Category Archives: Visitors

Eventful week

What a difference a week makes. Last Monday we woke to this.
DSC04123
Yes that is snow on the mountain tops! Today, Sunday nearly a week later we have this.
DSC04127
DSC04142
DSC04140
Last Sunday was Easter. We had a fantastic meal at Calagrana. Here are a few mouth watering pictues!
DSC04116

DSC04117

DSC04118

DSC04119
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.
DSC04125

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!
DSC04128
We had some lovely food.
DSC04130

DSC04131

DSC04132
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!

Great visit!

Well we dropped our guests off at the train station around noon today. We had a great visit. They brought great weather with them. Now that they are gone it is pouring rain.

As you know we had toured Assisi a couple of days before where we learned about St. Francis who was said to be able to talk to animals and once preached a sermon to the birds. Anyway, Kaye was taken particularly with a story about St. Francis and a wolf.

Seems a wolf was eating the people and animals in a town. The desperate citizens asked St. Francis to help. St. Francis went into the woods where the ferocious wolf lived and convinced him that God wanted him to stop hurting the people of the town. The wolf bowed his head and placed his paw in St. Francis’ hand and they went together into the town. The townspeople were astounded and agreed to feed the wolf from then on so he wouldn’t be hungry. He lived two years that way and was buried in the churchyard.

We decided to visit Gubbio yesterday. I did learn a couple of lessons with our first guests, do some research! So I downloaded info on Gubbio. A happy coincidence! Turns out Gubbio is the town where the wolf incident occurred! Kaye said she thought the wolf and St. Francis were her favorite things from her trip. Here is a link to the Wolf of Gubbio Legend.

We tried to visit the Chiesa di Pace where a wolf skeleton was found in the 1800s corroborating the legend. It was closed. Too bad. We toured the upper town, took in the view and visited another church. Here are pictures in the church. One is a fresco of St. Francis and the wolf.

DSC03504

DSC03500

DSC03501

DSC03505

Another coincidence – we had made reservations at Taverna da Lupa (Tavern of the Wolf) so we were all excited that our theme was ongoing. It was a nice place. Not as good as our previous restaurants though. We sat outside. It also turned out to be a Buon Ricordo member. This is a group of restaurants that each have a specialty dish and if you order it you get a ceramic plate (I have probably 6 of them from many vacations – indeed a Buon Ricordo (good memory)). Kaye and I ordered Faraona al ginepro – roasted Guinea Fowl with Juniper – and got our plates. The dish was very good.

DSC03507

DSC03508

The Plate!

IMG_0184

All in all a nice day. Last night we went outside so Luther could smoke a cigar. HORRORS! Bar Mary was closed! What was this! Even Cafe Centrale was closed. This morning we found out it is now considered the winter season so they close early on Tuesday. We went back up and got wine and glasses and sat outside. Susan and Gary and Mr. Luca dropped by to meet our guests.

Renovation news

We met with Manuele last evening after our sight seeing. It was good to see much progress. The air conditioning units are installed in the living room and the bedroom. We discussed covering the pipes on the patio. Manuele wants to uncover the old ceiling in the hallway where they installed the new stairway. It is now covered with wallboard but under that is the old vaulted ceiling. Of course we agreed with that! He also discussed with us the fireplace. He wants to change it so it doesn’t look like a Tuscan fireplace (who knew!). It has brickwork and he says they only use stone in Umbria. So I was fine with that as well. I believe he is not charging extra for this as he said “I will do this for you”. Also that Zona di Notte thing was again brought up. Manuele made a pretty good case for it and I think we will have him move a glass door which is at the head of the steps into the hallway. He will tint it which will make the master bedroom and bath more private. He said we could probably start moving in in a couple of weeks! whoo hoo!