Category Archives: Umbertide

When Umbertide was bombed

Emanuele loaned a book to me called la Nostra Calvario or Our Calvary. It is mostly about Umbertide before and after the war focusing on the bombing. The Americans and British were trying to stop the Germans in their retreat and tried to bomb the bridge over the Tiber river. They sent four waves of planes each with four bombs most of which fell on poor Umbertide. 72 people were killed. The bridge was finally hit.

Here is a picture of Piazza Matteotti where we have been living since our arrival. It was taken during a Mussolini rally. The door with the arch beneath the banner is the door to our building right next to the Bar Pazzi (Bar Mary today).

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Beautiful Fall day!

Yesterday (Sunday) we decided to visit a restaurant with Susan and Gary that was recommended by our local Enotecca and also visit a winery in the Cannara area. This town grows the famous Cannara sweet onions to be found only here in the world! The weather was just spectacular for November 9. Warm enough for shirt sleeves and with that lovely Autumn slanting sunlight on the grapevines that have turned red and yellow.

First the winery. We headed up into the hills and stopped at an ultra-modern winery. It was not the one we intended to visit which was further down the road. This one, Tenuta Castelbuono had an enormous tasting room and some sculptures. I cannot imagine how much it must have cost. Perhaps it is um, money laundering? Anyway, they had two Sagrantino wines which we tasted and bought. Here are pictures.

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ENORMOUS tasting room.

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Click to appreciate the colors of Autumn.

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The structure was designed by a sculptor. Very unusual.

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After we visited this winery there were few others open on Sunday so we went to Cannara of onion fame. We drove into this little town which is situated on the Topino river, another St. Francis town with two medieval churches and the site where he gave his sermon to the birds. It used to be to be a lake until it was drained in the Middle Ages. We passed a sign advertising onions or Cipolla for sale. Couldn’t pass that up – world famous and all! We rang the bell and the lady came out and took us into the shed. As we entered the gate another car stopped with a family inside and asked us if they sold onions. We said yes and he was thrilled and gave out a Bellisimo and stopped to buy also. Only Italians would get this excited to buy onions. The lady began scooping onions into a bag, and scooping, and scooping! 2 kilos later (about 4 lbs) we left. Fun.

Now onto our restaurant called Hazienda Ristorante Cafe. What else would you name an Italian restaurant? It was one of those holiday places. It had apartments to rent for holiday makers and a swimming pool, great views of Assisi up on the mountain. We ordered the 4 course degustation menu. After we ordered the owner warned us that it was a LOT of food. Uh oh. Well it was a lot but we managed it. No picture, sorry. We had an antipasti with several fried specialties like onion rings (famous onions!) fried sage leaves etc. Next was a pretty plate with three fried dough circles on which were three poached (famous) onions on top of a parmesan cream sauce with drizzled balsamic (heaven!). Next were Raviolis in a parmesan cream sauce. The Secundo or main course was supposed to be horse but we couldn’t deal with that and had them substitute lamb, grilled, not great. Over done and gristly but thankfully not a lot to eat. We skipped dessert. Burp!

Back in Umbertide they were having a big market with clothes, jewelry, roasted chestnuts and peanuts. Happening place. Pictures.

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Chestnuts being roasted.

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Today, Monday, always a slow day. BUT it was an unusual Monday because our kitchen was due today!! I went over to the house to grab some things I needed and take a little walk. They were washing the floors in preparation for the kitchen.

We also got good news from Gary that Luther’s long-in-coming medicines had been delivered to him (2 months!). It is so funny, Luther’s name was on the package, we had my sister send it to Emanuele’s office but no-one was there. BUT they knew other Americans lived nearby and they MUST know the recipient so went to Gary’s house. He paid the duty and we met on the Piazza to take delivery and pay. Also Susan brought me my share of the Famous Cannara onions. Now I need to figure out how to fix them to take advantage of their special qualities.

Here is the Pedini truck delivering our KITCHEN!!!

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I’ll go over tonight to see the progress. So exciting!!

Grand finale 800 festival

Well, I lived to tell the tale. The ear plugs worked pretty well. After the first night we wore them. The weather was cool and rainy for the first two days which I heard, cut back on attendance. They made up for it after that!

I noticed they worked through a few themes. The Brigands play a big part and they are “headquartered” behind our apartment. Saturday night was when the Brigands actually took over the town. During the night they changed all the street signs!! Adding comments of their own. They took down the Italian banner in the center of the piazza, replacing it with their own. They did the same to the flag on the castle. They transformed the piazza bringing in hay and small trees and erecting walls across the streets. They covered all the Italian bunting under the windows with pictures of the Brigands. I was up a couple times in the night at 3:15AM and 6:15AM and they were still partying. Here is the new banner with the “runway” up to it. (BTW – our borrowed apartment is the top two left windows in the white building)

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Sunday morning we went outside to see the banner and saw there were two mannequins dressed as Brigands. They were obscene. I hope they are not too obscene for this blog! If you are a prude skip this one!

I had to do a double take on the mannequins!! and the door handle on the new door in the wall they erected (pun intended :-))

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Here are a few other pictures I took on the final evening. This is the brothel near the Brigand taverna behind our apartment.

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Here is the Taverna dei Briganti.

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These next two are of a strolling group of musicians. They were serenading a little girl who is rapt.

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Finally, here is the Briganti flag hoisted up the Castle.

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The final night Garibaldi (with his red hair) rode his palomino horse into the Piazza and saved the town from the pope! I am guessing that Garibaldi was the leader of the Brigands so it went to it’s intended conclusion. I watched the end of the otto cento celebrations from our window. There were hundred of folks in the piazza. The mayor spoke. There have been bands and others who are obviously being thanked.

This whole thing is a lot of fun and gives lots of insights into the Italians. They all do all the work for the feste to help the town. But I also think they all love the tradition so the work is not so onerous. They wholeheartedly get into the costumes and enactments. We talked to Susan and Gary over lunch on Sunday about this. Susan said they have no word for self conscious. That explains a lot.

Speaking of lunch. We took a ride in Susan and Gary’s new car, an Audi Q3. Nice. I am sure Susan will blog about the purchase (Americans in Umbria) but they told us when he brought the car home everyone in the piazza where they live came out to congratulate him and shake his hand(!)

Lunch at da Cesare over by Corciano. It was a seafood place. The seafood was excellent. Here is my octopus appetizer.

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I’ll blog about the shipment next. This has gotten a bit long!

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.

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.

Concert, food touching, buying envelops, and IKEA excursion

Saturday evening we went to the Brahms 3rd Symphony concert in the Chiesa di San Francesca here in Umbertide. It was a 50 piece orchestra who had only played together for a couple of weeks and they were from all over the world. It was very good. The church acoustics were lovely. The 3rd movement was especially lovely.

Before the concert we tried out Inferno e Paradiso (hell and heaven) which was across the street and situated in the old vaults under the street. They served grilled meats and pizzas only. Also they specialized in beer. What we had was not good but if you stick to beer and pizza I think you would be happy enough.

Sunday we had a lovely lunch at La Chuisa. It is an agritourismo a couple of miles from Umbertide. The food was very homey and tasty. We sat on the porch. The weather was beautiful. We actually had 3 courses. We split an antipasti and we all had a pasta and a secondo which was their special braised chicken. I was amused that the chicken came on a plate with a small bowl of salad and some potatoes. Italians never let their food touch. Everything was well spaced. Susan had mentioned that she had a bunch of Italians for Thanksgiving and they all got up and got one thing at a time and ate it, then went back to get another. They were appalled that the Americans just piled everything on a plate together! Too bad, they miss that wonderful medley of mashed potatoes, dressing and turkey smothered in gravy!

Yesterday we did errands. I purchased 5 envelops. Yes 5. They sell them individually! I would have never guessed. I also got some sticky labels and fixed our doorbell which still had the wrong name on it. Also fixed our mailbox label which had Luther’s MIDDLE name on it but that didn’t bother the mailman as he still brought our mail to it. We also signed onto the Italian police website and checked our Permessi – it said they are in progress. Well I guess that’s good. I also took a picture of the cat “ladder” in the small street behind us. They built it specially so their cat could come and go to their second floor.

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Today we went to IKEA! It is on the Adriatic coast about 1 1/2 hours away. We stopped into a winery that Luther had chosen on the way. There was a beautiful old church just along the driveway – the word for country church is pieve. A stylized version of it is also the winery logo. It is not normally open but a photographer had come that day and they had opened it up so I was lucky to get some pictures. The young woman is Sylvia who did our wine tasting for us.

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Before we visited IKEA we had a wonderful lunch at Hotel Cristoforo Colombo. We had had trouble finding anywhere to eat. It was an industrial area we just happened upon this hotel. The food turned out to be great with lots of very fresh seafood. I had the Taglietelini with clams.

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I did some recon at the IKEA for future purchases but did buy a cushion, two pillows covered in linen for the couch and a cutting board which I had been sorely missing in the apartment.

Our visit to the Italian Embassy

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I’m Back!

I know it’s been a while. I’ve been concentrating on getting through my surgery and recovering. I’m happy to report that I have done very well and am nearly back to normal.

As far as our Italian house saga goes, things have been slow. All is progressing over on the Italian side and since closing is not set until May 31 we are kind of in a holding pattern.

One thing we needed to do was to find out about the Elective Residency Visa which we were told we would need before we went. We had wondered about the necessity of this since once we get to our town we will need to apply immediately for our Permesso di Soggiorno or permit to stay and it seemed redundant. I had thought that we could perhaps go over on the 90 day tourist visa that everyone gets and then go through that process. After some sleuthing I found out that that is not possible. You have to be here in the US and go to a Consulate or, in our case, the Italian Embassy in Washington DC and apply for the ER visa.

So we got on the website and made appointments to go down for a preliminary foray. We figured we wouldn’t get everything right on the first pass. I worked very hard though, to try to get everything and nearly succeeded! I read it is best to present yourself in good clothes and have everything all neat and orderly and duplicate copies of everything. So I did that. Luther wore a jacket and tie. I work slacks and a sweater and we took our packages and presented ourselves at the appropriate time at the Visa window.

The man there was very nice and not at all intimidating. He looked over our papers. We had filled out our Visa application and made copies of it. We had passport pictures taken and appended to the application. We had copies of our passports in duplicate. We had all of the bank statements showing our income and cash in duplicate. And last we had to show we had a place to live. This could be an official contract for an apartment or ownership of a house. I had copied the Promesso/offer and the check and the formal documents for buying our apartment. I had known before we went that this could be the sticking point and I was correct. They need the FINAL REGISTERED papers after the sale is closed. They cannot use just the offer. He did say all of our other items were in perfect order and that if we bring the paper with the registration numbers all official like we would be good to go. That was good news if not perfect news.

So now we really just have to wait until our closing date and have the documents sent over to us so we can go back and apply again. I sent a note to our realtor asking about when we could expect to get that.

The lady we are purchasing the apartment from, Elizabette, is reportedly putting in offers on other properties in Umbertide. She has another house in the country where she could go if she doesn’t find a place. I hope for the best for her.

So that’s where we stand for now. We are working hard getting our house ready for sale here in Virginia. Decluttering, cleaning up, painting, having the garden cleaned out. Our winter was very tough this year and nearly every plant in the garden was killed by the cold. That is too bad because I think the garden is a big selling point on our house. I guess the good news is that I now have some time to get it re planted and have time for some of the dormant plants like the ferns and hostas to come out. Oh and our fish will enjoy having their puddle of a pond cleaned up as well.

Stay tuned for more news!