. Sunday lunch is a tradition here. The best day to get together to eat with friends. Below you’ll see his amazing view. We sat on this terrace and enjoyed that view. It was hot but not in the shade. The beautiful table is next, and finally his coup de resistance- a grand salad Niçoise. Everything he served was cool. Perfect on a warm day.

We saw our friend Vera for a chiacchierata. That means chat in Italian, it is so much easier in English. I still have a hard time pronouncing it! She invited us for a family dinner this Sunday. They will make pizza in the big wood oven.

Today we had a treat. We went to Arezzo to meet our good friends Susan and Gary who live in Florence now. Arezzo is a city in Tuscany about 50 minutes from us driving. It’s about the same from Florence by train. We met up at Osteria 54 for lunch. It had a small menu but plenty of good things to choose from. It was so great to catch up with them. They were our first friends when we moved here. They lived in Umbertide then. They helped us out a lot and we got to be great friends. It’s not that often you meet completely simpatico people. We traveled together and discovered a billion great restaurants together. We all love good food. We had a great time today catching up. We miss one another a lot. We have a trip planned together for October but I’m sure we will see them sooner than then. Picture below is of my appetizer. A cold tomato tartar with burrata cheese in top. Perfect on this hot day.

Otherwise we have been doing some trip planning. The October trip is to Lecce in Puglia. We also have an anniversary coming up so have reserved in a Ligurian seaside town, Sestri Levanti. We were there once before and liked it a lot. And finally our big get-away trip to Austria for a month in the summer to beat the heat. We will have an apartment in the mountains and we will do a couple short excursions from there so I was busy making reservations for those as well. These are all happy things to look forward to. That’s not always the case nowadays. We need some things to distract us from events in our world right now. That’s about it. Enjoy June…happy strawberry moon which is amazing right now! 🌕

Summer, here we come!

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The weather is picture perfect right now. Quite warm, 31C or 88F today and getting hotter. Our terrace is the perfect extended living space. Last night we inaugurated eating dinner outside, and then watching a movie. 🙂 It was lovely. Luther smoked a cigar but I really think he has decided that cigars are no longer a big part of his life. It is hard for him to transition. But it’s a good thing. Maybe now it will be an every-now-and-then thing rather than an every night thing.

Today is a holiday here. Republic day. The day, in 1946 when they voted that Italy would become a republic. Nothing is open. I had a basket of the kumquats that I harvested from my tree sitting on the counter for a week mocking me to use them. I found a recipe for kumquats and apricot chutney. So today I amused myself making a batch. It’s quite tart and a bit piquant. I think it will go as a relish with many things.

Last Saturday night we had rather an unexpected experience. Goes to show we can still mess thing up after all these years 😁 We used to have a restaurant in town called Locanda Appennino. It had a lovely outside summer terrace which sat right on the city walls. Sadly it closed several years ago. Recently friends told me it was open again under new management.

We had friends visiting in town who own apartments in the countryside and we always try to have a meal together when they come. I made a reservation at this new place for us all. Or at least I thought did. I first called the number on the Internet and ended up with the old owner who said they were closed. But I “knew” they weren’t! So I found another number and called it. I made the reservation and let our friends know.

Saturday we went into the restaurant and looking back on it now, they didn’t seem to have a reservation for us but said if we came back they would open up the terrace for us. So we did that and returned.

The place was a little basic (understatement!). I think it must be a work in progress. The owner and cook were your basic, rather “rough” Umbertidese. But sweet, as all Umbertidese are. They told us what they had. Basically an antipasto assortment, a primi which was tagliatelle with ragu, and a secondi of pork. We had one vegetarian so we asked for a non-meat pasta which they made for us. The wine was red…or white in re-used bottles.

The antipasto was good and varied. We had cheeses, meats, roasted baby onions and radishes on platters to begin. Then a plate of the thinnest sliced eggplant ever (super good), and a plate of bruschetta fegato, (liver). Oddly, no bread. In the end, we all got fed and had a laugh. 😆

At nine o’clock I got a call from the other Locanda Appennino. Yes, there are two. I was so embarrassed that I had reserved a table for six on a Saturday night and then was a no show. I never would do that. I even told him when he asked where we were that we were there now, eating. Until we figured out the confusion.

We are finally enjoying summertime in Umbria ! 💚

Cataract surgery

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I will relate the entire story. I visited the local Occulista here in Umbertide that I used once before for a checkup. She said I needed surgery because I have cataracts in both eyes. She recommended two doctors. I opted for Dotoressa Ricci who would give me an appointment in Città di Castello north of us a short distance. She gave me the option of getting in the queue for the operation in the National Health system (free), or to pay private. The differences were, for the public system 1) I would have to wait a year or more, and 2) I wouldn’t get a choice of the type of lens they implanted. For going private, 1) I get the operation now and 2) I get the exact lens that will correct my astigmatism and remove the cataract. I opted to pay private. The cost was €2,000 for all. Including follow-ups.

The operation took place this week on Tuesday in a private clinic in a town called Gualdo Tadino. It is a 50 minute drive, but it is a very pretty drive so… The actual procedure was not fun. I don’t know how it is done in the U.S. Maybe someone can tell me. It took maybe 20 minutes. And I went home to do drops for a month. I had to wear dark glasses inside and out.

Today was my “after surgery checkup”. This time in the Gubbio – Gualdo Tadino hospital. All of these facilities are unknown to me. I was surprised that the hospital was quite modern and new. It was also in what I would call the “middle of nowhere”. It is nice they have a good medical facility out there.

I had to wait for an hour for the doc to see me. But it was all good news. I can see well from this eye. I need to get my glasses refitted to have plain glass instead of prescription. I’m cleared to drive and do anything I want. One more post op checkup and I’m done. Second eye we will do in September. Summertime is fun time here. We are all going places and doing things. So no business to be done! I love this summer vacation mindset.
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A little side step. I always loved, and used the Miracle Grow pellets back in the U.S. for my plants. But I just couldn’t find them here. Most things are liquid and you mix with water. I like the time release ones. Finally I managed to enter the right parameters and I found this…

Literally crescita miracolosa. Means … miracle grow!

Chinese store

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Last week was pretty busy. I finished the final medical tests my doctor prescribed. I visited Ely, at Calagrana to pick up a chair a friend had left for me. It was early because I had gotten blood taken for the test at 7:15. The morning was lovely and I don’t think there is a more perfect, calm and beautiful spot than Calagrana’s terrace. Ely made us a couple of cappuccini and we sat on the terrace and had a nice talk. We should do that more often.
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I also needed to pick up a couple of demijohns and a terracotta pot I bought from a lady nearby who is continuing to downsize her home here. They have lived here a long time but moved back to Maryland a few years ago for health reasons. They can’t yet let their home, up above Umbertide, go. I don’t blame them. It is pretty up there. You can see the city in the distance.

She also has cacti which were blooming. I am planning to make my planters, which are not irrigated, into a succulent garden and she is going to give me some of the cactus.

Next I did something I seldom do. I visited the Chinese store. You’re probably scratching your heads aren’t you? But this is a “thing” in Italy. I don’t know why I have never written about this before. Every town of any size in Italy has their version of a Chinese store. Owned by Chinese people (obviously) and full to the brim of all kinds of things. Too many to list but to name a few: office supplies, toys, kitchen tools and supplies, clothing, pool toys, pots for plants, art supplies, etc. To shop here is to get cheap stuff. Don’t look for quality or tasteful things. But for everyday things that people need, you can be pretty sure you can find them here.

What did I buy? Well, I bought a new wooden scraper spoon, some shelf paper, and a bunch of new clothes pins. Boring but necessary things. So there you have it! Another odd thing you’ll find in Italian villages and towns.

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Otherwise, tomorrow I am getting cataract surgery. I’m very excited. I may not have to wear glasses anymore! And today we also did some planning for a short trip over to Sestri Levanti in Liguria for our anniversary. We went one other time, staying at Vis-a-Vis (thanks Matt🙂), just after Covid, and wow, what a difference between then and now. Then we had our pick of any room we wanted. We had two balconies, one sea view, the other town view. This time, I had a very hard time finding a nice room with a terrace and view at all. Back then, no one was traveling. Now, that’s not the case. It is the opposite. Anyway, it is not exactly on our anniversary, but we will celebrate as though it is.

That’s all the news fit to print. Enjoy spring. Our weather has turned glorious! Enjoy yours, and Happy Memorial Day.

Busy Saturday

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Lots going on in Umbertide today! I headed into the center of town to visit the market and also to do a short shift at Books for Dogs. I had forgotten that Sunday was the big, exciting day when the Giro d’Italia goes through town. See the banner below. It is a very famous bicycle race. Almost as famous as the Tour de France. Of course, ours is more important HERE. The cleaner up people were out mowing grass all along the route. Including the park next to the river.

It was a pretty day. The market was busy. Slow Food had a booth open. I bought some asparagus, spring onions, baby zucchini and some itty bitty new potatoes. But there was lots I didn’t buy, like new peas and fava beans. And the brand new local artichokes! It is so nice to see all these new spring veggies after a long winter of the same old winter veg. Inspiring.

I did my stint at Books for Dogs. A busy day. Now that the weather is nicer more folks come out. A couple of pictures of the goods. The winter things are gone and we are ready for the summer.

text

In my own garden I took a couple pictures. The first is our Christmas tree. He is spending his summer on the terrazzo and seems quite happy, judging from all the new growth. The next photo is the lemon tree with all its flowers. it also is very happy. And last is a teensy, tiny lemon just forming from the flower. There are probably a hundred flowers so it is not possible for them all to become mature lemons, as time goes by, some fall off.

I am feeling better from my cough. So happy. I even have energy to do some gardening. I planted another tomato, this one Sardinian with a darker skin colour. I also planted a tabasco pepper because I couldn’t get a Jalapeño. They had scotch bonnets and habaneros but I didn’t want those. I also got two basil plants. Next week flowers, chives, sage will come.

Buona domenica to all.

Back to everyday life

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It’s good to be home, even with this crappy cough. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow but I’m doubtful she can help. It is just una brutta tosse, a bad cough, that keeps on giving! I had a surgery scheduled yesterday for a cataract but had to cancel because of it. I was disappointed because I’m looking forward to perhaps not having to wear glasses! How exciting.

Anyway, the weather is pretty good now. Not super warm but nice. I visited the Umbria Iris farm again last weekend with my friend Doug. We also had un caffè in the piazza and shopped the market. I’m very happy to have fresh eggs readily available. But that’s only in the spring when the chickens are really laying. I love fresh, free range chicken eggs. Fifty cents each.

Iris farm. Views are to die for. The maintenance on this place must be daunting! And the money invested incredible. Very nice to visit.

Doug bought three of these.
Iris’ for sale.

The day after we returned home we had our new handyman, called a tuttofare in Italian, Roddy, come and do the work we needed done around here. It took almost three days! The biggest part was the five windows that faced the weather that needed to be sanded and resealed. He also hung pictures for me and my curtains. And he replace a piece of wood that had been removed by another “helper” who never returned and he painted the two planters that looked really bad after their paint had sluffed off. It feels so good to get all the maintenance, and also things that I had waited for, for such a long time, done.

Here is the contact info for Roddy Gee owner and proprietor of Umbria La Vita. Www.umbrialavita.com
+39-340-162-8854
umbrialavita@gmail.com

I chose a new color, a light gray. The former owner was into pink. I am NOT a pink lover. So the new color really makes the old pink look crappy. Sooner or later that must be painted. But they look spectacular. 😁

We had aperitivo with our friends Christie and Jane and some of their friends one evening. It’s always good to see friends. 🙂

We also had our new friends Sarah and Don, who just moved here (!) over to our house so we could look over their applications for their first Permessi di Soggiorno. The beginning of a long road. It is always so nice to have new friends move into town. And we love helping them with the arduous process. I can’t wait to see their progress in their new home in the Niccone valley.

For me, I have a long list of things I want to get done. It is planting time and I need to get the energy to go out and get soil and plants for the planters. That’s tops on my list. Here are the baby olives on our little tree.

I will be working at Books for Dogs this Saturday. I will visit the market before work. We are in a transition season. The spring veggies are slowly showing up. Yay for the change of seasons.

Ciao for now!

Hi folks!

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I decided to put out a quick post. Luther and I both are battling a mean cold. Called a raffraddore in Italian in case you’re interested. We went to the Books for Dogs charity Quiz Night. Fifty people packed into a small room. Superspreader event for sure. I’m glad it wasn’t COVID. We had a lot of fun but I’m not sure that makes up for battling this cough. We did come in second however…😉

Anyway last weekend was Pasqua, Easter. A Big Deal in Italy, and we kind of missed the whole thing this year. We had reservations with friends to go to Pasquetta lunch, little Easter, Easter Monday. But we had to cancel.

Sadly, we lost our beloved Papa Francesco on Monday. We will all miss him. The funeral and then the conclave to elect the next Pope will come next. I will be interested to watch it all.

The weekend before Easter, Palm Sunday we did go out for pranzo. All around Umbria they hand out olive branches rather than palm fronds on this day. You could see places everywhere to pick some up. Pranzo was at Ristorante UNE where we had been a number of times in the past…before they were famous… Last year they received a Michelin star. It wasn’t much changed, except for the prices doubled. It used to be €45 per person for a five course fixed price lunch, which was a steal. Now it is €90. But I get it. Thing is, there were only five tables for two for a Sunday lunch. I wonder if it’s because of the prices. Anyway, it was good, I took pictures of course. This first one was on our way up the little road to the village. So green.

Here are some of the courses. I enjoyed the meal but I was full-to-uncomfortable. The next three are just some of the ten different small appetizers we had. Captions under the photo if I recall what it is 🙂

Snails on a skewer with cauliflower
This was my favorite of the appetizers. Filled with porchetta with a cheesy dip,
Primi. A carrot flan with black miso, underneath the raw, thinly shaved mushrooms.
I just remember the top thing is rabbit. Those yolks are quail and barely soft boiled so they burst in the mouth.
Dessert. Ice cream stuffed with fruits and chocolate underneath the meringue
Assorted extra desserts…which I couldn’t eat! Too full.

Next week we have planned a trip to Spain. I sure hope we are both better by then! We will fly to Valencia then train to Alicante and then to Madrid. All new places for us. We have a house/cat sitter who arrives from London at the Perugia airport Sunday. That gives us a day to show her the ropes. Of course there will be a trip report! ☺️. Ciao for now.

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!