It’s Festa Season in Umbria!

It’s ‘ceri’ weekend in Gubbio, and we do believe it’s the official kick off for all of the fine weather festas in Umbria. For the uninitiated, the ceri (pronounced ‘cherry’) is a race where three enormous wooden, octagonal ‘candles’ are carried upright, on the strapping shoulders of the robust ‘cerioli’ men all the way up to St Ubaldo’s church. Which happens to be so steep, there is a funiculare to carry mere mortals up the hill; and it’s not really a race because they start out in the same order and end up in the same order. That however does not in anyway diminish the enthusiasm of the crowds.

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Season’s Change

Sunday night a crisp wind blew into the kitchen. Yesterday I saw a definitive signal of approaching autumn when I spotted the first tobacco truck laden with it’s burden of golden green leaves. The market is full of bargains as everyone tries to unload their surplus. The man selling chili peppers was hoping I would be seduced by his come-hither hands on his hips pose.

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The Pizza Chronicles: Pietralunga & TriAngolo

Pizza is just one of those things. It brings out the crazy in people. Whole guide books are devoted to the love of pizza, feuds are started over who makes the best pizza, online food forums like eGullet and Chowhound will argue to the death, and truly crazy people in NYC will pay 5 bucks…

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Kaleidoscope Montone Style

The days are starting to blur together as the hectic summer life of Montone begins in earnest. First, we sadly said good-bye to the last of the SADMO’s and the orto looks fantastic after all of John and Libby’s work and now its up to us to tend the garden and make us all proud…

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Montone News and Events

This is a public service announcement and breaks all rules of Italian event publicity. Italian rule #456/section ‘a1’ formally states: “All billboards and publicity for local events should not be posted until the last possible moment and should not include ALL of the following: time, date, location, or event description. It is up to the…

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