We often talk about Cannara and our Umbrian villa as our new home. And after only a little more than four years here with every visit it really does feel like home. Yesterday was an excellent example of why.

Our weeklong Food and Wine tour group got its act in gear at an early hour yesterday, nearly at the scheduled time (!), for the one hour drive north to Citta di Castello and the home of Severio and Gabriella, good friends of ours who are best described as truffle-ophiles. Severio is a truffle merchant, an agent who buys from the many truffle hunters who scour this truffle-rich region for its black gold and sells to restaurants, shops and other buyers. Along the way he finds time to promote the Valtiberina or Upper Tiber Valley, the area that surrounds his native Citta di Castello. Gabriella manages the couple’s truffle processing business, transforming Severio’s truffles into an array of delicious and alluring delicacies, such as tartufata (truffle tapenade), truffle infused honey, dried truffle-flavored potato flakes and truffled pastas. Along the way she finds time to teach the art of cooking with truffles.

We have known Severio and Gabriella even longer than we have had our foothold in Cannara. We have spent many long, relaxing, informative and enjoyable days with them savoring truffles and their company.

Yesterday was no different for our six guests, except it was their first time (actually the second visit for one of the lucky six). And as many times as we have been given the opportunity to taste the white truffle on a piece of bread with a light coating of butter and compare it to a black truffle from Norcia (tuber melanosporum) that has been lightly sautéed in oil, it never gets old. For each time is a new journey of discovery, made even more interesting and enjoyable by sharing that experience with six (well five) people who are making that discovery for the first time. To watch their expressions, to see the gears turning behind their eyes, to be present at that “aha” moment is itself a reward.

After a day of truffle hunting (which bagged well over a pound of local black summer or uncinato truffles), a tasting and demonstration of the many varieties of black and white truffles, after a multicourse lunch, each plate highlighting different uses and flavor profiles of truffles, a visit to the family’s processing kitchen and their truffle shop, as well as a guided tour of nearby Citerna (uno dei borghi piu belli d’Italia) our happily exhausted group loaded up the van and headed back to the lower Tiber valley, our home in the Umbrian valley dominated by Perugia and Assisi.

Along the way there was a request for two stops. Cashmere and gelato. Quintessentially Italian stops. Typically Umbrian.

We stopped at Pashmere, one of the many small cashmere outlets shops that are found throughout Umbria, featuring for sale a hodgepodge of items made by the artisans that work for the label. As outlets, these stores mostly feature items that have not been sold to larger retailers, so the supply changes often and the discounts can be incredible. In all cases the quality is top, and a few members of our group made purchases, others holding off until Friday when we intend to devote most of the day to shopping.

And so we headed back toward Cannara with only one further item on our list, gelato. There is no shortage of gelaterias along the way but we opted to stop in at da Gennaro, the popular local caffe that is about a five minute walk from the villa, and a place that makes some of the area’s best home made gelato. We pulled up to Gennaro’s parking lot, unloaded the ladies and entered. Immediately we were greeted by Moreno, the smiling owner of da Genaro (as well as Carlo Magno, our village’s terrific ristorante-pizzeria). Moreno always greets us with a smile and a handshake, treating us with a respect we have never earned nor frankly deserve. But he is a gentleman and a leader in this community. He seems to want everyone to do well here.

We tell him we are here for the ladies’ gelato fix and he responds cheerily and matter of factly that there is no more gelato. The day’s stock has been completely sold out. Not to worry, though, he replies. What flavors do you want? Fior di latte? Pistacchio? At first I don’t quite understand him. He is out of gelato for the day but he is asking us what flavors we would have wanted. Perhaps this is some sort of cruel joke? No, I tell him, we are fine and should have expected that they would have been sold out at this late afternoon hour.

What flavors were you looking for, he repeats. And for how many people? We all wanted some, but it’s ok, I reply. No, I can make up a new batch. How many will be eating? What flavors? I begin to understand. We all wanted some and there are eight of us. Fior di latte sounds good, as does pistacchio. How about some nocciola as well?

Va bene. I can have it for you in about half an hour. I look at the exhausted group, here in a bar just a few minutes away from home, knowing that they don’t have a 30 minute wait in Moreno’s caffe in them, as entertaining as it may be. OK, I reply. I will take everyone home and come back to pick up the gelato a little later.

No, no, no, responds Moreno. I can drop it off. What are you doing for dinner tonight? Will you be home or are you going out? I reply that we are making pizza at home in the outdoor oven. Va bene. I will drop it off later, he reponds. Fior di latte, pistacchio and nocciola.

Slightly dumbfounded but realizing the new plan I nod my head and shake his hand and we are off. Explaining to the group that we not only are going to have a fresh batch of gelato made for us but that it will be delivered to the villa makes them forget that we had not actually accomplished our goal of a pre-dinner snack. But the idea of a local merchant not just whipping up a batch of gelato for his customers but delivering it to their home is so incredible as to make one forget such mundane details.

And true to his word, an hour later and a few minutes before we sit down to a non-stop parade of pizzas being delivered to our table by Marco, Moreno’s car arrives in the driveway. Out he jumps carrying a football shaped styrofoam container filled with the freshly made gelato. I am upstairs and have given Marco some cash to pay for the evening’s dessert. When I arrive at the table a few minutes later, having just missed the speedy Moreno, I am presented back all of my cash.

“Un omaggio.” No payment accepted. It was a gift from Moreno. As if the effort of making the gelato and delivering it was not itself a gift.

Friendship is an unending series of gifts from one to another and back again, never reciprocated or “evened out.” Never expected or asked for, it is the unselfishness of the giving that strengthens and cements the bonds between friends. And what is home? Not a place where you simply store your stuff (as George Carlin once put it), but a place where you store and find your friends.

We often speak of Cannara and our Umbrian villa as our new home. As we savor the rich fior di latte, pistacchio and nocciola it is clear why we do.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy