Posts Tagged ‘Umbria’
Wine Philosopher: Paolo Rodaro
According to Paolo Rodaro, there are only four kinds of wine: red, white, good, or bad. If you taste a wine and think, “Hmmm…might be off.” and you taste again, and maybe a third time, Paolo thinks you are wasting time. You were right the first time, send the wine back. He uses real corks, dismissed screw tops as an abomination, politely listened to the virtues of glass caps and then changed the subject to sex. If you do not look a person in the eye when you clink glasses you will be condemned to seven years of bad sex! And so the conversation meandered during a lovely evening at the Enoteca Wine Club in Umbertide as we ate Antonella’s delicious food and tasted the wines from the Rodaro cantina.
Read MoreDonazione della Santa Spina 2012
Congratulations to Borgo del Monte on winning this year’s Palio! Maybe we didn’t win…but we sure had a good time!
Being a part of the community of our del Verziere rione is a precious honor. Being the Castellana of our rione will be a memory I cherish forever.
OK, and now it’s time to start planning for next year! Viva del Verziere!!
Read MoreFesta in Montone: The Die is Cast
And so, in the words of Julius Ceasar, crossing the Rubicon, “Iacta alea est”. The die has been cast. Each rione has given its all, its best effort. A year’s worth of plotting, planning, scheming, writing, painting sets, and rehearsing lines is over. The plays have played, and tonight, with much drumming and fanfare, the winner of the Palio will be announced.
Read MoreRites of Spring in Italy
We had a week of firsts. First rites of the spring season, first flowers, first adventures in Umbria. Italy is literally bursting with flowers right now and it’s a marvelous time to be here. Here’s a week in photos from our week of spring in Italy.
Read MoreOlio Novello Time is Here! ‘Tis the season for fresh olive oil!
t’s olive picking time in Umbria. Olive picking, followed by pressing is fragrantly joyous; there is something comforting about knowing you will have oil. It means there will be food on the table and it will be good.
This past weekend, a small group of us were invited by Mario Ciampetti of Terre Rosse to participate in an olive oil weekend in Spello, Umbria.
Read MoreAnd the winner is…
Congratulations to del Borgo for winning the 2011 Palio!
We lost by one single point, but the jury gave us high points for our ‘nearly cineographic’ performances.
Read MoreMontone, the Palio and A Waiting Game
Everyone has given their all, and it is now a waiting game.
Who will win the Palio this year?
Montone: In the service of Dionysus
By most accounts, our del Verziere spettacolo was a grand success. It came off as a powerful, dramatic piece, and that was the intent. Five all-out rape scenes in a very challenging (as in STEEP) setting also took its toll on us. Skinned knees and elbows, bruises, banged shins, jammed fingers, and scraped toes, all in the service of Dionysus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, theater and ecstasy.
Read MoreMontone Marathon: Day 2 of Donazione della Santa Spina
Tues morning, Aug 16
Town is a beehive of activity. Those little 3 wheeled Api’s are buzzing around town hauling sets and props, garbage, chairs and what ever else needs to be transported through our tiny medieval streets. Anything larger and Jeff is hauling it around in our trusty-rusty pick-up truck.
Clusters of people with clipboards gather, confer, and separate like so many drops of mercury, endless reorganizing according to the task at hand.
La Dolce Vita Veloce
Lazy summer days, flip flops, reading a book until you fall asleep. Is this for real? Life in Italia hurtles by at breakneck speed during the summer. The Italians LIVE for summer, the socializing, the dinners, the festas, the concerts, the film festivals; they all tug at you and say, “Come on! It’s summertime!”
And we’ve been doing our best to live la dolce vita.
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