Our return to Umbria was a day of new beginnings and new adventures.
A new tour group of eight soon-to-be ambassadors of Umbria
A first visit to Testone, a new restaurant featuring an all-torta al testo menu
A visit to and tour of Assisi the day before the Peace March from Perugia
Dinner at the villa prepared by Maria Pia
Stepping off the early morning flight from Paris to Rome made one thing abundantly clear. While autumn has arrived in France, in Italy it is still summer. Hot temperatures and clear blue dry skies greeted us on our return and the long sleeves we donned in Paris seemed most unnecessary.
On our drive from Rome we caught up with Wendy and planned the upcoming week and the following week’s tour, our conversation joyously covering all of the adventures that awaited our guests during their journey of discovery. We can’t wait!
We arrived at Testone, a modern Umbrian version of fast food restaurant tucked in a corner shopping center on the edge of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Testone is less fast food than it is singular food, each traditional torta al testo, the typical Umbrian flatbread baked over fire on a circular testo hand made and filled with freshly grilled sausages, sliced meats, local cheeses and various greens. It is simple food that is simply delicious and the enthusiastic young staff of waiters and managers provide a magnetic atmosphere that in short is fun. This was our first visit but won’t be our last.
A two hour walking tour of Assisi acclimated our guests to the lore and lure of the town’s native son, St. Francis. The usually busy city was positively bursting with humanity, adding to the festive atmosphere on this unusually balmy fall day.
But the highlight of the day, as it most always is, was the welcome dinner at the farmhouse prepared by the ever popular Maria Pia. Looking back through my photo archives I noticed it is difficult to find many pictures of Maria Pia and last night showed why. A veritable whirlwind of activity, when MP makes and serves dinner she is never the spotlight, her food is. She charges out with a bowl of pasta bigger than her head, serves it around and disappears back into the kitchen to finish up the next dish, which this night was the rarest of birds, roast chicken that unlike its American counterpart, has flavor to savor.
Aside from welcoming our guests for the beginning of their adventure the evening had an even more special purpose, wishing our dear friends Arlene and Arthur Cohen congratulations on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Over the years we have made countless friends introduced to us through Via Umbria (and its predecessor Bella Italia) and in many cases those acquaintances have blossomed into true friendships. Such is the case with Arlene and Arthur and so with the assistance of Maria Pia and her signature meringata cake, festooned with Roman candles, we celebrated our friends’ milestone. Looking up from behind dessert Arthur exclaimed to the assembled friends, old and new, “I can’t think of a place I’d rather be to celebrate.”
We agree, Arthur. We agree.
Tanti auguri e cohen-gratulazioni.
Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy
“You are people that want to learn about other cultures, that enjoy meeting people and getting to know about them and where they come from, who are curious to see more than what you can see from a tour bus.”
How do you follow up a quintessentially American experience like the Fourth of July here in Italy? Invite a bunch of your Italian friends over for American breakfast. 
Until we started spending our Julys in Italy several years ago, the Fourth of July was always a big deal in our family. For years we would spend our summers together with the rest of my family on a mountaintop in western North Carolina and the Fourth always seemed to be important. There were pig pickings, local fireworks shows, picnics by the pond. And my brothers were always into doing their own fireworks display for the family, the two of them stopping independently in South Carolina on the drive up from Florida, stocking up on entire trunksful of explosives which they would choreograph for the family and a small group of friends and neighbors on a spot lower down on our property where the chance of setting the woods ablaze with an errant spark was smaller. 
A quick post from the train as we make our way from Florence to Venice.