I’m beginning to feel a little like Lucille Ball manning the conveyor belt at the candy store. No matter how fast I churn out a post, the days move more quickly and a bunch of candy comes falling off the belt and onto the floor. Guess I’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.

As I write this, our first April Food and Wine Tour has come to an end. This tour has been a little different than our October harvest time tours, which we have been running for four years now. The most obvious difference has been the weather. Although we were pestered by some rain showers throughout the week, the weather in Umbria in early spring is simply marvelous. Thanks to the showers that began a week or so ago after months of dry weather, the countryside is an explosion of green, and buds are forming on branches and vines everywhere. In contrast to fall harvest time, with its firey red and orange hues, the weather of Umbrian spring brings a sense of renewal, optimism and energy.

Foods, too, are different this time of year. One of our great pleasures during spring visits to Italy is the opportunity to enjoy fresh spring vegetables as they begin to come into ripeness. Fresh peas, added as a sauce over spaghetti, have the taste of spring, a certain immaturity combined with an essence that can only be described as freshness. They are an unparalleled delight. On the other hand, truffles are not as plentiful. We learn to make tradeoffs and to make do.

So on our final days in Umbria, we race from one end of the province to the other, from Montefalco to Spoleto, from Trevi to Bevagna. We tour the great cities of Perugia and Spoleto. We visit our friends the Pardis to learn about linen weaving and winemaking. We enjoy lunch in an osteria run by a madman and dinner for twenty with our villa guests and some friends from Washington/Todi at Simone’s. We cook pizzas in our wood burning oven and enjoy dinner at La Stalla, where everything is cooked over an open fire in the restaurant. In short, we experience Umbria the way we have learned to experience it. And we share those experiences with our guests who are so much more than guests. They are our friends.

* * *

A highlight to our visit to the Pardi tessitura (weaving mill) is the opportunity for our guests to meet and spend time with Augusta.  Not only is she a font of information about the process of making luxury linens, she is “the poetry of the family.”

And for some reason she loves Suzy!

*        *        *

Spoleto, a nearby hill town, is one of the largest towns near us, just behind Peugia and Assisi.  It has a vastly different character, perhaps because it hosts the international Festival of the Two Worlds music festival each year.  Even off season it has a festive air about it.

One of our favorite stops in Spoleto is the Osteria del Matto, the Osteria of the Crazy Guy.  The food is great, the atmosphere is typical and Filippo, the madman, never ceases to entertain.

*        *        *

Our good friend Irene, at the Olio Trevi olive oil cooperative makes olive oil come to life.  No one in our group would think of buying a non-D.O.P. oil after listening to her for an hour.

When in Trevi one must visit the St. Emiliano olive tree, the oldest in Umbria at 1700 years old.  That’s right, 1700 years and still bearing fruit.  Not sure if there’s any truth to the story that the saint’s blood courses through the tree, but kudos to whoever had the green thumb to pull off this one.

*        *        *

A visit to the recently opened Caseificio Ferretti, a local cheese shop in Ponte San Giovani where two young brothers and their disciples make fresh cheese each day.  If you time it right, and we did, you can watch them making mozzarella, stretching the cheese into long ropes and tying it into braids (treccia) or into balls (bocconcini).

The best part, though, is the tasting.  Mmmmmmm.  Cheese.

*        *        *

Our visit to Perugia started with a walk through the subterranean Rocca Paolina with our guide Vittoria.  It is always a jolt for our guests to see and understand this unique site.

Etruscan, Roman, medieval, gothic, renaissance.  Perugia is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.  With a delicious chocolate coating!

Merv’s relative, the symbol of Perugia.

*        *        *

And any visit to Perugia is made better by a get together with our friend Giuseppe Fioroni, the local artist who has opened his gallery to us and our guests on countless occasions.  If you ask him nicely, he’ll even play the accordion for you.  We’re working on details to host a visit of the maestro to Washington this fall.  Stay tuned.

*       *        *

So, hopefully we’ve been able to pick up and share with you a few candies from the end of the conveyor belt.  There’s so much gooey sweetness we’ve prepared over the past week it would be a shame to simply dump it in the waste bin.  We hope to circle back over the next couple of days and share them you from our new vantage point, the Seven Seas cruise ship, as we make our way from Istanbul to Venice.

In the meantime, don’t worry about us.  The captain’s not Italian.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy