After nearly two weeks in Italy mostly in just each other’s company, Suzy and I began welcoming the guests back into our life. On Thursday Collin and Yoko arrived from Dubai. The following day Vicky jetted in from Washington, DC. And today we welcomed Bobby and Meryl from central Florida, also welcoming back to Umbria our friend Valerie from New York. The arrivals continue this week. We’ve got our innkeeping on.

For Bobby and Meryl it is their first trip to Europe in some time, so we decide to ease them into Menardworld, a place our good friend Frances once described as being similar to a Roach Motel. “Menardworld is a place you can get in, but you can’t get out.” I’d like to think that most people don’t really want to escape.

Anyway, to ease Bobby and Meryl into our Italian life we arranged to have them picked up at Rome’s Fiumicino airport. There, Wendy began the process of Italicizing them, giving them tips on pronunciation (“brew-sket-a” not “brew-shet-a”), introducing them to the countryside that unfolds once you exit the beltway encircling Rome (the Grande Raccordo Anulare) and stopping off at Lufra’, our favorite roadside stop on the route from Rome to Cannara. There, in a nondescript strip mall just outside the town of Orte is an improbably and inconceivably incredible caseificio, or cheeseshop, specializing in all things from Campania. For Bobby, who runs a fabulous restaurant in Ormond Beach together with his wife Meryl, having their first stop in Italy be at Lufra’ was a little slice of heaven. I’m pretty sure Wendy could have turned around and put them on a return flight to Florida and they would have left Italy happy.

But not so fast. While the Lufra’ stop provided some road munchies for our new visitors (mozzarella di bufala, salami and casatiello, a cheesy bread from the south, with bits of salami, cheese and hardboiled egg that we call “breakfast bread”) a half hour after leaving Orte Wendy guided them up the hill to il Castello di Casigliano, a stone fortress of a town with a popular and atmospheric restaurant called il Re Beve (the King drinks). This would be the place where they would enjoy their second meal in Italy in the few hours since their arrival. And boy, did they (and we) enjoy lunch at il Re Beve, sitting on their outdoor terrace overlooking the expansive valley below, the weather a picture perfect clear, cool, bright Italian summer day. We took our cues from the restaurant’s name and joined il Re, enjoying a bottle or two of local wine together with a mixed antipasti platter that included an assortment of brewsketta, cheeses, sliced pork goodness, and goodness knows what else. Well Vicky knows what else, because the other chef in our group was taking copious notes on the simple food that simply amazes. In typical Umbrian fashion, our “light” lunch continued with a spectacular nest of pasta garnished with shaved summer truffles. And then just one more pasta course for balance sake, a trofie pasta with a pesto sauce. We said our goodbyes to Antonio, the cheery proprietor who had served Suzy and me so ably during our two day stay at il Castello in April, our group having made a new friend as well. And we were off on our next adventure, although I am pretty sure Wendy could have turned around and put them on a return trip to Florida and they would have left Italy happy.

But then they would have missed our visit to the Scacciadiavoli winery and our appointment with the magical Liu Pambufetti, the young, attractive owner and manager of the family’s winery operations. We have visited Scacciadiavoli increasingly over the years for a number of reasons, one of which is that this winery, the oldest in the region, is so ingeniously designed and so elegantly suited for the purpose of making wine. It also helps that their wines – which include two sparkling wines made in the traditional metodo classico or methode champagnoise from the local sagrantino grape – are outstanding and that Liu is a wonderful ambassador for her family’s wines. There we were treated to a tour of the winery and afterwards a tasting in one of the converted stables. Bobby, already amazed at the winery, remarked that the tasting room had been completely unexpected. “I thought it was just a stable and when we walked in we got this??”

So just eight hours after they had landed we had covered a couple hundred miles and a dozen or so bottles. Not to mention several pounds of pork. We said our goodbyes to Liu and her associate Francesa and finally headed to the villa, passing around Montefalco and descending into the Valle del Umbria along the road which gives Montefalco its nickname la ringhiera del’Umbria – the balcony of Umbria. Did I mention that Montefalco is often called the balcony of Umbria. Well it is.

At the villa our group forsook a nap in favor of a refreshing dip in the pool in order to stave off jetlag. And an hour later we were back on the road again, this time to nearby Bevagna and one of its finest restaurants, Redibis. This gem is built into the ruins of Bevagna’s ancient Roman theater, the main room of the restaurant sitting below an enormous curved archway above which the theater’s outdoor seating had been built. Underneath we enjoyed a dinner of traditional Italian food but traditional not in the traditional sense. At Redibis the menu includes items that were staples in the Italian kitchen at the turn of the century – the 20th century – rather than what we call classics today. The most interesting was passatelli, a homemade pasta made not from flour and water, but from bread dough (with yeast), forming a soft gnocchi-like noodle that springs back when you chew it. Also amazing the group was the restaurant’s veal cheeks, braised and falling apart on the plate. Under the ancient archway we ate our way nearly into the next morning, welcoming our guests into our very own Italian Roach Motel. Over the course of the next week or so we’ll see if they can find their way out. Or if they want to.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy