Category Archives: Umbria

Unsolved mystery

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I have always wondered about the method of closing the packaging for butter here. The wrapping for the butter is paper, which in and of itself, is unusual by the standards I’m used to in the US. There, it’s in a box which is sealed and inside are the individual sticks wrapped in folded paper. Here, firstly, they don’t have sticks of butter. They have one piece of butter in varying sizes. This is wrapped in paper. They use a metal rivet on both ends of the folded paper to seal it. But my question was, why a metal rivet and why only on butter?

I posted my question on a Facebook page called Umbrialiens to which I belong. It is an excellent, friendly and helpful group. I got a number of replies. Most said it was tamper proofing. But I still wondered, why the metal rivet? Turns out they also use a rivet on some types of pasta wrapped in paper. It seems I had forgotten that but my friend Libby refreshed my memory.

So the end of the story is…tamper proofing. I am left unfulfilled. I still want to know why the rivet?
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Next subject! I mentioned I had seen a sign for Sushi at the Carrefour market. Today we investigated during our small shopping trip. Turns out you have to pre-order for pickup. And they offer it on Friday and Saturday. This is reassuring. Only offering it two days tells me the fish will be fresh. Friday is still “fish Friday” in Catholic Italy…especially during Lent. So this could be popular. And I, myself, would feel comfortable buying this.

I think I will have to try it. I am a sashimi fan, not especially sushi. I may try both. If/when I do, I’ll report back.
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Italiano sentence. “Oggi piove e fa freddo” — in English “It is raining and cold today”. Pronounced — Ohg-gee pee-oh-vey eh fah fred-doh. Be sure to pronounce the double consonants like the “gg” in oggi. And the “dd” in freddo.
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Stay safe everyone…andrà tutto bene 🌈💕

Regional meal — Umbria

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Tonight is Regional meal night from Calagrana. This time from our very own Umbria. We opted in for the wine since it is a new one to us. I am especially looking forward to the Torta al Testo. Fatta in casa….home-made.

Torta al testo is very old and it originated in the Umbrian area. It began as an unleavened alternative to traditional bread. There are two variants: the original one with wheat flour, and later came one with corn flour, after corn arrived from the Americas. Normal ingredients are only water, flour, salt and baking soda. In the upper Tiber valley, where we live, I read there’s is a similar cake called ciacca (probably dialect), the recipe involves the addition of an egg. This, I have not yet verified.

The cooking surface, a disc about 3 cm thick, is called “testo” from the Latin testum, or the brick tile on which, in ancient Rome, focaccias were baked. Originally it was made at home by making large stones into a smooth surface and placing it into the fire to heat. Now it is possible to buy a special Torta al Testo pan made of cast iron or concrete.

Traditionally the Torta al Testo was split and eaten with any meats or foraged greens. But it is most often seen eaten with the pork products for which Umbria is famous. Our friend Vera invited us to lunch in the Before Times and she asked her mother-in-law (suocera) to make some. She does make the best I’ve ever had. They have a huge outdoor wood oven to make it authentically. It smelled so floury and bready, and it was very soft. I could’ve munched it all day. But this day I learned the traditional way to eat it, with halved sausages and cooked spinach. It was incredible. I had to borrow a picture. Photo credit to Dreavel.com. This is the traditional way. I may have to try my hand at making some myself!

I didn’t actually know Pollo all’arrabbiata (arrabbiata means angry and says it will be spicy) was an Umbrian dish. I must look it up. We finished our meal and it was scrumptious. Here are pictures.

plated and ready to eat
Eating!
Torta al testo
Vino

Italiano phrase…”fare la scarpetta”. This needs some explanation. Literally it means “make the little shoe” but it is a saying. If you have sauce left on your plate you use the bread to sop up the sauce. Or you “make the little shoe”. Pronounced fah-ray lah scar-pet-ta.
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Stay safe everyone, andrà tutto bene 🌈

Beautiful day for a walk

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There was good news in the Corriere della Sera newspaper yesterday — Mario Draghi — our new Prime Minister — has installed his own people as the covid team and he’s calling up the civil defense and the army logistics command. The civil defense will be administering shots, and the logistical people will be making sure the vaccines keep coming and get to the right places. They want herd immunity by summer. Spero di si! It would be nice to have a “normal” summer. I am a sceptic so will wait and see.

I also read in the US news today that numerous states are reducing restrictions and opening businesses after the lowering of cases. Texas is even removing the mask mandate. I can see why they want businesses open. But why remove mask mandates? These moves will inevitably result in an upswing in cases again. Do they NEVER learn from the past? It is too soon and there have not been enough vaccines administered yet.
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Last year our old Conad grocery store closed, as did the butcher next to it. The Conad was our nearest grocery of any size. A new store, Carrefour, took its place. A French chain. It is bigger, cleaner, and has more products. Yesterday I saw a sign outside advertising fresh made sushi. I was surprised and pleased. But today the sign is gone. So I assume this means that fresh sushi is not an everyday thing. Investigation is in order.
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I went for a nice walk in the evening. The weather was very pleasant with temperatures in the 60s F and sunny. There is a park nearby. I had not visited it in some time so I went there and walked today. Here are some pictures.

When I took this next one I thought it would not come out. But I was pleasantly surprised. Tiny white flowers in the forest. Sweet!

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I heard a rumor. A new restaurant will be opening in Centro of Umbertide. It makes my heart feel good that there are optimists still willing to fling themselves into creating something new in the chaos of the Pandemic times. And a restaurant to boot. I hope this rumor is true!
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Italiano sentence for today. “Ho trovato un albero con piccoli fiori bianchi nel bosco.” English — “I found a tree with tiny white flowers in the forest.” Pronounced…oh trove-ah-toe une al-bear-roe con peek-co-lee fee-or-ee bee-ahn-key nell boss-co.
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Stay safe everyone. Andrà tutto bene!🌈

Moonset – times two…

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I was up at 6am Saturday and from the window I saw the full moon setting with a reflection in the Tiber. I went out in the cold in my nightgown to snap a picture. Brrrrr. Mornings are still very cold here.

But, Saturday was sunny and warm in the Piazza. We headed out to do some errands and visit our local market to see what was to be seen. I bought a few things at the market. Broccoli/broccole and Cauliflower/cavolfiore are always around this time of year. Some fresh eggs. And I got the ever present Cavolo Nero or black kale. Luther bought six bottles of vino bianco from our local winery. The nice lady there is always so excited when we come. I don’t think she sells much 😞 So we are happy to support them and the wine is good!

We also drove to a store and bought some pellets for our stufa, and visited the grocery for some supplies. I bought carciofi romana…artichokes …because I saw a picture of someone cooking them and it made me drool…🤤
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Carciofi Romana Why have I never made this before! It is so good. And really not so hard. I had four artichokes and I cleaned them and prepped them for the pot. Then I rubbed them in garlic, mint, salt and pepper.

I put them into a pot and poured the olive oil over them, then added the water and brought to a simmer. I put a lid on the pot to let it cook.

After thirty minutes they were done. Very yummy and garlicky. I served them as a first course before our hamburgers 🤣😂

The ingredients are few. I did four artichokes but you can do as many as you want. You can look on the internet to see how to trim them if you haven’t done it before. You’ve got to be pretty ruthless. Most of it goes in the trash. If you’re not cooking right away put them in a bowl of lemon water so they won’t discolor. Chop about a tablespoon of mint and garlic fine, add a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Rub the artichoke cut parts in it. Put them face down with stems up in the pot. Put the heat on medium. Pour about half a cup of olive oil over them. Add about a cup of water. Lower heat and simmer 30 minutes. Serve warm.
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Moderately good news. Umbria has gone back the Orange Zone. This does very little for us except people can sit outside a cafe for coffee, and the dress shops will be open again. I think that’s about it. We still can’t leave our Comune. I don’t mind telling you, we are all bored out of our gourds here. If they’d let us go into a Zone Yellow we could at least travel in the region of Umbria and the restaurants could open for lunch. Maybe soon 🤞🤞
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Italiano for today. “Ho incontrato un amico in piazza e abbiamo fatto due chiacchiere” In English, “I met a friend in the square and we had a chat.” Pronounced — oh in-con-trah-toe un ah-me-ko in pee-ahtz-zo A ahb-bee-ahmo faht-toe dew-ay key-AH-key-err-ray. The word Chiacchiere is a really hard one for me to pronounce. They really accent the second syllable. And they roll all their Rs. Really roll them which I cannot put in my pronunciation. Many English speakers have difficulty rolling their Rs. When I was little I used to do a lot of sound affects with my toys. So rolling my Rs is natural! 😁
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Stay safe everyone, buona domenica! 🌈

La cena regionale

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The weather has been so perfect lately, I took the opportunity to walk around town and take some pictures. I got a lot of doors but I am going to save them for the next post. Pigeons have plenty of places to perch and nest. This is one of the defensive towers in the town walls.

Laundry day and sunny walls.

One thing I noticed that is different here in Italy than in the US is that there are no advertisements in our mail. No catalogs. Nor are there requests for financial support by charities or foundations like the ubiquitous Alzheimer’s Association. We ONLY get real mail. The occasional card or letter from a friend or utility bills. That’s all we get. BUT people do get Pubblicità — junk from stores stuffed in all the mailboxes advertising sale items or weekly specials…these are not through the Poste. They are carried by people hired to distribute them. And there are a LOT. They are messy. They get rained on or they end up on the ground, tossed there by someone too lazy to take them to the trash. You can put a sign on your mailbox that says “No Pubblicità“ and in theory, you will stop getting these. We have a sign. And for the most part we don’t get the ads. Once or twice a week we get something stuffed in, even with our sign. Here is a typical group of mailboxes stuffed with Pubblicità.

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Tonight is the next stop on the Calagrana Regional Culinary Tour. This time it is from Toscana. Our next door neighbor. We are only a few miles from the border.

And….here’s dinner!

Italiano phrase – “ci sono troppe pubblicità” In Englese – “there are too many advertisements” Pronounced…chee so-no trohp-pay poob-blee-chee-TA.
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Buon fine settimana! Stay safe….Andrà tutto bene!🌈

Clean-up on the terrazzo

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It is time for clean up of the pots and old plants before we can get new plants for the upcoming summer. Oh joy! Summer! I am debating whether it’s too early to uncover the table outside. I’m thinking it is not. Only severe weather will affect it and I don’t think we will have anything VERY severe.

I am thrilled that my tarragon plant is sending up pretty, green, new shoots. Shout out to my friend Joanne for providing me a new plant last fall after my previous one died. French Tarragon is not to be found in Italy. Only Russian, and it has no smell or flavor. It seems strange since we share a border with France. Joanne brought two plants back from Germany for us a couple of years ago. I’m so glad mine survived the winter this time. I do love tarragon chicken.

I have a lot of sweet alyssum that is still very much alive. I usually pull it all up but I’ve seen some massive specimens around here so I’m going to leave it and see. My friend Doug told me it is mostly considered an annual in the US, but since it is native to the Mediterranean it will probably come back. The stems are very green inside.
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Italian phrase for today…”dentro è ancora abbastanza freddo per poter usare la stufa a pellet” in English “inside it is still cold enough to use the pellet stove”. Pronounced…din-tro A ahn-cora ahb-bah-stan-za fred-doh pear eu-sahr-ay lah stoo-fa a pel-let. I should mention my pronunciation that I write here is as good as I can make it by saying it and trying to spell the sound. The A that I put in is really a long A sound, like the a in jay. I couldn’t seem to phonetically spell that.
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Stay safe everyone. Andrà tutto bene 🌈.

Sunny Sabato

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It was sunny when I started writing this on Saturday. It clouded up later but I know for a fact next week will be beautiful. Well…I actually don’t know “for a fact” because the weather reports here are so unreliable. Luther and I follow different reports on-line and they NEVER agree…so we pick the one we like best! It is something I have always wondered about. In the US, in the Washington DC area where we came from, the nightly news weathermen were stars. I always loved Bob Ryan on Channel 4. They are actual meteorologists and they have so much technology at hand and are usually very reliable. Here, the weather report is only reliable for about eight hours ahead of time. Useless.

We went to the grocery store yesterday. Since we are still in the Zona Rossa we can’t go together into the store. So we each grab a cart and go off on our own. They always take our temperature to get inside. We bought all we needed and returned to our side of town. Before dropping of our purchases we drove to FOXX, the pizzeria across the river and ordered pizza to be delivered for dinner last night. This was our first time ordering from them for delivery. Then we dropped off all our purchases as well as the kitty litter and four bags of pellets. Big carry for Luther. I drove and parked and returned via the Saturday market in the piazza. I ran into Jim in front of Bar Mary, he was our realtor and was our first acquaintance in Umbertide. I was saying life was boring and he was pretty funny and upbeat. He’s good with doing fuck-all every day, he said. He gets up. Makes tea and coffee. Reads Facebook, Twitter and the news, and then it’s time to get dressed. After that it’s time for lunch. And so it goes…day in and day out. Very much like my days. I did look up fuck-all and it is a term used in Britain which means “absolutely nothing”. Handy descriptor for most of my days.🙂
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We had very bad news in Umbria this week. 80% of all cases in Umbria are variants. 60% Brazilian which reduces efficacy of vaccines. Since we are not vaccinating at a fast pace it means the disease is getting ahead of us. Our numbers continue to rise and we are in Code Red already. Even here in little Umbertide we are having between 10 and 20 new cases every day. Very discouraging.
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A photo of the sunny yellow Comune building just across Via Grilli from our front windows. I love it in the sunshine.

Phrase. “farà molto più caldo questa settimana”. In English “it will be much warmer this week” Pronounced far-AH molt-oh pew call-doh quest-ah set-tee-mah-nah.
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Stay safe. Andrà tutto bene.🌈

We have news!

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My friend Susan posted some information she found about the vaccines for we Umbria residents.
“There will be 3 ways we can make an appointment for the vaccine: go through a web site, use and 800 number or go to the pharmacy. We are registered by year of birth, so we need the Codice Fiscale to verify. Then we will be sent a text message telling us where and when we get the vaccine. People 80 and over are first up then the rest of us staggered by year of birth. And the vaccines will be given in Umbertide. We’ll see how this all works, but it is at least step One.”

Thanks for posting Susan! It makes me feel we have some organization and plan, since we have heard very little until now.
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Big snow storm coming tonight and it will be the first “actual storm” since we’ve been here. Predicting 15cm of snow. That’s around 6”. For us, that is a lot. I am excited! Pictures will follow…
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Tonight we will be having the regional dinner provided by Calagrana. Delivered to our door. This evening it will be Trentino Alto Adige.

Sentence for today. “per stanotte è prevista neve!” in English, “snow is predicted for tonight!” Pronounced…Per stah-note-tay A pre-vista nay-vay.

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Stay safe ! 🌈

Covid

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A little thing I just realized…this is the first time in my adult life that I don’t know who is playing in the Super Bowl. And I just read that this coming Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday 😏. It is also the next super-spreader event…some advice, Don’t organize a party at home. Don’t go to a Super Bowl party.
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It’s time to update on our Covid situation and also talk about the future of travel to and from Italy. The emergency declaration which allows the government to make quick decisions about Covid issues has been extended until mid-April and it will probably be extended again.

Most of Italy has been rated Zone Yellow. Unfortunately we here in Umbria are Zone Orange, threatening to tip over into Zone Red. We have a steady increase of cases. This morning I read two cases of the new Brazilian strain of the virus were found here. I also heard the worst numbers are in the Perugia province of Umbria. In Umbertide we have a very famous rehabilitation center, Prosperious. Turns out there are 26 cases just in that center alone! It has necessitated the close of our hospital.

Speaking of hospitals, the big medical center university hospital in Perugia, Sibillini, is being hammered. There was a photo with a line of ambulances waiting at the Pronto Socorso (emergency). They have closed it except for Covid and emergencies. They are not allowing any visitors. This is particularly hard on Italians as they expect to practically live in the hospital with their family or friends.

Vaccines. We have heard our age group has been pushed to no sooner than April. They are still vaccinating over 80 year olds and health workers. We visited our doctor today and she says they have no idea what is happening with the vaccine. So we wait. I read an interesting article in the Washington Post about what people who HAVE been vaccinated should be able to do, and not do. The biggest issue seems to be the new strains which are loose practically everywhere now. The UK, South African, and Brazilian strains. No one knows if the vaccine people are getting now, will be protection against the new strains. And no one knows if a person who has been vaccinated can still carry the virus and infect others. This means people who are vaccinated can feel a bit safer themselves against catching it or getting very ill if they do, but they still need to wear masks etc to protect others. Because of the uncertainty I think they still recommend against traveling even if you’ve been vaccinated.

Travel. The EU, and Italy, have no plans to loosen the travel restrictions. In fact things are tightening up even more. The Italian government updates its rules and restrictions about every 2 weeks. And they don’t try to predict any farther into the future than that. So there’s no way to tell when the travel ban will be lifted. My guess is not until most Italians have gotten the vaccine and we have gotten the disease under control here. We are far from that right now. They don’t predict the third group of people (under 60) to be vaccinated until October or November at the earliest. I don’t think 2021 will be the year tourists return to Italy. 🙁
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Flatbread!
Today I decided to make a old recipe I’ve been making for years. Rosemary flatbread. I ordered some dry yeast on Amazon because the stuff you get here is very unpredictable. This is just like the Fleischmans I used to get in the States. So to try it out, I made…flatbread! It was thicker than my previous loaves because I don’t have my big cast iron pan here. Still it was tasty.

Sentence in Italian “Il tempo non è freddo questa settimana” in English, “The weather is not cold this week”. Pronounced – eel temp-o non A fred-doh quest-ah set-tee-mahn-ah.

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Stay safe. Don’t go to a super bowl party! Andrà tutto bene 🌈

Baccalà

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Yesterday was a welcome sunny day. And not too cold. As usual, the Kilometer Zero market was here and instead of huddling under their tents to keep dry, they were sunny and happy like the weather. We ran a bunch of local errands and did some shopping. The nice man I visit normally had what looked like spring onions. I asked him what they were called and he said aglio fresco, or fresh garlic. It was young garlic before it grows into bulbs. He proceeded to tell us all about ways to use it. In a frittata or in a pasta. So I bought some.

I didn’t intend to use it in a frittata or in pasta. I thought it would be perfect in the dinner I had planned for last evening.

I had planned a dish using baccalà. It is the salt cod which you find throughout the world. It was first produced by the Vikings and allowed them to explore widely. They brought it to the Basques who were also renown seafarers and fishermen. Portugal calls it bacalhau. It eventually went to the New World where it became a huge industry in New England.

It is super popular here in Italy. It is found everywhere and is relatively inexpensive. The fish is dried until it is hard as a rock. It is one of Luther’s favorite things. I bought the cod from our fish truck which comes twice a week. It was already soaked and ready to use. I bought it dried once before and soaked it myself. Takes about three days and you change the water out at least twice a day. Much easier already soaked!

The dish is salt cod baked with cauliflower. It sounded interesting and cauliflower is plentiful now. The cod is cooked in cream with garlic and scallions until it can be flaked. In this case I used the young garlic greens. The garlic and scallions are mashed in the cream after it is cooked until thick. Then the cream and cod is mixed with cauliflower, pine nuts, currants and lemon zest and baked.

Here is the finished dish. It was yummy, but I’m not sure I’d make it again.

Italian sentence for today, “Forse andrò a fare una passeggiata” in English, “Perhaps I will go for a walk”. Pronounced for-say ahn-droh ah far-ay une-a pass-ahj-gee-ah-ta.
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Stay safe everyone! Buona domenica!