Cantine Aperte a San Martino

Yesterday was Sunday, November 16 and there was a festival called Cantine Aperte a San Martino or Cellars open for St. Martin. We had gotten a brochure with the participating wineries and a map from a winery we visited last week. It was organized by Movimento Turismo del Vino Umbria. We had planned to visit one or two wineries and then have lunch and then maybe visit another.

The weather was threatening. The first place we went was just south of Perugia and it was closed (!) and it was supposed to be participating. So we headed south near Todi. This one was called Roccafiore. It was quite an operation. When we arrived it was raining and after going inside where they have a gourmet restaurant, spa and hotel, we found out they, too were not opening the Cantina because of the rain. Shoot. We called and made reservations for lunch and decided to try one more. This one was called Tenuta San Rocco – a cluster of confusing buildings and it was POURING rain. Finally we found their make-shift tasting area which was in a newish building with the bottling machines. The man was very friendly and there was another guy and a young woman there. They not only served us wines but also two breads, a sweet, nutty cookie, and hot bruschetta and then they roasted chestnuts on a little brazier right there on the floor!

Chestnuts in a cup.

One of the wines was the Vino Novello which is almost exactly like Beaujolais Nouveau from France. Very young and meant to be drunk right away. It was fresh and good. They explained that it was due to the St. Martin festival that they had olive oil, chestnuts, and new wine as it is the tradition. I found it all charming. They harvest everything by hand. At the end Dottoressa Grassini who is the owner and enologist came and met us. She also was very welcoming. All in all a very fun experience.

New wine.

Off to lunch at Locanda Rovicciano in Castel Ritaldi. We found it in our Gambero Rosso Ristoranti d’Italia book. Excellent restaurant. We were seated in a room with a big fireplace. I bet it would be cozy in the winter. There were large Italian families dining and many children. It was fun watching them. The kids were pretty well behaved and could go outside and blow off steam while their parents ate and drank wine. The table in our room had four women and four men. The four men sat at the end of the table, then the four women all together, and then the kids. So strange. We would never seat ourselves like that in the States.

I had the quail eggs with white truffles. They were fried and place on top of toasted bread with shaved truffles. Yum!

Luther had Maltagliata which means “badly cut”. And it was very irregular. It had onions and bacon.

I had the spit roasted Quail for an entree and Luther had grilled lamb. He pronounced it the best lamb he’s had here. My Quail was tiny and crispy and smokey flavored and not too much food. It was wrapped in bacon and I am pretty sure roasted over a wood fire. Very Very good. My Quail.

Here is the sky just before we went into the restaurant. Spooky!

All in all a fun day. This coming week will see us moving into our own place, or so we hope. I finished unpacking what I could unpack so there are not so many boxes. We went shopping Saturday and bought a vacuum cleaner. A Dyson Animal. We hope that will help us keep up with the cat hair.

Doctor appointment

It has been some time since I posted because it has been pretty busy. We met with Emanuele in the house to discuss his issues with Pedini and the kitchen. Good thing he is paying attention as I had not noticed the issues. Biggest issue is that the hood over the stove has the lights about a third of the way under the sliding units that are on the wall. So we would never be able to change a bulb! Yikes. The second issue is that the quartz pieces that sit at the back of the counter along the wall has about an inch gap between the top of it and the sliding units. It would be impossible to clean in there and it would be bound to get spatter and grease in there. He has told Pedini they have to fix it and they should be back next week.

Since then I have begun to unpack the boxes of kitchen stuff and put it in the cabinets to at least get some of the boxes out of there. It is not at all organized yet but it is all in there.

Doctor
I had not mentioned that I had been worrying about my hip as it has been bothering me more and more. I had taken a little fall back in July and I had worries that I had damaged it. Being in a foreign country I was majorly stressed about it. I asked Susan to ask her doctor for a recommendation. She mentioned it to Emanuele and he was ON it. He had knee surgery last year and managed to wangle an appointment with his doctor who is very, very well thought of in the field.

I was very nervous before the appointment. It turns out that everybody goes with you when you go to the doctor here. It is very strange but I was happy to have the company and help. Susan, Barbara (Emanuele’s wife) and Luther all went with me. They all went with me everywhere including into the doctors office! They could translate for me and hear what the doctor was saying. He was a really nice man and very competent and he told me after manipulating my leg and seeing where my pain was that it was probably not the joint but muscular due to one leg being longer after my surgery. He scheduled X-rays for me right then and there.

We trooped down to the ground floor where we waited in a waiting room with a bunch of other people. The entire building is incredibly dreary with glaring fluorescent lights and ether orange, lime green or dark gold walls and mismatched furniture. It took a while but we got them done and trooped back to the Doctor who told me there was no problem with the replacement. Blessed relief! I have many problems that are all together making me have the pain. The longer leg, curved spine (old news) and other hip has arthritis as well. He told me I must always wear a lift in my shoe and I should do Physical Therapy.

Since I am not on Italian health care yet I was in as a private patient. He took us to another office where we were to pay. It cost 150 Euro for the doctor and 23 Euro for the X-ray. Just think what I would have paid in the US!

Kitchen!

It’s Tuesday – Veterans day in the US. Our kitchen arrived yesterday at 10AM. There are a LOT of pieces. I have not been bothering the workmen but they are supposed to be finished by 6PM today. It’s 4:30 and I’m dieing to go and see!

This morning we went furniture shopping. First we went to Chateau d’Ax which has some nice furniture and I had not visited it yet. I saw some nice kitchen tables and one coffee table I liked. But not that much. I also still have to see the finished kitchen to get an idea what size kitchen table we can accommodate. We headed over to Divani & Divani which is the Natuzzi store where we got our sofa. I just love their stuff. It’s a bit pricy but Oh well! Luther found a TV stand he liked and then we found a coffee table that went with it. I didn’t take pictures. Here are a couple but they are small.

The TV stand is two pieces of a bunch of modules that you can get which gives us the flexibility to add on more later should we want to. The coffee table matches the wood and the black part swivels so you can make it crooked shaped, or long or squarish. We get the coffee table right away as it was on sale. The other won’t come for 3 months (!)

A side note. After all these years of cooking I learned something new. You may already know this so just call me ignorant if you do! You know how recipes say keep a cup of the hot pasta water to put in the sauce? Well I found out you need to put the water into the sauce and get it simmering. Take the pasta off the heat BEFORE it is cooked al dente. Then drain and put into the sauce and cook it the rest of the way in the sauce. It allows the pasta to soak some of the sauce into it as it finishes cooking. I found it to make the pasta much better. Doesn’t work so well with creamy sauces.

It is dark and 7PM and they are not done yet so I will wait until tomorrow to see it.

The Kitchen !!
OK, now it is Wednesday morning and I couldn’t sleep for wanting to see the kitchen. I went over before Luther even got up. It is beautiful, or I think so. Very sleek Italian styling. They are not quite done I think because the counter top bits that go around the edges are loose. And since there is no electricity yet nothing can be tested. Here are some pictures.

Notice the “back splash”. It has shelves and sliding glass doors for bottles etc.

From the pantry door.

See the drawer inside a drawer feature?

From the hallway.

Little spots lighting.

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.

ENORMOUS tasting room.

Click to appreciate the colors of Autumn.

The structure was designed by a sculptor. Very unusual.

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.

Chestnuts being roasted.

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!!!

I’ll go over tonight to see the progress. So exciting!!

Rain, Rain, Rain…

I was wrong about my cold. It didn’t go away. I still have it but it is very manageable. Also I still have internet on this computer!

Yesterday was market day. Typically we don’t go anywhere in the car on market day because it would mean losing our parking space. That is OK because on market day, everything comes to us! We did some shopping for cheese and vegetables. It was cloudy and windy but not cold. Just when the vendors were tearing down the heavens opened up and it poured. It poured all afternoon and into the night. I checked the weather report and it looks as though this was the first day of five straight days of rain. They are already having floods in Rome.

Today we woke to rain as advertised. The Tiber river is swollen and full of debris. We had planned to go to the furniture store and order our mattress and bed frame today. So we moved ahead with plans. First we stopped into our apartment to retrieve our rain coats which we had not needed since we came. I was happy to see the electrician has installed the wires across the ceilings that will hold our halogen spots.

Ordering the bed and mattress was difficult mainly because we have a mattress now. And we have a platform bed frame. Trouble is, the mattress does not fit the platform. This means we have to buy a bigger mattress for the platform and a frame for the smaller mattress. This was VERY difficult to explain and make clear to the kind man we are dealing with. He called his daughter who spoke a little English but not better than Luther’s Italian. Anyway, in the end we managed to order it. Or I think we did 🙂 Always an adventure.

Now it is evening and it is still pouring outside. Luther was not happy as he has missed his runs. He was going to go but thought all the Italians would think him an idiot and they probably would! I suggested he walk up and down our many flights of stairs. Kind of his own personal stairmaster. Which he did!

A couple of trips here and there

Sunday we decided to go with Susan and Gary somewhere. Susan sent an email to check out a town called Monterchi as they had passed it on their way to Abruzzo. I did some research and found a little restaurant that got some nice ink called Trattoria al Travato.

Sunday November 2 was a gorgeous day. Hard to believe it was November. We found the town only about 30 minutes from Umbertide. It is a small hilltop town, but a kind of low hilltop town. Not way, way up like most. We could actually drive right up to the top on a very tiny road. The restaurant sits in the little piazza on the very top of the hill. It is very pretty with plane trees planted all around the edges which softens it. The trees still had most of their bright yellow leaves.

There was only one restaurant and it was ours. Unfortunately we had forgotten to call so all the outside tables (yes is was nice enough to sit outside) were taken. We got seated haphazardly in the enotecca. We got a bottle of wine and chose from the small but good menu. The smells of grilling meat wafting from the kitchen were killing us. So, of course, we ordered way too much food! Still it was great.

The good news was, after the pasta course we got seated outside. So nice. We got two plates of bruschetta to share, we all got house made pastas and all were excellent. And we all got the grilled veal. Superb. It was a very nice lunch.

After lunch we wandered over and found a lovely little jewelry store owned by a very nice young couple. He was a very skilled gold/silversmith. Susan and I bought bracelets. They told a tale that is repeated all over Italy. They want to immigrate to Australia mainly because there is no opportunity for their children in Italy. Very sad to have to move away from all you know, all your family because Italy crushes the small business and families.

We walked up to the bell tower and the ramparts with lovely views.

I laid low all Monday with a cold. It was an odd cold. Came on very suddenly during the night with a searingly sore throat and quickly moved into the sinus and nasal passages. I was stuffed up all day Monday but by bedtime I was no longer stuffed up and got a good night sleep and felt fine today. How weird is that?!

So we proceeded with the plan to go to Orvieto to visit a winery and have lunch. We bought a couple of cases from the winery called Decugnano Dei Barbi. We drove to Orvieto – always a sight up on its tuffa cliffs. The elevators and escalators had no power today! Just our luck. So we hoofed it up about 8 stories. We wandered around town, stopping to get reservations at Il Palomba for lunch. We enjoyed window shopping and stopping in the wine shops and then headed to lunch.

We have been to Il Palomba once before with the Gang o Six (sister, husband, 2 friends and us). I remember it being popular but today they must have turned away as many people as got tables. It was as good as I remembered. We had pastas and secondi. Luther got the lamb and I got the filet with green peppercorn sauce. Both were excellent. Here is a picture of the filet.

For a wine Luther chose Gatto Gatto which means Cat Cat because we have two cats. It was a very nice Orvieto wine.

Also a miracle happened today. when I opened my computer to download my pictures it asked me if I wanted to update my software. I thought a second and then I realized I must be connected to the internet! Sure enough ZyXEL (wifi name) is BACK! Who knows why but I took advantage of it to update the blog with out Luther’s help with the pictures. Who knows how long it will last!?

November 1st

Well, here it is November already. Yesterday day on the way to the bank we passed a bar with two carved pumpkins. Last night out on the piazza the shops were being visited by lots of little witches and caped crusaders! So Halloween is alive and well in Italy!

It has gotten pretty chilly lately so we’ve been using the stuffa. That’s the little stove in the apartment. You load it up with pellets of wood and it feeds them into the hopper slowly.

What have we been doing… Well on Thursday we took a trip to Norcia. We also visited a small town called Sellano on the way. It was a place where I had fallen in love with a house before we came over. It is a lovely little town. Very nicely kept. BUT it is devilishly hard to get to. I am glad I gave it a miss.

Norcia is a really nice little town that is known for it’s cured meats, truffles, lentils and faro. We walked about and visited a couple of churches, went into some shops and bought some of the specialties and then had lunch! Here are some photos, first of the town, then lunch.

The restaurant was called la Cenoloco. They were very proud that they used only local foods from just around Norcia. It was pretty quirky and very tiny. Enjoyed the experience.

Apartmment
I dropped by the apartment after five or six days. They have cleaned up most of the trash and swept the floors in the bedrooms and hall. Probably preparing to refinish the floors. They have to do that in two steps. First the back of the house while it’s empty. Then move everything in the living room back to the back and paint and finish the floors in there. Other than the lights it is mostly done now. Here are a few pictures that don’t really tell you much. Shows the new paint and cleaned up rooms.

Hold the phone…

In case you read this short lived post before I am editing it now, we were sadly wrong. We did not yet get our Permessi!!

We went to the questura and they were expecting us. We signed papers which say we understand that we have to comply with the rules. You have to promise that you will acquire the Italian spoken language to a certain level (A2). You must acquire adequate knowledge of the principles of the Constitution of the Republic, the organization and functioning of public institutions and civic life in Italy.

They have a point system. You get 16 points when you sign the forms signifying you are at the A1 level of the language. You are required to attend a class called the civic formation session. If you don’t attend, they take away 15 of your points. Ultimately you want to get 30 points. We are not totally sure how to get them. Perhaps we have to take the language test? We have two years to figure it out.

Sadly when we went to the Comune these papers are not the Permesso. So we are back to waiting for word. We think perhaps these papers should have been signed back when we applied. Hopefully it has not slowed things further.

Exciting News!

We got home on Thursday around 1PM after visiting the wine region south of Fabriano. It is a gorgeous area of Italy. Dramatic mountains and impossibly green. I took one picture and will add it once I get it off the camera. We purchased some white wines.

Yesterday we visited the bank to pay for the rest of the lighting. Then visited the Comune (city hall) to prod theme about our Permesso di Soggiorno. No news.

We went over to see Emanuele and got some sad news. The little old lady in our building who had called us banditi died in her sleep on Thursday. The funeral was this morning. She had a son who lived with her who is said to be mentally slow. I wonder what will happen to him. Now both of the other people who own apartments in our building are dead.

Gary came over to show us how to work the heat and have it switched from summer to winter. He also showed us how to work the pellet stove. Now we just need pellets!

Today, Saturday, we went to the Coop supermarket for groceries and pellets for the stove. Then we visited the Kilometer zero market. We are fully into the cool season vegetables. Lots of cabbage and kale.

We went back upstairs with all our heavy stuff. Carrying stuff up five flights is not easy! Now for the EXCITING news…just after we came back my phone rang. It was the Questura in Citta di Castello. They want us to come and sign papers on Monday!! I think this may be IT! We may be getting our Permessi! Now we can buy a car!

Trip to Fabriano

So I am in the hotel and able to use my laptop to update and upload all my pictures so I can catch this blog up. Yay!

We left around 10AM. It is only about an hour drive. Very rugged countryside with lots of big national parks in the Appinine mountains. Big bald mountains and lots of gorges. It was pretty but supposed to rain later and quite cool.

We arrived in Fabriano about 11AM and found our hotel with the help of Serena, our GPS lady. We are staying at Residenza la Ceramica which got good reviews in TripAdvisor. I have to agree. It is a small boutique place right in the heart of the old town. One huge plus is they have a big, gated parking lot right out front.

We went in and checked in but didn’t ask if we could take our bag in as it was early. We headed right out to find the Giotto exhibit. I loved this town. Beautiful Centro with lots of nice small streets and lots of shops. Amazing that I had never heard of it but that goes to show you that the Marche region is way off the tourist track at least for Americans. We heard no English spoken today. The Marche has much to recommend it. Adriatic coast with beaches and cliffs, huge rugged mountains and gorges, lovey interior towns. Nice.

The show was good. It consisted of a main show in the museum downtown and three churches with frescoes. The show explores the vibrant fourteenth century. At this time Fabriano was considered part of Umbria as it had close links. It was close to Gubbio and Assisi and St. Francis visited regularly creating a culture of faith. At the end of the thirteenth century an entirely new western pictorial style was introduced. Giotto’s influence had found it’s way through the pass to Fabriano. Many of the masters are not known widely. Campodonico and Nuzi are among the best and had schools of their own. We looked at all the paintings, statues, and frescoes in the museum. Then we visited the Cattedrale di san Venanzio where a very nice lady showed us into very small, very tall chapels on either side of the alter where there were the remains of beautiful, very vibrant and colorful frescoes. Wonderful.n

Cathedral.

Pictures of the frescoes in the small, very tall side chapels.

Same church, one of the side chapels outside in front of the altar with amazing frescoes.

We then walked to the next church. Kind of a nice touch is that they have stenciled on all the streets the pathways between the churches and exhibits so one only has to follow them.

The next church we again had a nice lady take us into secluded chapels with gorgeous frescos. All about 700 years old.

The sky had clouded up and we found a place just in time before a huge thunderstorm hit complete with thunder, lightening and hail. But we were snug inside with our nice lunch and bottle of wine at Sbrodovino.

By the time we finished lunch the sun was out. We headed to our hotel where we checked into our very nice suite. It has nice skylights, two big rooms and a big modern bath. Very nice.

For dinner we went to Ehmbe. It was a modernish looking place inside an ancient building. It was FREEZING outside. Wow what a change. We had a nice dinner and returned to our hotel. The people at the desk are very friendly. We chatted a bit and headed up to our room.

Morning now and bright sunshine but it’s still cold. We are heading to Metalica (not the band!), a wine region south of here and then on back to Umbertide. I want to post this now while we are here in the hotel with good WiFi.

Nancy Goes to Italy

A record of an American's dream to live in Umbria

Cantine Aperte a San Martino

Doctor appointment

Kitchen!

Beautiful Fall day!

Rain, Rain, Rain…

A couple of trips here and there

November 1st

Hold the phone…

Exciting News!

Trip to Fabriano

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: