Our second Umbria Food and Wine Tour began this Saturday with our group gathering together from various places throughout Italy to Santa Maria degli Angeli, the small town below Assisi where Saint Francis originally established his Franciscan order. True to its name, our first activity – at the Casa di Norcia restaurant – centered around food and wine. Continue reading As Nature Commands
As Nature Commands
Our second Umbria Food and Wine Tour began this Saturday with our group gathering together from various places throughout Italy to Santa ...
In yesterday’s post on our Tuscany adventure I included a couple of photos taken in Siena’s Piazza del Campo of a wedding party that had either just said their “I do”s or were about to. It was a memorable image. 
As the sun comes up on a Saturday morning, the week long intermission between our first and second Food and Wine tours this month is already coming to a close. But as we prepare for the arrival of six new guests, we must look forward and not back at our week in Tuscany, the region next door where we discovered our love of Italy and which for many Americans is synonymous with Italy. 
We’ve visited Assisi dozens of times, walking in the historic footsteps of St. Francis under the expert guidance of a local tour guide. And it never gets old or stale. 
Day One of our Food & Wine tour, the first of three weeklong tours over then next five weeks, started as many do. With lunch at Simone’s le Delizie del Borgo restaurant in Bevagna. 
Often – well, pretty much always -we take for granted the little stuff, the daily stuff, the routine stuff. And this is certainly true when talking about our first activity of the day here in Italy – breakfast. 
Returning to Italy today, to our home town of Cannara, brought a tear to my eyes. Literally. 
Although I don’t do it nearly often enough, I love to golf. And golfing in Italy, which I also do not do nearly often enough, is particularly enjoyable. There’s something about the light, the fresh air and the simplicity of the game in Italy that is completely appealing. And even if you play poorly, the food in the clubhouse is quite a bit better than what you’ll find back home. 
On yet another perfect evening, lapped by cool rustles of soft sweet Umbrian nighttime air, under a blanket of darkness lit by thousands of tiny pinpricks of brilliant luminescence we dined. We dined al fresco as we had the night before and many previous nights over the past weeks. But tonight the food arrived at the table not plate by plate on Alvaro’s sure hands, but wheeled in on wave after wave of gigantic carts, like some culinary Trojan Horse. And make no doubt about it, while the offerings on the carts were meant as gifts to our group of 25 assembled around the table, they just as surely they were planned as a means of conquest. Beware of Italians bearing gifts. Especially if they are offered by Giuliano Gilocchi. 
Spending a day with Salvatore Denaro is one of life’s great pleasures. But be sure to bring a pair of comfortable shoes and drink plenty of water. It’s going to be one hell of a ride. 
Umbria is famous for many things, among them olive oil. And with the arrival last week of Vicky from Washington, DC and Johnny Madge from Sabina, we were going to see just why.