Category Archives: Umbertide

Happy Pasqua!

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Spring has sprung just in time for the Easter festivities (called Pasqua here). Tomorrow is Venerdi Santo (Holy Friday). I am told they carry a cross through town playing dirge-like music with all the religious town folk following. It is not, however a holiday here unlike in most of the rest of Europe. We have planned to take part in an all fish dinner on Vererdi Santo evening. This is the tradition. Then on Easter Sunday we will go for a traditional end-of-Lent lunch. We will be going with Gary and Susan and I will post about it afterwards. The big celebratory day is Monday. We are told all the Italians go to the seashore…at once! And party all day.

Yesterday I went on a photo shoot and gathered some pictures of the amazing eggs that are all around town as well as Easter cakes. We heard the Italians will spend 400 million Euros on chocolate and cakes for Easter!

This is the window of the little pasticceria down the street.
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These next two I took in the wine shop where we buy our wines. They obviously sell other stuff besides wine. Here are eggs bigger than my head!
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And the shelves are full of cakes (bottom) and eggs (top)
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Next I took a few pictures to show that spring is on the way all around town.
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Here is the town plan of the Centro Storico.
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Here is a tiny alley, one of my favorite streets. It parallels one of the streets into the Piazza.
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Here is a view of the Reggia river (yeah, it is a very SMALL river) along with the walking path that winds into the Centro with La Rocca in the background.
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We actually got a few more errands done yesterday. We bought and I installed our “rabbit” fence for the terrace. This will allow the cats to go out but still with supervision. I think it looks pretty nice.
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Tivere in flood

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We have endured torrential rains around here for the last 3 days. Finally today it is brilliantly sunny and pretty warm. Nice! After the first day of rain the Tiber river went wild. Normally it is such a placid river but it jumped it’s banks in a big way.

This view is from our pantry where I always take my photos of the river. Notice the tree on the left. It is in  a park. The other side it is completely over the lower path and part of the upper one.
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Here are the town walls. Normally the path runs along the base. You can see the path diving under the raised water.
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Slightly upriver from town. Pretty sun on the water.
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See the trash can? It is normally on the bank of the river.
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Here is a shot of the river racing towards Umbertide.
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And in this one you can see the row of trees in the water. The path is just next to them. They are on the bank.
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Yesterday we went shopping in Corciano. Someone asked a question in a newsgroup I follow “is there any store in Italy like Crate and Barrel?” One answer was Maisons du Monde. I took a look and found one pretty nearby. I got on their website and it had a lot of nice things. I was still working on my guest room and needed a few things for the house so we went there for a look. It is a French chain and it sure shows. I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been I guess, that the styles in France are so radically different from Italian styles. Italian has been described as your Grandmothers living room, or the super sleek modern look; never anything in between. French styles are softer, not stogy and refreshing to see. I bought a number of things and am happy with them.

We drove, in the rain to San Feliciano for lunch at Da Settimio on Lago di Trasimeno. We sat inside and enjoyed the view. The lake is very high as expected after all that rain. And we were warm and dry inside as the rain pelted down just past the window. The restaurant has been in the same family for over 100 years and it’s speciality is lake seafood from Trasimeno. Not the best food but nice atmosphere and enjoyable with beautiful views.

Off to the Questura

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Questura
Yesterday we went to the Questura in Citta di Castello to finalize our application for our Permessi renewals. I remember how scared I was last year doing all this. Now it has become routine. I guess that’s good. That said, you may remember that I went for a two year renewal. After all there is a box to check for a two year Permesso. They wouldn’t put it there if we couldn’t get one would they? NOPE! We can only get a one year Permesso. We paid 20.00 Euro (each) extra for the two year as opposed to a one year. Seemed like a good idea to me.

We arrived at the Questura and the officer who came to let us in the door knew our name! He is a very nice guy. He told us we had overpaid. And gave us a letter saying so. Also he gave us a form to fill out to get a refund. Good so far but wait for it. In order to get the refund we had to buy a Marco da Bollo or stamp to affix to the form. The stamp cost 16.00 Euro (each)… So to get the 20 euro refund we have to go to the trouble to fill out the form, buy the stamp, and go to the post office, wait in line, for our essentially 4 Euro refund. Another learning experience and out 50 bucks!

Renovating the Commune building
We were warned that the Commune building was being worked on right across the narrow street from us. So on Monday morning when I walked into the living room I was met with this sight.

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We are essentially on the fourth floor and are unaccustomed to seeing anyone outside our windows. We also cannot figure out why they are doing this work. They are taking off the stucco in long strips from the ground to the roof. Under the stucco is old crumbly brick. To me it seems to be decorative work. Who knows!

Rocky wants out
Here is Rocky hoping he can go outside. Poor boy. We want to get what they call rabbit fence to go on the railing of the terrace. Until then he only gets to go out wearing his harness with me on the other end of the leash.

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SPRINGTIME!
As I put on my Facebook page, I walked onto the terrace yesterday afternoon and found this pot of succulents that the former owner left here. I had no idea there were tiny daffodils in there. Signs of spring!

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Finally, I wanted to share this beautiful picture of our view and the sunset over the river. Lovely.

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Befana

Today is Epiphany. I looked it up and it is the day the Magi came to the baby Jesus. The day before Epiphany is called Twelfth-night or Twelfth-day and marks the end of Christmastide. In Italy the Eve of Epiphany is when Befana comes bringing gifts for the children.

The Piazza was filled with booths selling things. Many of them seemed to be linked to Befana. I noticed LOTS of stockings for sale like we are more used to seeing at Christmas.
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So I looked it up on Wikipedia and here is what it says:

In popular folklore Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany to fill their stockings with candy and presents if they are good. Or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad. In many poorer parts of Italy and in particular rural Sicily, a stick in a stocking was placed instead of coal. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves. To some the sweeping meant the sweeping away of the problems of the year. The child’s family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for the Befana.

Pretty familiar. I liked the sweeping away the problems of the previous year. In Umbertide Befana arrives in an Ape (pronounced app-ay). One of those little 3 wheeled vehicles with a truck bed. How perfect! They attached a chair for her to sit in and she throws candy to all the children who surround the Ape. It drives around the Piazza. There was a band of course. The Ape beeped it’s horn as it went.

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I was shooting these with my zoom from our house so they are kind of blurry but you get the idea.

I am not sure if there is any activity associated with the Epiphany. I heard the church bells ringing this morning at 8AM. I believe there is supposed to be a feast.

Luther is now fighting the cold I had. We also are waiting for Emanuele to bring some packages of things I ordered. Last night when Luther went into the kitchen all the lights went out when he turned them on – there was a POP sound. uh oh. So hopefully Emanuele can fix them.

WE HAVE MOVED! FINALY!

At long last we are in our own home. December 8. It is soooo wonderful! We had a house cleaner in. Her name is Vera. She cleans for Susan and Gary too. She spent two full days cleaning and it looks good. Here are pictures.

Hall from in front of back bedroom and office.
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Office.
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Next two are the pantry.
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Next three are the kitchen.
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Dining room
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View out really clean picture window.
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Luther in the living room.
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Space age dishwasher.
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I even put up our itty bitty Christmas tree.
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Here are a few pictures from the office window of the town Christmas tree and the Wednesday market.

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A funny thing that would never happen in the US. We bought a 48 inch smart TV from Formica. He set it all up and left. We have not paid for it. €849. I guess we’ll have to walk over and pay them sometime. Strange.

Thanksgiving!

I am a lucky person to have shared our American Thanksgiving, and my first one in Italy with my good American friends Susan and Gary and their guests from California and six of our Italian friends and two Italian children. It was an amazing feast! It has been documented in pictures below.

Alas, I was still cooking in the borrowed apartment as we are not quite ready to move into our place yet. My contribution to the meal was dinner rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The cranberries had crossed the ocean with Gina and Mark. I also decided to roast the little Cannara onions in balsamic vinegar, stock and herbs to share. I had to send Luther on an errand to buy a mixer and it was pouring rain. He manned up and walked to Formica and therefore made his contribution to the mashed potatoes.

We gathered at Susan’s and Gary’s apartment at about 12:30. Gary, Gina and Mark had gone up into the Niccone valley to Calagrana to pick up the turkey. Since none of us have a big oven Susan had arranged with the restaurant to obtain and cook our turkey. I might add it was the largest turkey any of us had EVER seen. 15 kilos or about 35 pounds! Eli, restaurant owner and British, had started the turkey at midnight and collaborated with her sister in Philadelphia on Skype. The turkey roasted for 12 hours. She also made some wonderful appetizers, a pork roast in case there wasn’t enough food (!) and a pie. She sent along the drippings for us to make gravy.

Susan’s beautiful table!!

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We started the preparations and Simone, Simona and Fabio arrived with contributions of their own. Simona and Simone are Milanese transplants who live off the grid on a farm south of Umbertide. Fabio is a technical guy and also creates olive wood utensils, lamps, etc. Fabio was the most excited of everyone. He had seen our Thanksgiving on TV and this was his first actual one. Most of the pictures below are from him.

Antoinetta, Barbara, Emanuele and their boys arrived last. We had a prosecco toast and dug into the appetizers. Here are some pictures.

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Next we dished up the Meal. Here is the ENORMOUS turkey which had the boys in total awe!

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And the buffet with all of the dishes. I demonstrated to the Italians how to load up their plates and I was pleased to see they did so with enthusiasm.

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Fabio’s plate and the table.

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Onions.

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Gravy.

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Beans.

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Mark stepped up to carve the bird.

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And finally we all sat down to the feast. We gave a toast to our friendship and our ability to share a wonderful, international meal.

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Luther had helped with the wine selections along with Gary and Mark. Susan had made a pumpkin pie. There were two other pies we were too stuffed to eat.

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.