Category Archives: Umbertide

Home again, home again

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Yay, I am back in beautiful U-town also know as Umbertide. Our trip back from Slovenia in the injured Porsche was uneventful I am happy to say. We have an appointment to take it to the dealer on Tuesday. I hope it is not anything serious.

Thoughts on our trip. I liked Udine pretty well. No reason to return that I can think of. Bergenland at the Neusiedlersee was very Austrian if not Alpine. The area is nice. It was unexpectedly cool and wet. The food was not notable but Luther got his schnitzel hit. Budapest is a big, noisy city. The hotel was nice. The people in the city were not very friendly. I, for one will not return to Hungary. The experience with the Porsche dealership there was horrible. It colored my opinions. Bratislava is beautiful and welcoming – I would go back. Our hotel was nice but not spectacular. The food was only OK. Lake Bled in Slovenia was beautiful and relaxing. Our hotel, Berc Garni was very Austrian in feel. Lots of wood. A nice balcony. When a hotel says Garni, in German that means they have no restaurant. But right next door was the sister hotel Berc Pensione. We ate the best food of the trip here, and both nights it was that good. The kitchen was outside which I thought was interesting.

Now that I am back in Italy and “at home” I have time to think about our first year here. Our arrival anniversary was June 25, during our trip. I can’t say that I have hit the place that many have written/warned about where I regretted the move. Oh, sometimes I am homesick yes, and I miss my sister but I do not regret that I came here. Life here is infinitely more interesting than my former life. I am constantly stimulated. Whereas, everything in Virginia was so familiar to me that, unless I had challenged myself with some activities outside my norm, I was bored. So, here’s to Italia and my life here. Still having fun!

When we got home on July 2, our house sitter moved out and life returned to normal. We walked to the grocery store, the wine shop and the butcher to buy provisions. I got hamburgers to grill on the fourth of July. Also marinated chicken to grill on Luther’s birthday, July 5.

The holiday rolled around with little fanfare. Gosh! no fireworks?! What are Umbertidese thinking? It fell on a Saturday so I went to the kilometer zero market to buy veggies. I bought some squash blossoms on impulse. Then I needed to get ricotta to stuff them. Happily there is a stand at the market where there is local pecorino cheese as well as home-made ricotta and mozzarella.

Remember that I now am the proud owner of several hot varieties of pepper plants? The Jalapeno had a couple of plump specimens so I roasted and minced them and mixed them into the ricotta and added some panna granna. Then I stuffed this mix into the squash blossoms, made some batter and dipped and fried them. Yum! they were very good. Happy fourth of July! Here is my pepper plant.
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So a few posts back I took a picture of the sunflower fields outside Umbertide. While we were on our vacatiion they bloomed and now are nearly past their prime but I got another picture of them yesterday. It is very, very hot here right now, 98 F! It was about 5PM and they should have been facing us but they were not. SO after all that I couldn’t return without a picture even if their backs were toward me.

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And finally, while we were gone a lady pigeon decided our gutter was the perfect place to set up housekeeping. I don’t know what she will do if we get a thunderstorm. The cats are fascinated and sit by the railing. They can’t see her but they either hear or smell her. They don’t seem to bother her in the least. Here is her picture. Good luck to you pigeon!

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A walk in the fields and a road trip

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Yesterday we went for a nice walk down the river and through the fields nearby. All the crops are on schedule. This first picture is of the sunflower or Girasola field before the flowers open. I will go back in a couple of weeks when they bloom. Umbertide is in the distance.

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The grapes are tiny versions of their future selves. Hoping for a good harvest this year!

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And finally the winter wheat, planted last November is ready to harvest.

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Tomorrow we begin our first big road trip after moving here. We are driving north. The first stop will be Udine in the Fruilli area near the Slovenian border for just one night. Onward to the wine region of Austria for 3 nights. Then we visit Budapest for 3 nights. After that we visit Bratislava in Slovakia for 2 nights. Heading back south we stop in Slovenia at Bled in the Alps for 2 nights. All these places are between 2 and 4 hours apart and they are all in different countries! We have been to all except Hungary before. Actually we visited Czechoslovakia before it split into two countries so maybe technically we didn’t visit Slovakia. In case you are wondering we have a nice couple of friends coming to house/cat sit for us. Makes my trip much better to know the boys are being looked after.

Some interesting weather and pictures

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We have been having summery weather with some storms and pretty sunsets. I thought I’d share a couple of photos from the last week or so. This one is a gorgeous sunset.

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Our weather comes from the west and our terrace faces that way so we are treated with seeing the storms approach. Oddly this one loomed up and over us and then disappeared. Here is one of the storm with the sun behind the cloud.

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On Sunday we planned to meet Shirley and Frank over in Montepulciano for lunch at our favorite place, La Grotta. Before we left home however, I glanced out and there was a wedding in progress. They had four of the classic Fiat 500s with white bows on them awaiting the wedding party. (the fourth one got lost, was red, and showed up later) I wished I could have seen the bride, in her voluminous dress, get into one of these babys!
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It was kind of cloudy and cool. We decided to visit a winery on the way to MonteP named Tenute del Cerro. I will only post one picture of the countryside from the winery here as we have to wait for the Wine Guy to write his post about it. It was a fantastic place.

Beautiful huh?
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Lunch was great, and to make your mouth water, here is what I had. First an interesting salad with shaved, raw asparagus, shaved parmesan, and a poached egg.

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Next Tagliatella with goose ragu. YUM!
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Dog show

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So how else would you celebrate the day Italy became Italy? Of COURSE! A dog show!

I was right. The pens I saw were for the different categories of dogs to be judged. We visited among the dogs and I took a couple of pictures from our window. The show went on the entire day! From about 9AM until 6PM. Pictures were taken, ribbons were won! Everyone had fun.

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And this is relatively disgusting. Luther went for pizza last night and bought this. Look closely. Yes, those are hot dog slices and actual french fries on there. Ugh.

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Cedro

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Today was market day. We went out to purchase our fruits and vegetables as usual. Today the woman that we usually buy our vegetables from showed us an unusual citrus fruit. It was about the size of a grapefruit but she said it was between a lemon and an orange. Curious, I decided to bring one home. Looking it up on Google – it is called a Cedro – it said it is one of the 3 citrus’ that all subsequent citrus came from. It is a very old species. The ancient Greeks had it. Here are some pictures.

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Next to a normal lemon.
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Now I just have to figure out how to use it. The woman at the veggie stand mentioned a salad or with fish. Also on the internet was a picture of it halved. Seems only 20% of it is edible. Most of it is peel!

Also there is another phenom going on here right now. It looks like snow but it’s some plant that is broadcasting it’s seeds on puffs of white. I’ve seen this before but not to this extent. The stuff is piling up like snow drifts in all the corners, on stairs and especially in our garage. It swirls around our feet. I tried to open the windows today. All have screens but the big one in the living room. I had to close that one because so much of the stuff was coming in. I tried to take a picture but it really doesn’t give the real feel of the quantity of the stuff. Anyway, here it is. You can sort of see the white bits of fluff. Sure hope it stops soon!

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May day

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Wow do they keep the Umbertide band busy or what?! Friday May 1 is a European-wide holiday similar to Labor day in the US. We had the band out again. The local union leaders and polititians got up on the podium and speechified for a couple of hours. Umbertide is majority communist so labor unions etc. are very important. Later they blessed the tractors… I missed it but I am told it is the tradition.
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After my sister and her husband left I asked them, since they were the first to use the guest room, what it lacked. All in all it served them well. The only issue is the odd steps in our hallway ready to trip you up in a very real sense. These steps are between the guest room and the designated guest bath. For their visit we moved a small lamp from their room into the hallway. It did the job but was a temporary fix. After they left I purchased a night light which is activated automatically. It comes on when the lights go out.

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The weather is very beautiful now. Sunny and warm. It will be in the 80s for the next few days. It makes me want to plant things so I purchased some plants from our market and we got some dirt from the hardware store just down the street. Here is what I call the herb corner.

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Sweet basil. Here they sell it oddly. You don’t get just one plant. Rather you get a densely packed bunch of small stems. I have to see how this works out.

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First of the flowers. Three lonely petunias. There will be more soon.

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View of Umbertide in the evening sun.

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Finally here are my purchases from our Wednesday market. The strawberries are local now. The artichokes are perfect and YES! those are new spring peas. Sauteed them in some butter with salt and pepper. So sweet!

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25 Aprile

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Today is the 25th of Aprile. In 1945 Italy was liberated on this day. But as the Germans moved northward up the country much damage and many lives were lost including citizens of Umbertide. Also on the 25th of April but in 1944, one year earlier than Liberation Day, Allied bombers, attempting to hit the bridge over the Tiber, killed 72 people in Umbertide. The square, since called Piazza 25 Aprile is now a parking lot but where the walls of the houses were is delineated in red brick with openings where the doors used to be as well as the house number. There is a plaque on the wall with the names of the killed.

We knew something was up yesterday when the Kilometer Zero market set up on an unusual day of the week, Friday. This morning the street cleaners made the Piazzas pristine and I noticed all the police were wearing their spiffy dress uniforms. Then, at 9:15 am the bell in the old church tower on the piazza began to ring. I wondered at the significance of the time. Later I read the bombing started in the morning, probably at 9:15. I didn’t count but perhaps they rang it for each person killed. Then the Umbertide band marched through town.

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We ventured out a while later and they were giving speeches in the Piazza 25 Aprile. I noticed a number of old men about. I wonder if they remembered the day. Later when I was talking to Susan about it she mentioned that she felt guilty and avoided the celebration because the Americans did the bombing. I had not felt that way at the time. Perhaps I was being insensitive.

Last night I took this picture of the Tiber. It was a pretty sunset.
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Eventful week

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What a difference a week makes. Last Monday we woke to this.
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Yes that is snow on the mountain tops! Today, Sunday nearly a week later we have this.
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Last Sunday was Easter. We had a fantastic meal at Calagrana. Here are a few mouth watering pictues!
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The best thing though, by far is that my sister came to VISIT!!! I am sooo happy to have her here with me! We drove down to Rome and spent the night prior to their arrival in Fiumicino at hotel Pascucci Porticciolo. Luther enjoyed the bright green bath. We dined in their one star Michelin rated seafood restaurant. Very wonderful experience.
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The next morning we picked them up at Leonardo da Vinci airport after their overnight flight. All went smoothly. Since they, Cindy and her husband Bill, are our first guests in our own house and we had not picked up anyone from the airport yet we were doing this for the first time. Parking was easy. Finding the international arrivals was easy and after watching several thousand people exit the doors…there they were!

We drove home and they visited the kilometer zero market, did a little Umbertide stroll, unpacked and we headed to Montone for lunch at Erba Luna. It was so beautiful we could sit outside! Wow. Here is my sis!
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We had some lovely food.
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Today we headed for a couple of hill towns in northern Umbria and very eastern Tuscany. Such a perfect day. We walked the towns and took pictures. Then we headed for lunch at Calagrana. I knew Cindy and Bill would love that place and the food was outstanding as expected. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Unfortunately they are only here for a short week but we have planned a number of excursions and the weather is going to be perfect all week. Yay!

Ceramic table arrived!

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Yesterday was Venerdi Santo or Good Friday. You may remember we purchased a ceramic table top in Deruta, world famous for it’s ceramics. We have been dealing with Ceramiche Artistiche Gialletti Giulio. They are friendly, helpful, and seem to treat us fairly on cost. In February I ordered a 100 cm table top and iron base. They promised to get it to me by the end of March before my sister visits. They got close. April 3 they delivered it. It was only one person, Michele whom we deal with and he asked Luther to help bring it up the stairs. It weighed around 70 Kilos so it was HEAVY. All is well. It looks beautiful on our patio!

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Close up of the artists work.
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Last night was the Good Friday Fish Evening at Calagrana. They had a packed house. I think everyone there was British. That is the one disadvantage of Calagrana. But Ely is British and her husband is Italian. I believe Ely is the one who dreams up the dishes and Alberto makes them. They are a pretty good team.

Here is what we had.
First course was Spicy fish cakes served with garlic dip. Forgot to take a picture. It was fairly spicy and I would have liked more of the garlic dip.

Next was Prawn and aubergine Millefoglie. The eggplant was like potato chips! Really crunchy and the prawns were sweet. My favorite dish of the evening.
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Then we had Creamy risotto Frutti di mare. Perfectly cooked, crunchy arborio rice and mixed seafood to include mussels, shrimp and squid. High on my like list.
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Next was the main or Secundi. This was a Mixed grilled fish. By this time I was pretty full. It was not a really exciting dish either. But the fish was well prepared.
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Finally dessert of Panna cotta of white chocolate and raspberries on a crumble base. Very good even after all that food. A fun evening.
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We got back and the streets were crowded with the faithful who had just finished carrying Christ around town. I went into the church before we left for dinner and saw the “coffin” type wooden box with a glass top inside of which was Jesus. There were poles that stuck out of the ends for carrying. Interesting.