Archive for June, 2010

Archery with the Archers

{ June 29, 2010 @ 12:49 pm } · { Two Weeks in Todi }
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Arcus Tuder is an archery club of about 26 men and (a few) women who meet to practice at their outdoor range (equipped with a grill and tables, naturally) and also compete (occasionally in medieval costume) around the region and the country. Carlo Rellini, whose wife taught us cooking last week, invited a group of 12 of us to join him and his fellow master archers for a 2 hour archery lesson. Clear, patient and funny, they taught us all the basics of this historic sport and generously lent us their bows and arrows despite our novice level of ability. Not surprisingly, Geoff and Sarah Archer seemed to be innately gifted, but they weren’t the only ones. I think more than a few of us will be looking into archery lessons back home. Who knows, maybe we’ll even compete in medieval garb in Bevagna next year!

Horses, wildflowers and ricotta: Castelluccio di Norcia

{ June 28, 2010 @ 9:27 am } · { Food, Two Weeks in Todi }
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This film captures the natural and edible splendor of our Sunday excursion to Castelluccio di Norcia, located in the Monti Sibillini about 2.5 hours southwest of Todi. Well worth the drive!

Corso di Cucina da Rita e Carlo: Slow Food, Umbrian-style

{ June 25, 2010 @ 4:59 pm } · { Food, Two Weeks in Todi }
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After 5 days of having others cook for us, we prepared – then leisurely enjoyed – our own delicious Umbrian dinner last night. Rita greeted us with her usual smile, followed by her tail-wagging dogs Baldo, a yellow lab, and Pepito, a shaggy, soccer-playing terrier.  Within seconds, she had us in the kitchen, hands washed and aprons tied. A few feet away, Rita’s husband Carlo suffered quietly while watching Italy play its final World Cup soccer match.   Following Rita’s expert directions, Martha, Suzanne and Florence prepared our dessert: a strawberry tiramisù. Next, Don and Jill prepared the stinchi di maiale (pork shank), which was slow-cooked with white wine, potatoes and carrots for over 2 hours. Tracy, Cheryl and Suzanne mixed the spinach and ricotta (from sheep’s milk) dough and we all tried our hands at rolling, cutting the dough into little gnocchetti, which we dimpled with our thumbs or index fingers (the indentation helps the gnocchi gather up sauce).  As soon as she realized we had a non meat-eater in our midst, Rita quickly came up with an additional dish: panzanella, a salad made with dry bread, chopped fresh tomatoes, onions, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and any other ingredient you’d like to incorporate (i.e. other chopped veggies, tuna, cheese).

By eight o’clock Carlo reappeared to pour us glasses of prosecco as we watched the sun set behind Todi. We enjoyed our slow cooked meal slowly and didn’t say ‘buona notte’ until long after 11:30, long after the last bite of tiramisù and, yes, a little glass or two of Carlo’s famous limoncello. Even nonna (Rita’s spunky 83 year-old mother) came out to greet us and share some laughs.

Although I hope many will try to repeat Rita’s recipes at home, the Italian lessons learned while cooking were equally valuable. We learned verbs like mescolare (to blend), tagliare (to cut), aggiungere (to add), bagnare (to soak or dip in liquid) and lots of food vocabulary: biscotti di Savoia (“lady fingers”), stinco (pork shank), the difference between sugo (always a tomato sauce) and other sauces labeled by ingredients or nick-name (i.e. alla carbonara, al tartufo). And a few experienced the linguistic revelation of understanding the difference between cuocere and cucinare, the two verbs that translate as “to cook”: cucinare is what a person does – i.e. Cucino bene. Abbiamo cucinato la cena while cuocere indicates what the food does – i..e La carne deve cuocere a 200 gradi per due ore; E’ cotta la pasta?).  “So you’re saying that I’ve been telling people they’re cooked all of these years?” Martha asked as we all burst into laughter.

A few of my favorite things: Palazzone + Orvieto

{ June 24, 2010 @ 10:52 am } · { Orvieto, Wine }
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Excursion to the Palazzone Winery and Orvieto

I first met Giovanni Dubini, winemaker and co-owner (with his brother, Lodovico) of the Palazzone Winery and Locanda, at dinner in Charlottesville, Virginia. Giovanni was touring the east coast with his wine rep and had led a tasting at my friend Robert Harllee’s wonderful wineshop (Market Street Wineshop) earlier that afternoon. Giovanni and his family have been making wine in the sweetly rolling hills just north of Orvieto for about 20 years now and they have established a reputation as possibly the best producers of classic Orvieto wines with an elegant, modern twist.  Giovanni met us yesterday afternoon as the sun was shining and a gentle breeze was blowing through the rose bushes and grapevines. He told us the story of how his father and mother fell in love with this farm and its medieval ‘palazzo’ and decided on a whim to purchase it and learn the craft of winemaking. After touring the winery and tasting three Palazzone wines under the pergola outside – Grechetto, Campo Guardiano (my favorite) and the Rubio (a blend of sangiovese, merlot and cabernet) – we took a peek inside the Dubini’s exquisite, seven suite boutique hotel, Locanda Palazzone. If Orvieto itself weren’t beckoning us from its volcanic tufa pedestal, the cathedral’s façade glittering in the sun, I would have been tempted to check-in and, especially given the ample supply of superb wines and the cuisine of Palazzone’s resident chef, likely never check out.

Grazie mille, Giovanni – ci vediamo l’anno prossimo!!!

Bevagna’s Living History: Festa delle Gaite

{ June 23, 2010 @ 10:02 am } · { Festivals, Two Weeks in Todi }
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Excursion from Todi: BEVAGNA

Jet-lagged but enthusiastic, we set out from Todi’s Piazza Jacopone at around 2pm on Sunday to explore the nearby town of Bevagna, which was in full festival mode. Like most of Umbria, Bevagna is a layer cake of historic eras – Umbrian, Etruscan, Roman and Medieval. Unlike most of Umbria, which is 90% hills and mountains, calves of steel are not a prerequisite for visiting Bevagna. A lovely town to tour on any stay in Umbria – especially for wine lovers since it’s next door to Montefalco and the Sagrantino wine route – Bevagna’s particularly festive in late June during its annual  Festa della Gaite. Festivals are everywhere in Umbria and you’d be hard pressed to find a month or even a week of the year without one – from Gubbio’s Festa dei Ceri to art festivals in Spoleto ( we’ll be there on Saturday) and Todi to a chocolate festival in Perugia – every season brings a new reason to celebrate.

Bevagna’s festival – which to the locals is more of a gara, or competition – recreates daily life during the period from 1250-1350. During the festival’s two weeks , each of the four historic neighborhoods, or “gaite” (from the Lombard word “ guaita” or “porta/gate”) – competes  in four different  categories :  trades (la Gara dei Mestieri Medievali), archery (la Gara del Tiro con L’arco), gastronomy (La Gara Gastronomica) and the theatrical recreation of a medieval market (La Gara dei Mercati).

The first thing we noticed while following a group of men and boys in tights carrying bows and arrows along the ancient Via Flaminia (still the town’s main thoroughfare), was that we were trespassing upon a very serious and very local event – not a spectacle performed for entertainment of tourists. At the archery competition in Piazza Silvestri, crowds from each neighborhood watched in tense silence as archers aged 4-to-64 shot aimed their arrows at little terra cotta plates hanging from statues of medieval knights.  Every time a plate was struck,  cheers exploded from the bleachers. After defeat, friends and family consoled teery-eyed children with hugs and kisses or celebrated with the victors at their gaita’s tavern.  In the bars lining the piazza, archers in medieval costume sipped espresso while watching World Cup soccer on a tiny television set. A day just like any other in Bevagna.

After the archery competition, we visited a few of the medieval trades to learn how paper was made from linen rags, how church bells were cast and inscribed, how fabrics were dyed from spices and herbs, how paints were created from soil and precious stones. Unlike Epcot or Williamsburg, here in Bevagna the costumed interpreters actually practice what they preach, just as their ancestors have done for centuries.  It could not be more, feel more… real. Just as with most of the trades still practiced today in Italy,  a respect for tradition and a sense of pride fuels every working moment.

At eight we dined in the vaulted and frescoed rooms of the Taverna San Giovanni and were entertained both before and after our dinner of gnocchi with herbs, grilled sausage and beef skewers and farro salads by two juggling jesters After plunging into history it was time for Leonardo to drive us past vineyards and olive groves, through a little pine forest (pineta) or two back to Todi.

What is it about Italy?

{ June 22, 2010 @ 7:54 am } · { Uncategorized }
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What is it about Italy?

On Saturday a group of 15 Americans joined me in the Umbrian hill town of Todi for a two-week immersion into Italian language and life.  The group includes a high school student and his musician parents, a college student and her mother, an air traffic engineer and his wife, and many beautiful women traveling solo – from a high school ESL teacher to a hospice chaplain to an empty-nesting mom of four. From California to New York, from Arizona to South Carolina and Virginia, they were compelled to meet in this small yet vibrant Italian town for fourteen days of Italian lessons, excursions in Umbria, new friendships, delicious meals and – I expect – an epiphany or two. Some of us live in apartments with views of the rolling hills below or, in my case, of the stony side and grass-bordered steps of the imposing Romanesque church of San Fortunato. Others truly live like locals by living – and eating – with them.

At our first get-to-know-each other dinner on Saturday evening – cheeses, salumi and glasses of local wine (Grechetto, Rosso di Montefalco) at Enoteca Oberdan – Elena popped the question. It’s the same question I’ve been asking myself for much of my professional life: What is it about Italy that lures so many different people to this country and its melodic language? In other words, she could have said, what are we all doing here together in Todi? For many in the group, the discovery of an “Italian vocation” came later in life (dare I say after 40?), perhaps after many years devoted to work and/or family. Perhaps, we surmised, Italy is a place to come when we need to check in with ourselves and figure out if we are truly living the life we were intended (or simply desire!) to live.  For some, the Italian way of life – which favors family, friends, tradition, sensual pleasure and overall wellness – is an utterly convincing alternative to our uprooted, work and technology-obsessed American life. Many of my adult Italian students at Speak! – including several who’ve come to Todi with me – believe they were Italian in a former life.  Roberta, who’s with me here now for the second time in two years, says she has “an Italian heart”.  After watching her delight in everything from simple conversations with her host families to getting her hair done at Michele’s salon to tasting her 25th gelato as if it were her first, I am convinced she is right. I wonder if Italy is where we give ourselves permission to indulge in life’s simple pleasures.

For me, Italy at its best brings me closer in touch with beauty, pure and simple. As soon as I arrive here, I realize how much my soul has been beauty-starved.  Even on this cool, rainy day in Todi, I am surrounded by beauty both visual (the fog hugging the valley, the gorgeous facades facing my window, the roses and cypress trees), audible (the swallows screeching and zooming between buildings each evening at sunset, scooters motoring through narrow streets, voices echoing off the ancient buildings) and, of course, edible (i.e. the mushroom and black truffle pizza I just ate for lunch). Even the air here is perfumed, thanks to the tiglio (linden) trees and gelsomino (jasmine), which are in full bloom now.  Of course, Italy has lots of ugly elements (physical, social, political), but at least during these Two Weeks in Todi, they are very few and far between.

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