One of the things we have found so appealing about Italy and the Italians throughout the years is their ability to slow down and enjoy the life that is right before their eyes, noses, ears, tongues and fingers. Often summed up in the phrase la dolce vita, we have built our business and our lives around spreading the gospel of slow. And we even sum it up in Via Umbria’s tagline – Discover | Savor | Share.

Italians don’t just pay lip service to savoring life, they simply cannot ignore this genetic predisposition, ingrained as it is in their DNA. More than once when involved in business negotiations or getting to know a new supplier we would break for lunch and rather than continuing the negotiations over the meal all talk of business would be banished until the last grappa was consumed. Usually three or four hours later

But despite being ambassadors for this way of life, we have always had a difficult time walking the walk. Anyone who has travelled on one of our tours and who has gotten to take a peek behind the curtain knows that in organizing these apparently carefree experiences, the reality is anything but. It’s not just that the candle is burnt on both ends, the leftover wax is literally doused in lighter fluid and until the table itself is set aflame and the house afire.

And so as we returned to Italy last week, the first five days to be shared with both our daughter and one of our sons, we resolved to be truly Italian. To slow down and put aside all thoughts of work or business, anything that would distract from enjoying the here and now of being with our family. And despite not just a mountain, but a whole range of Everests that demanded our attention – more than you, dear reader will ever know – we did a pretty good job of staying focused on the things that matter. Family. Friends. Connections.

And what a memorable and meaningful five days it was.

• ♦  Arrival lunch at Trattoria da Oscar in Bevagna, our first visit but definitely not our last.

• ♦  First night’s dinner at Perbacco, a homecoming every time we see Ernesto and Simona.

• ♦  Our first visit to the winery at Villa Sobrano near Todi, learning about how the sandy soil in that part of Umbria imparts a mineral characteristic to their Grechetto and then getting to taste the proof over a simple but delicious lunch with the owners.

• ♦  A sunset visit to Diego’s farm, Calcabrina, where a local Franciscan monk was offering his Easter blessings (in exchange for a sack full of Diego’s caprino cheeses), washing down the milky freshness with some light rose and some fresh sagrantino.

• ♦  A home cooked dinner at the farmhouse with Simone, where we welcomed in the spring with a bistecca and a menu of fresh artichokes prepared four ways (grilled, steamed, fried and raw in salad).

• ♦  An Eastertime visit to the artisanal chocolate producer Ellegi, where they are lovingly working overtime to create chocolate Easter eggs filled with surprises.

• ♦  Lunch and a winery visit at Terre Margaritelli, where our friend Federico defied the odds and shook of the pressure of being told he gives the best winery tour in all of Italy by delivering the best winery tour in all of Italy while his wife Jennifer prepared the best porchetta in all of Umbria.

• ♦  Dinner at casa Simone e Desiderio with our new best friends Roberto and Elena DiFilippo (and their daughter Bianca Maria).

• ♦  A leisurely lunch of “leftovers” at home by the pool, under cool spring skies.

• ♦  A visit to Birra Perugia, where the owners not only kept the doors open for us an hour and a half after closing, but shared stories and glasses of each of their beers with us.

• ♦  Carlo Magno pizza eaten fireside at home, followed by a late night movie viewing in the upstairs sitting room.

• ♦  A day trip to Florence featuring lunch at the Birreria Centrale, our original haunt on our first trip to Italy, and an enormous dinner of bistecca and Brunello at Francesco Vini, capped off by a tour of the restaurant’s cellar, built into the original Roman amphitheater that occupied the spot nearly two thousand years ago.

• ♦  An early morning send off of our youngest son as he embarked on what would turn out to be a 24 hour journey back to the west coast and college as we pulled up stakes and headed to Verona with our daughter for VinItaly.

Five short days with family. But when you slow down and savor each moment as we did this week, it seems like a blessed eternity. The Italians definitely have gotten something dead on right.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy