New count for Umbria as of yesterday…38 positives.
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Last night I watched the news with pictures of empty cities across Italy. Florence, usually chock-a-block with tourists, totally empty streets. Rome and Venice the same. St Marks in Venice … a vast empty space but for the pigeons. Sad. Lonely.
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Our Piazza is empty. There is no market today. An unheard of occurrence. Even in the case of a holiday they usually move the market forward a day.
A photo showing people are taking the edict to keep a meter distance between individuals seriously. These three just randomly met in the Piazza.
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Today we took a break from our enforced solitude and had lunch with friends at a nearby restaurant, L’Abbazia di Montecorona — named after the virus…kidding! It is just near Umbertide, at the foot of Montecrona next to the Tiber river so it was within our Comune and legal for us to visit. Lunch is all you can do now since all restaurants are closed after six. It was a gorgeous day. Just like spring. Brilliant cloudless blue skies and temperatures in the 60sF.
Samantha, the proprietor. She said it was un disastro. So many bookings canceled. It’s hard for a restaurant to survive on lunch trade alone.
Look at the size of our table. It felt like we were miles apart. That one meter thing is a “Thing”.
It is a beautiful space in the old Abbey.
I ordered two custard flans in Gorgonzola sauce for my first course.
Outside, you can see the whole complex with the attached church and crypt. The upper church was consecrated in 1105.
The octagonal campanile, it was perhaps adapted from a pre-existing defensive tower in the 14th century.
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Stay safe everyone, and…wash your hands! ☺️
Hi Nancy, I’m Italian, from Torino. Senior citizen. My ‘significant other’ is American, he just got his Elective Residence visa from the Italian Consulate in New York and is trying to figure out how and when to come over and start our life together in Italy. Your blog has provided us with lots of interesting information and we follow your daily updates. They’re always so uplifting in this difficult moment of our country, our people, the whole world. Thank you for that. Carla
Well if you have to be in quarantine, your Commune is the place to be. How beautiful! We’ve obviously cancelled our trip that was supposed to start on March 22. We’ll wait until next Primavera and try again. Hang in there.
Custard flan with Gorgonzola sauce — I’ve never heard of that. Interesting. It’s not something I ever saw in South America. As always, thank you for the beautiful photos and insights into Italian culture. Fascinating.
Oh this is so heartbreaking. Hopefully these measures will help contain the virus and things can back to normal before too long.
Sad about the market cancellation. At least you have a beautiful place to be locked down – and good food too! Love the big table.
Nancy, thank you for this!! I am combing my FB groups and blogs looking for news in Italy OTHER than that horrible virus. Lunch looked delicious. Spring is coming to Umbria. 🌺 Can’t wait to come next fall to Marche and Umbria. We will hope to bolster restaurants and the homes we are staying in with our tourism dollars. Italy 🇮🇹. Good to see the beauty again in your “everyday “.
Stay well, we may have to cancel our spring visit, difficult to commit to accommodations and Travel