Last night, I said to Luther, we should go to a winery tomorrow, while we have this nice break in the weather. We haven’t gone wine tasting since we had our last guests in October. Quick phone calls ensued. Mevante, a winery near Bevagna which we had not visited, were happy for us to come for a tasting. Luther thought lunch at one of our favorite places, L’Alchemista in Montefalco, would be a fine idea.
What a glorious day, if a bit windy. The winery sits on a hill overlooking the valley over to Monte Subasio. They were hosting a big event this evening, a christening for 100 people, so they set up a table just for us outside. I felt like royalty! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. First two are views from our table.
Tasting roomGrecchetto white wine was one of the best we have hadTheir olive oil was some of the best. super peppery in the throat. I loved the itty, bitty bottle.
The owner was our host and he was very welcoming despite that he was very busy with the expected group. Of course we bought quite a bit of their wine.
We drove to L’Alchemista. I love the round square that Montefalco has. It was a lively place today. Fun people watching. Our food was good as always.
We headed home for a siesta as is called for after a satisfying lunch. Here’s a picture of the small street in Umbertide which we cut through to stay in the shade. It looked pretty today. I love all the layers, balconies, lamp, stone balustrade, rooflines.
~~~~~~ Finally, good news! We see they are finally bringing back our Otto Cento festival, gone since Covid. (put Otto Cento in the search bar to see pictures of past festivals) It will be the end of September. I am thrilled.
In other news, the little hill town near us, Montone, is gearing up for its annual film festival. It lasts a week with multiple screens for films around town, each with food and drinks served. This year, the really big news is that Stanley Tucci is the guest of honor. He will get the keys to the city. I have to think he will show up at our Saturday slow food market in Umbertide since he is all about food. I will be hanging out! Hope he does.
Did I say it’s been hot? Well, it has. Damn hot. We saw a cooling trend was coming, starting today. The forecast promised storms all day yesterday starting at 2pm. Everyone here, who has been sweltering, sometimes with no AC, were excitedly awaiting the storms. Which didn’t come at two, or three, or four, or… Finally at around 6 PM a nice storm came through. Some other parts of Umbria got hail. Some people are worried for the baby olives and grapes. Up north they had severe storms and damage. So, the mal tempo beings the bad with the good, cooling cleansing. We got two more storms at around 9:30 and 11:30.
Sunset last night after the first storm. I am going miss this view.
Today, the air is washed clean. The surfaces are washed free of the dust. The plants have slaked their thirst. The day is brilliant. What a change. I will be relishing the next few days of cool!
Now we are back to everyday life after our big vacay. It is really hot. This weekend will be a record breaker.
Our first BIG thing was to go to the Questura with our final documents for our long term Permessi. But while we were gone our printer bit the dust. So we couldn’t print what we needed to take today. With some help from friends (thanks Paul) we got it printed. Friday morning we headed to the Questura. Sigh. Their hours changed. They were not open. We must go back next week. Back to normal Italian life! One step forward, two steps back.
While we were gone tomatoes happened! Yes they did! I had my first tomato sandwich yesterday.
Wonder bread — because it MUST be wonder bread. Italian style.Mmmmm
Growing up with a Southern mother, I lived on these sandwiches when I was young. At my mothers knee. She loved them too! Luckily we have American style white bread here, see picture, so I am all set!
Today is the Saturday market. If I don’t get out early I miss out on fresh eggs and the tomatoes that I get from my favorite stand. Everyone has tomatoes, but only one has the tomatoes that are the ”right” tomatoes. The kind I remember from home, the right shape, the right kind of red.
…and eggs. I got eggs! The word for eggs is uova. The word for egg is uovo. This is opposite of what you’d think. Usually if something ends in “A”, it is a singular, feminine noun. In this case it is not singular, it is plural. I am told it is because it derives from a Greek word. Anyway, the man I get my eggs from held up one very dark egg as he was choosing mine. He asked if I wanted il cioccolato? Here is my basket of eggs. Il cioccolato is on top. I love the pretty hues of different browns and tans.
I want to explain the mystery of the inexplicable fine from my last post. Turns out, it was taxes due. Plus a fine. I could ask my Commercialista why, but it’s not that much money and I’m not going to bother. Anyway, mystery solved.
We have been very busy getting ready for our trip. We got our health cards extended so we would have coverage on our trip. We have had several people come and look at the apartment. I got my hair cut. We have met some good friends for some nice lunches. Yesterday we finally received our taxes from our Commercialista for the first part of the year. This payment is for half of last year, and we also pay ”in anticipo” for estimated tax for the first half of this year. This is the second document required by the Questura for our application for the EU long term Permesso di Soggiorno. Unfortunately we got it yesterday. Too late for us to get it in to them before we leave. So it will be first on our to-do list when we return.
We attended an art exhibit featuring three Umbrian artists last evening in a small village called Lugnano. Very nice show in Palazzo Luna and our friend was one of the artists. The town is miniscule.
Vicola in Lugnano
I am madly packing and getting ready for our House/cat sitters arrival tomorrow. We will pick them up at the train station. I want to make them some special pasta dishes. I went to the local Saturday Mercato this morning. We are drowning in cherries now! Look at the varied colors. I didn’t realize there were so many. From almost black, to deep red, to cherry red!
My next post will most likely be about our trip. Travel is so fraught with uncertainty nowadays. I just hope all is uneventful. Ciao for now!
Today is Festa della Republica – Italian Independence Day. The day Italy voted the Monarchy out just after WWII. Big doings in town. Antique and cool cars and motorcycles near La Rocca.
I went down to the Piazza to meet my friend Elizabeth for a Caffè. Or rather, I should say i went to ”take a caffè” which is the Italian way to say it. It was pleasant, as it was still morning. Record heat for today through the weekend in Italy. It will be hitting 40C or 104F in the south. I snapped a few pictures. Our comune with flags. Not as spectacular as the fly over but still festive.
And our two Bars in the Piazza. Bar Mary and Café Centrale. Bar Mary has really upped their game this year, adding planter boxes with trellis’ to delineate their space and new black umbrellas. They intend to get two more umbrellas to complete the look. It is quite inviting now, I think.
May is the season when the hard work on the Umbrian and eastern Tuscan farms begins, the hard work of the tobacco planting. I can see it around in all the valleys now. Not to mention the planting summer and fall crops and the beginning of the harvest of the spring bounty. The book “The Tuscan Year” by Elizabeth Romer, from which I have been excerpting monthly this year, is all about the planting this month. And when this work starts our hero Silvana has to feed sixteen to twenty-four people every day for Pranzo, lunch. They need a hearty lunch from the hard morning work and to continue into the afternoon and evening. Silvana must serve three courses every day. A pasta, or soup as the primi, a meat or fish as the secondo, and fruit for dessert plus strong coffee to wake everyone up afterwards. Home-made wine is served throughout the meal.
The book spends time explaining that Italians, even farm workers, all have very high culinary standards. It is true. Everyone is a critic. She has a lot to live up to. It is important to balance the meal with different tastes and textures in the courses, and to vary it every day, to keep it interesting.
Fish in Umbria and this part of Tuscany is shipped in from the coasts. But in the area near Lake Trasimeno there are a lot of lake fish. Silvana doesn’t like lake fish. She serves trout from the small river running through their farm or she serves baccalà. Baccalà is salt cod. It has been consumed all over Italy for centuries. Back in the past it was the only available fish in the interior of Italy so it was very important for the mandatory fish on Friday meals. Baccalà served that purpose. It is salt cured and you can buy it just as it is or you can buy it already processed to soften it. Silvana soaks it for 24 hours under slowing running water. I have made it and I just soaked it and changed the water often, every hour or so for at least 24 hours. I thought I would pick a recipe from the book for baccalà which I have actually made and I like.
Take the already soaked fish, about 1 kilo or 2 ¼ lb for six people, 500 grams or 1 lb 2 ozs of potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds, a large tuft of parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper and a little water.
Spread a little olive oil on the bottom of a very heavy and shallow saucepan, then oil and arrange a layer of potato slices, season and trickle on a little more oil. Next sprinkle on an even dusting of chopped parsley, then a layer of baccalà cut into small pieces. Drizzle the oil over the fish, then more parsley and another layer of potato and so on until the pan is full. Add a little water to prevent the fish from sticking to the pan. Let it cook over a very low flame for at least an hour until the potatoes are tender and the fish is cooked through; add more liquid if needed. This dish can also be cooked successfully and more simply in the oven where it will just require olive oil for moisture. To vary the flavor you may put a layer of thin pieces of onion on top of the potato and a layer of tomato slices on top of the fish.
Credit https://cucinaconmegraziellaeraffaele.it
And finally, an excerpt from the end of the chapter. After the work is done and the day’s heat has lessened….
Later in the afternoon Silvana will go out into her garden and do a little work there; she may potter in the small corner set aside for the flowers, mostly dahlias, Sweet William, snapdragons and Michaelmas daisies planted amongst sage bushes and hydrangeas. She goes into the vegetable garden to pick vegetables or salad for supper, and to see what is ripe and what is coming up; the cool late afternoon is also the time when she does her watering. Sometimes she picks up an old sack and a small sharp sickle and wanders off into the fields to pick specially planted vetches to feed her rabbits; they will enjoy the herbage and ultimately the family will enjoy the well-fed rabbits. Occasionally she will take a kitchen chair out into the courtyard and sit in the shade of the house, her hands busy with a pile of mending, while the hens scratch about by the doorway and the old black sheep dog sits companionably by her side.
I love the peaceful feeling this little excerpt evokes. The calm, the smells, the sound of birds, as she sits in her garden with the knowledge that the wheel will keep turning and the seasons will repeat along with the rituals. Or we hope it will continue for all time… if we can safeguard our poor world. I would hate to think of the loss of such beauty.
I guess it is nearly time to say goodbye to May and hello to June. Summer is acoming.’ Ciao! Happy Memorial Day to everyone!
~~~~~~~ From time to time Luther sends me a recipe he likes. Truth be told, he sends me at least one a week. They come from the Italian newspaper or from the Dr. Wine site. He complains that I don’t make many of them. I admit, I don’t. Friday, I made a zuppa that he sent. Zuppa di legumi misti, mais, e orzo perlato. It is a mixture of dried beans, farro, lentils (your choice of the mix) with corn and orzo. This is another oddity. Orzo, in the US, is rice shaped pasta. Here, orzo is barley. Here’s a picture. (I added short pasta and potatoes)
~~~~~~~~ I love this time of year. Gone is the winter produce. Now we see ruby red radishes, piles of fava beans and new peas ready to sbucciare, my new word for today. As in to shell, or to peel. Luther will sbuccia all of them for me, and then I do the cooking part 🙂 There is asparagus in heaps, of course. Beautiful bitter greens like arugula, called rucola here. And lettuces. The baby zucchini are just coming in and the cucumbers. I impatiently await the tomatoes but they won’t be here until July, maybe late June.
Today I bought something interesting from one of our nice cheese mongers. She had in her case containers of Sardinian potato dumplings that she had prepared (she is from Sardinia). All I have to do is boil them and serve with a good tomato sauce with basil. I also bought a container of fresh ricotta.
~~~~~~~~ Lunch out Saturday! With friends. We decided on a restaurant in Montone, a nearby hill town. This restaurant has been there since we’ve lived here but in typical Italian fashion it was never open when we tried to go. I heard from friends that it is open now, under new management. It is called Taverna Del Verziere. One of the best features of this place is the views from the walls across the valley from their terazza. Spectacular and oh so pleasant on a summer day.
It is a family run place and they were all super welcoming. I was glad I had reserved since it was pretty packed. Their antipasto menu was interesting. We tried a couple new-to-us things. I had the papapomodoro with seasonal vegetables. A typical Umbrian recipe using stale bread soaked in tomato juices. The veggies were either roasted or pickled. Susan got the roasted purple carrot Hummus.
We both enjoyed them. Luther and Gary got the tagliata with lardo for their secondo. It is grilled steak sliced and they put a very thin piece of Lardo on top. Lardo is a speciality of northern Tuscany. Pork belly lard, the purest white, is packed with herbs into giant marble boxes and left to cure for eight months. Then it can be thinly sliced. When it is placed on hot meat, it melts and adds wonderful unctuous flavor.
Montone is a walled town with several gates through the walls. I love this one and the view.
The Italian language never fails to surprise – and make me crazy. It makes me realize how descriptive English is. As in it has so many different and nuanced ways to use the language. Here, I have always been frustrated by the words hot and warm. In Italian if it is hot it is caldo, and if it is warm, it is caldo. Even worse the words niece, nephew and grandchild are ALL nipote. I just don’t get that! I wanted to say sibling today, so I looked it up. It was fratello. But , I said to myself, that’s the word for brother! So there is no distinction between brother and sibling. What about the girl siblings? ~~~~~~~~ Now is the season of the red spiders. They are on all flat surfaces by the thousands. They are very small. The sun really brings them out. If you wear socks on the terrace the soles become red with squished spiders. It is impossible not to mash them. This is an annual occurrence. It doesn’t last long. Thankfully!
~~~~~~~~ We just read that Italy will require all new construction, both public buildings and private homes, must include solar panels. I think this is such a good idea. It should be just part of the price of building. ~~~~~~~~ This is also the time of May snow (neve a maggio)! One tree here lets loose its fluffy seed puffs into the air. It is so thick in the air it is just like snow. We are lucky to have installed screens in most of our windows. Italians don’t normally have screens. Our big picture window in the living room has no screen. It tips in so we can let in fresh air. But now we cannot open it. It actually will build up until you are wading through heaps of it on your floors. Below is the river, which has a lot of the fluff build up.
Today is a beautiful, if cool day. We heard about a little French fest in Città di Castello, this is the next town north of us in the Tiber valley. Luther, myself and our friend Jen decided it would be a fun outing. Off we went in the brilliant sun and blue sky day.
Città di Castello is about twice the size of Umbertide. It has a complete ancient wall enclosing the old Centro Storico. It also has some beautiful towers and buildings.
Wisteria terrace!
We park in a free parking lot. It is just outside the walls. There is a crosswalk and a small door through the wall and then escalators up. It is not that far because Città is not a hill town. You come out in a lovely park just next to the Duomo. Then it’s a short walk to the main piazza. All the vendors are French. It was nice to hear French. We first came to a spice and tea vendor. These two are the ones I bought. They smell devine!
We walked. And looked. We were here on the first day of the fair and many stands were not finished setting up. On the good side, there were no crowds. I am sure tomorrow and Sunday will be very crowded. We also bought French soap, mustard from Dijon, and cherry preserves. I bought a new scarf, because a lady can’t have too many scarves!
Suddenly! There were cheeses! Beautiful French cheeses. We used to live in Germany very near France. The Alsace was our favorite place. Lo and behold there was Munster cheese. It must hold the prize for the stinkiest cheese. But it has a lovely mild taste. It has been many years since I had it. I bought half a round of it. and another very pretty cheese. Here’s a picture.
The next stand had a guy behind a plastic partition with multiple ovens and he was producing the most amazing things to eat. I bought a lovely baguette and a seeded bread to go with the cheeses. We bought lunch, I got a baguettino with goat cheese and almonds. Jen got the same. Luther got an individual quiche Lorraine. All very yummy.
It was an excellent outing to enjoy this cool spring day. ~~~~~~~ Today, we also have an apartment viewing at 6 o’clock. We have been working very hard to not open the frig because inside lives the Munster cheese. And honestly, it can permeate the entire house with its pungent aroma in an instant! Could be off putting to potential buyers. 😁
Buono fine di settimana…much easier to say have a good weekend!
Yesterday, we dumped the last bag of pellets we had bought this winter into our stufa. We declared it officially Spring! We went through around 80 sacks this year at €5.50 each. We know the amount because this year we had most of them delivered and hired people to carry them up to our apartment. The pellet stove keeps our living and dining room nice and warm all winter… and it saves on gas.
I bet most people don’t know that the Italian government regulates when you can start and must end using your heat. Umbria is in Zone E. This zone is second to the longest allowed time (meaning we are second to the coldest region). We are allowed to have the heat on 14 hours a day from October 15 to April 15. They also regulate the temperature. The warmest you can set the thermostat is 20C or 68F. This explains why such a large proportion of the population use wood or pellets as a supplemental (or primary) way to heat.
Just this week Italy announced that this year they will also regulate, and limit, the use of air conditioning, but only in businesses and schools. Italy imports 95% of its gas, and 40% of that comes from Russia. Italy says we will stop importing any gas from Russia within 18 months. Applause! We have two air conditioning units but very rarely use them. Perhaps on the hottest days of August we use it for around three or four hours in the living room since it gets the full afternoon and evening sun. Otherwise, it cools off very quickly in the evening so the windows are open to the night breezes.
We took a nice drive over the weekend. Down through the mountains. I got this castle photo in the town where we ate lunch, Capodacqua.
Yesterday was Liberation day, a big holiday here. 25 Aprile 1945, the end of WWII for the Italians. It’s complicated! In Umbertide is is even more complicated because the very same day but one year earlier in 1944, the Allies dropped 2 bombs on Umbertide while trying to destroy the Tiber river bridge. Seventy-eight citizens were killed and an entire block of houses destroyed and never rebuilt. So it is a bittersweet day here. Anyway, all over Italy one hears the Bella Ciao! song. Here is a still of of our marching band and all the citizens entering the Piazza. Photo borrowed from a video my neighbor Christie got.
Bella Ciao! By a local group – Nuova Brigata Pretolana. A rousing rendition!
