A weekend Out of Umbria: wild Circeo

by Silvia Matricardi

Sometimes We, Umbrians, are in the mood for something different, we need to breathe a different air and to escape some place we don’t know or some place where we know everything is different.

On a Thursday afternoon, a few weeks ago, we decided the time for our out-of-Umbrian escape had come. A couple of days and some telephone calls later we were ready to leave. And we left.

We left Umbria early in the morning and after a 3hours drive we arrived in a beautiful place in southern Lazio, inside the Circeo National Park. The drive was not so hard; you get to your freeway exit very fast and then you take a Province road that immediately gives you the idea you have come to a totally different place than Umbria: different landscape, different people, different colours and habits. And in fact we chose that area beacuse we wanted to be in a place looking really different from our home Region, because we wanted to be by the sea and we did not want to spend too much time driving a car. And we had never been there before.

Our choice was really successful!

As soon as we arrived we noticed the main feature of the place: WILD!

The road that runs along the beach is not so wide and it is bordered by bushes of several kinds of Mediterranean short shrubs on both sides. Here and there you can get glances of water: light blue spots amongst the green, yellow and bright pink of bushes and flowers; on our right the sea, on our left the coastal lake. And there was a “plus”: the road, as well as the beach, was deserted. These are the advantages of visiting Italy in “low season”!

But the best had yet to come! When we arrived at the hotel we immediately understood why it was called its name: it is standing in a privileged position, right on the beach! It is simple and silent, with comfortable commons spaces characterized by open rooms with big windows, the fireplace, wild plants everywhere, white walls and dark brown wooden ceiling…. tasting a little bit Mexican.

Anyway the best thing was: we wanted an hotel with a view on the sea and what we got was an hotel with the beach in our room; the water was so close and the roaring of the waves was so strong we could hardly talk to each other. Our room had a balcony with comfortable chairs, from which we had the chance to enjoy a beautiful view of the Circeo promontory, of the Pontine Islands and a beautiful sunset in the Tyrrhenian sea.

The weekend passed very fast, with walks on the wide wild beach, visit to local villages, a morning cruise around the islands, beautiful panoramas, discovery of several villas hidden amongst the Mediterranean vegetation and meals based on local food, fish of course!

To be repeated soon, there on in another beautiful spot, OUT of Umbria but not so far!

******

A package tour proposal is available in this area: www.umbrianescapes.it

Travel proposal #3: Umbrian nature

by Silvia Matricardi

The third travel experience we would like to propose is EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN NATURE.

It is not easy to describe Umbrian landscape, as it is very diverse and characterized by many areas with totally different features. Umbrian land is mainly covered by mountains and hills and its territory is preserved by six regional and one national natural parks. During a journey in Umbria you can easily see several kinds of natural surroundings and pass from one kind to another in a very short time: from the Appennine mountains and the hilly ranges, to the large valleys and broad lowlands, through vineyards and olive groves, from cultivated valleys to bare plateaux, from ilex and oak woods to lakes, rivers and waterfalls. No wonder if, given this overall picture of scenic beauty, Umbria has been nicknamed “The Green Heart of Italy”.

To explore all these different environments 4 days are not enough; anyway, in such a short time you can have a taste and feel of some of their main peculiarities. First of all, our mountains covered by an old vegetation that in some cases has been preserved since ancient times and keeps the characteristics it had in past centuries, with all the beautiful tracks and paths that winds for kilometres and unlock hidden hermitages, ancient convents and churches. Then, the sweet landscape of rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves and villages that you can find in the Umbra Valley, with its rich farming culture and traditions linked to olive and vine harvesting and processing, like in the area of Montefalco. And also wild Umbria, that you can see in the Valnerina Valley, nestling between pictoresque gorges, and in Norcia area; this is the reign of wild waters, such as those of the Nera and Corno river and of the Marmore Waterfalls, but also those of the springs in Sellano and La Rocchetta area, with their curative properties.

As the other travel experiences we are presenting, this one starts with a welcome aperitif at guests’ arrival in Spoleto, followed by a typical dinner (with local cheese, cold cuts, pasta and meat); it takes them on a a tour of Spoleto city center and its main monuments, that “talk” about the city’s Roman and Medieval history. Then the real naturalistic tour starts, with an 1h20 minutes hiking on the top of Monteluco, a sacred mountain covered by ilexes and oaks woods, following an ancient hermits’ path; after a picnic guests can visit the sacred forest and monastery and then take a 2hours walk along another beautiful pathway. The second day offers the experience of another kind of typical Umbrian landscape, the green and hilly Montefalco area, with a biking tour of Montefalco along the Sagrantino Road, characterized by hundreds of vineyard, from which the famous Sagrantino and Montefalco Rosso wine are made; during the day we will stop and visit two vineries and enjoy some wine and local food tasting, before going back to the hotel. The third day lets guests explore another side of Umbria, the Valnerina and Norcia area, the kingdom of water, woods and mountain, with its beautiful medieval castles, towers and churches perched here and there, its natural parks and beautiful walks: after a visit of Norcia, with his heart-shaped medieval surrounding walls, main square hosting several historical buildings and the St. Benedict church, its narrow streets and old buildings and its typical shops and norcinerie (pork butchery shops), the tour heads to the Valnerina, the narrow valley carved and shaped throught the centuries by the flowing of the chilly Nera river, where visitors will enjoy a 7km rafting journey on Corno river.

The tour can end here or it can go on with a 3-days visit of Tuscany (Firenze, Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti area) and 2-days visit of Rome.

For detailed information: http://www.umbrianescapes.it/  

Travel proposal #2: Umbrian culture

by Silvia Matricardi

The second travel experience we would like to propose is EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN CULTURE.

When we use the words Umbrian Culture we mean a very wide range of elements. We are not just talking about arts, history, music, theatre, but we are indicating all the elements that make the “Umbrian Spirit”. We are talking about art cities and the treasures hidden inside their churches, museums, narrow streets and squares, the history you can breathe when walking in a city center or watching an old building facade or walking on a medieval bridge or having a cup of tea in an old café. We are also talking about places that are so dear to Umbrians, such as beautiful walks, ancient forests or colorful streets full of old shops and artisans’ shops.We are also talking about Umbrian rites, such as an aperitif with local products and wine to be enjoyed with friends in the cosy rooms of a traditional hotel or bar or about a dinner based on typical food prepared by the house wife of a family run restaurant or farm. We are also talking about all the stories, jokes and legends that were born in a certain place and that belong to people’s traditions, that make their “character” and are part of their way of thinking and living.

All of this can be tasted and enjoyed during a 4-days tour inside Umbrian Culture.

As the other travel experiences we are presenting, it starts with a welcome aperitif at guests’ arrival in Spoleto, followed by a typical dinner (with local cheese, cold cuts, pasta and meat); it takes them on a a tour of Spoleto city center and its main monuments, that “talk” about the city’s Roman and Medieval history, and then to visit a sacred forest and monastery; it takes them to Assisi, the Umbrian capital of spirituality, to walk through the city center which was the home town of St. Francis, to discover the beauty of its churches (that hide masterpieces of painting from Giotto, Cimabue, Martini, Lorenzetti, Martelli), narrow streets and buildings (built with the typical local pink stone) and craftsmen shops (selling wood crafts, handmade textiles, religious icones). It goes on with the visit of the beautiful town of Orvieto, on the right side of the Tiber river, to discover its Etruscan and medieval history and its art masterpieces, such as the Duomo (a beautiful example of Medieval architecture), St. Patrick’s well (ordered to be built by Pope Clemente VII to make sure that the Rocca and the town had water in case of enemies’ attack) and Orvieto underground, as well as its medieval streets full of artisans’ shops that sell woodwork, wrought iron and ceramics.

The tour can end here or it can go on with a 3-days visit of Tuscany (Firenze, Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti area) and 2-days visit of Rome.

For detailed information: http://www.umbrianescapes.it/

Travel proposal #1: Umbrian food

by Silvia Matricardi

The travel experience we would like to propose is EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN FOOD - Let’s discover truffle, olive oil, wine and cheese.

One of the best ways to know a place is by travelling inside its culinary tradition. And Umbria has got a very rich one, not in the sense that it is characterized by expensive or rare ingredients: on the contrary, Umbrian food is made with common elements, the ones you can easily find in every market or in every farm in the territory; they are genuine and dishes are usually very simply prepared.

Often the “good dishes” are prepared with poor elements which you would consider as “leftovers” o “waste”: for example, the 1or 2-days-old bread we use in “panzanella”, or the lamb’s interiors we use for “coratella” or the water and flour – no eggs! – we use to make “strangozzi”. The reason is simple: like in any other places, Umbrian cuisine is based on past traditions and customs; this area was not very rich in past centuries, givent the characteristics of its territory, and people had to learn how to use every possible thing that could be eaten, in order to survive during the times of food shortage.

Now the situation has changed, Umbrian people can get any food, at any price, coming from wherever (we have good places that make Sushi, for example), but when it comes to “la nostra cucina” there are no variations on the theme, there’s the typical stuff.

And let’s talk a little bit about it.

The base of our cuisine is extra virgin olive oil, coming from our omnipresent olives groves (belonging to the 5 Protected Designation of Origin areas), where olives are picked by hand and pressed in family-run mills; we use it to cook and season everything: salads, vegetables, meat, pasta, to make cakes, biscuits, bread and even in dessert.

Then, our wines: Sagrantino, Grechetto, Trebbiano, just to mention the main ones; again, speaking about production and official denomination areas, Umbria has got 2 DOCG and 12 DOC.

Norcineria, the art of pork butchery, that has its capital in Norcia and includes: salame, capocollo, lonza, salsicccia, guanciale, coppa, sanguinaccio and the famous Ham.

The truffle, our “black gold”, a fungus belonging to the tuber family: black truffle, scorzone and white truffle, depending on the area and period. It is delicious on bruschetta, on pasta, or cooked with meat or eggs, or in soups.

We also have a great production of cheese: the famous Pecorino, made with sheep’s milk, soft ricotta, salted ricotta, caciotta, ravigiolo and black truffle flavoured cheese. Our legumes: lentils from Colfiorito, spelt, cicerchia, roveja, the monachella bean. And also: the saffron of Cascia, the red potato of Colfiorito, the black celery of Trevi, the marron of Spoleto, honey, crayfish and trout, our mineral waters.

A tour inside Umbrian culinary tradition means getting to know most of these things. Our 4-days travel proposal is not enough to go in depth into all of this, but it can give guests a general idea and stimulate their taste. It can be prolonged on demand, of course.

It starts with a typical dinner at guests’s arrival in Spoleto (with local cheese, cold cuts, pasta and meat) and a tour of the city center; it takes them to Norcia, the capital of pork butchery, to discover its shops and norcinerie; it goes on with a truffle hunt and lunch based on truffle in a local farm and a visit to a sacred forest and monastery; it continues with the visit to ancient olive trees and olive mill in Trevi, with tasting of several varieties of extra virgin olive oil on bruschetta; it ends with the visit to a winery, light lunch and wine tasting and a walk in Montefalco city center.

The tour can end here or go on with a 3-days visit of Tuscany (Firenze, Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti area) and 2-days visit of Rome.

For detailed information:   silvia@umbrianescapes.it  or  umbriain.out@gmail.com

A journey of experiences with all of your senses

by Silvia Matricardi

There must be a strong reason why a group of well educated foreign adults decides to spend a 5-days vacation in Umbria. I said Umbria, yes, not Italy. What are you going to do for 5 days, all of them to be spent in Umbria???!!!!! Umbria is not so well known and celebrated. Umbria is small, slow, surrounded by mountains, closed.

Umbria is an intimate place, a land of the spirit. That’s why some days together can be incredibly rich and intimate, that’s why they can touch people’s lives. It is shared experience for all of our senses.
A friend of mine told me: “You have to act as if you had some very good friends of yours coming to visit you: you not only want to show them things, you want to tell them about your life, about your Umbria, you want to share experiences”. And that’s waht we do.
We visit beautiful places, but you know, those are everywhere, all around the World. What is more important is how we do it.
We let people feel how Umbrians eat, talk, the smells they breathe in their houses, in the local places where you go buy the good olive oil, where you get the real cheese, the smell of a truffle which has just been dig out by a young dog wagging its tail. We lead them along the walks we take on Sunday after or before the big family lunch, we take them in the beautiful mountains where you can take refuge in a cozy locanda and have some warm soup and cold cuts while the storm ululates outside; we let them feel the smell of the pressed vines in a family run winery; we let them stop by the river to watch the “Fario” an the “Rainbow” trouts and to walk in a silent medieval village at riposo time, when also ducks protest at our arrival, because we make a little noise. We let them enter a silen forest, just to see some caves, to watch the trees and take a look at the view.

I am not celebrating how good we are, but just how passionately we live and love our land and how happy we are when we find people who are truly interested in “feeling” the real stuff. These people don’t want to rush and grab as much as they can: they want to savour things, they want it to be slow.
Suddenly they become friends and a job turns into a pleasure.
As someone very smartly wrote: “A joy for your senses”.

In order to give guests all of this, we are going to propose three different 5-days itineraries in Umbria, which we have conceived together with a friend of ours, Daniela, of Tasting Travel. Both of us are in love with our region and would like to offer it to visitors as it really is, as we live it every day.
That’s why each of our next 3 posts will be about a different kind of tour, which can be realized and guided by us all throught 2012.

EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN FOOD - Let’s discover truffle, olive oil, wine and cheese

EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN CULTURE

EXPERIENCE UMBRIAN NATURE

A typical Umbrian Christmas sweet: Ciccuto's torrone

 by Silvia Matricardi

Once upon a time in a charming medieval town in Umbria there was an old confectioner’s shop. It was run by a man called Ciccuto, with his wife and daughter. It was one of those old fashioned, family-run artisan’s shops, typical of early twentieth-century Umbrian towns, with little furniture which hadn’t got pretensions to beauty or style. They sold all kind of typical products, most of which were hand made by them, such as maritozzi (kind of currant bun) with whipped cream, custard or chocolate, pastries, as well as rhubarb candies and liquorice drops, besides giving out spirits, coffee and co.
They also made the best chocolate and hazelnuts torrone ever!

You probably know that torrone is a typical Italian Christmas candy, kind of nougat, and that there are dozens of varieties all around Italy: it can be soft or hard, white (made with honey) or black (made with chocolate), with hazelnuts or almonds or pistachio, and so on….

Ciccuto’s chocolate and hazelnuts torrone was really a masterpiece of deliciousness, it was different from any other chocolate and hazelnuts torrone you could find around. Like it happens with Nutella: many artisans try to make chocolate and hazelnut cream and you can find really good ones around (especially in Piemonte) but no one has ever succeeded in reaching the same taste. It’s unique.

My memories of Ciccuto’s shop are very old and foggy, as he closed his activity at least 25 years ago.

Anyway I clearly remember that I used to go there on Sundays at Christmas time, before lunch, with my Dad. I was little but tall enough to see the board where torrone would be kept; it was long, of course, but differently from any other one, when you looked at it frontally it was not large and short, but square. Two foils of host would cover its bottom and top and you could immediately see the huge hazelnuts in the middle.It was also different in terms of consistency: it was not so compact and smooth, but very doughy and slightly crumbly. You did not need to cut it with a knife, you could easily break it with your fingers and get them deliciously dirty.

Anyway, what made it really unique was its taste: it was very strong and rich; when you bit it you could feel many little crunchy tiny pieces of chocolate and it would spread immediately in every corner of your mouth.

Ciccuto would measure it with a knife and cut it where you wanted. Then he would wrap it in an oily white paper and put it in a paper bag.

And each Sunday at Christmas time at my house it was a joy!

Unfortunately Ciccuto’s daughter has not carried on her family’sactivity and the traditional torrone recipe got wasted.

Anyway, for true torrone lovers, those who are really keen on traditional one, hope is not lost. There is an artisan of traditional pastries and cakes in Spoleto who makes a wonderful chocolate and hazelnuts torrone, whose taste and consistency is very close to Ciccuto’s one: it’s the award-winning Pasticceria Pirola, in Spoleto. Giuseppe, the owner, explains the reason: “Of course, it’s my Grandfather’s recipe!”.

Their torrone is not an inexpensive one, believe me, but it’s worth a drive from any corner of Umbria!

The "bad" season in Umbria: smells and colours

by Silvia Matricardi

Some people IN Umbria complain when the Summer is over, as if they couldn’t stand the coming season. I can partly understand them, as the “bad” season is really long here: some years you have to wait until April before you can say that Winter is over.
But is Fall really the beginning of a bad season? How could you define “bad” (or “brutta”, as we say here, “la brutta stagione”) what we are going through these days?!

I personally love this time of the year and also the following weeks, all the period until Christmas. And the reasons are so many I could hardly list them all.

What is beautiful about Autumn IN Umbria is mainly the look and the smell.

The smell you feel going around, in city centers, in the narrow streets and squares, is the smell of the smoke coming out the houses’ chimneys. As soon as the temperature lowers Umbrians start lighting up the fireplace in their homes; not because of the cold (we do have heating, of course!) but because the fireplace “tiene compagnia” (keeps you company), as we say it. Before and after dinner, in fact, families like to gather around the fire and chat a little bit.
But there is also another reason to light up a fire: you can cook a fast dinner based on roasted pork meat and roasted bread (bruschetta), which is typical of Umbria. And you know, the fact of being roasted on the grill on the fire gives the meat a special flavour.
And, talking about the smell of Atumn in the city centers, sometimes when walking in a narrow street or turning a street corner your nose gets whetted by a sudden smell of roasted pork meat. That’s typical too!
There’s another wonderful smell in the Fall: you feel it when you walk along a street besides a public garden or along a row of trees, or better when you go out in the country. It’s the smell of moist earth, of rotten leaves and wet grass: it’s strong, fresh, rich, loamy and succulent. It reminds me of ancient walks, as a child, with my grandfather…It reminds me of a beautiful secret garden in Spoleto, cloistered between the stone walls of an old convent. My garden.

The colours of Autumn are no way inferior to its odours.
Besides the green, the everlasting green of the Green Heart of Italy, the predominant colours you find around are: yellow, orange, brown and red, with different shades and nuances. Not only can you see them out in the country or in the woods, or along the many walks up and down Umbrian hills, but also in the many fruits and vegetables that fill people’s kitchen tables and market’s stalls.
What I find interesting it is that also the clothes people wear during this season have got these colours, as if everyone wanted to be in tune with nature.

We could not list all the trees that have beautiful colours in the Fall, but we can surely list the fruits and vegetables that fill our tables, which you can find in the stalls of weekly markets (il mercato), like the one we spotted last Friday.

Chestnuts or marrons (Spoleto marrons are famous): different shades of brown and reddish –brown; you can prepare them roasted or boiled, or you can use them to make soups or tartes or flour.

Mandarines: total orange; they are the first citrus fruit that come out and their smell is just delicious, being one of the precious gifts Winter brings in, which reminds a little bit of approaching Christmas time.

Nuts: light brown; you can eat them raw or crush them to prepare stuffing for typical cakes, such as the “attorta”, the just-great-! Christmas cake we make in Spoleto.

Pumpkins: orange, yellow, green, brown and mix; those that survive Halloween time can be used in a thousand ways: sliced and fried, in soups, as a seasoning for pasta and risotto or to make cakes; there’s also a bad joke about pumpkin icecream that my husband tells, but let’s skip that!

Khaki: oh Gosh, my favourite! Total orange; this incredible fruit can be hard or soft; my favourite is the soft variety, which is pulpous, sweet and “slippery” besides being highly nutritious. I eat it fresh, raw, with a tea spoon.

Winter string beans, chard, chicory and the other winter herbs: different shades of green; these herbs are wonderful if you cook them with simple ingredients: extra virgin olive oil and salt; you can boil them and add some lemon juice; or you can fry them in a pan, together with celery, carrots and small tomatoes; or you can use them to stuff pizza or calzoni or piadina or...whatever, they are wonderful with anything!

Cabbages and broccoli: different shades of green, white; they can be cooked the same ways as the other herbs we mentioned.Our favorite way is: boil them, then put them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt and hot pepper and fry them for a while; then spread them on hot, crispy bruschetta.

Spinaches: bright green; besides being Popeye’s favourite food they are great to accompany a roasted meat course or to make a pie, with parmesan cheese, eggs, grated bread and pieces of smoked pork underbelly.

Grape: different nuances of red and green; at the end of special refined dinners we love to serve our friends crackling grape accompanying soft and hard cheese seasoned with acacia honey. Aren’t we just immoral?!

Black olives: absolute black. This is the most typical fruit here in Umbria, that’s the land of olive oil. When you don’t use all of your olive trees’ fruits to make oil you keep some of them in glass jars, under salt, either close to the fireplace or out of the window in the cold, for some days, until they are ready to be eaten; then you season them with pieces of garlic and orange peel, olive oil and salt. And they come out perfect and delicious: incredibly bitter!

Anyway, there is something that’s really special about November, which isn’t neither a color nor a smell; it’s something that embraces all that we have been mentioning and everything else, giving this time of year its special mood: it’s fog, the light, transparent fog of sunny days at Fall, you can only find in a few Umbrian valleys.

Dear non-Umbrian friends, please forgive us for praising something so annoying as fog can be: we are Umbrians, we love to wander in woods, to go up and down hills, to eat marrons, herbs and mushrooms, and, to quote a young and promising Umbrian actor - Filippo Timi - we are a little bit like “hairy wild boars”!