PANE, PROSCIUTTO E FANTASIA: A SUNNY AFTERNOON IN PRECI

by Silvia Matricardi

Two days ago, in a beautiful, cool but sunny Sunday afternoon, we decided to take a trip to one of the most charming hamlets in Umbria, where an interesting “Festa” is taking place: Preci.
The name comes from the Latin word preces, which means prayer; in fact in the Middle Age this land was the home of a Benedictine oratory and many were the hermits who chose to settle in this area, as they considered it particularly suitable to follow their spiritual and monastic vocation. The most important pre-Benedictine hermitage is the Abbazia di Sant’Eutizio, which was very famous until the 13th century, when Preci passed under Norcia rule.

The fame of Preci is mainly linked to the so called empirical surgeons (chirurghi empirici), people who learned the art of surgery not in the specific schools but “in action”, in the Abbey of Sant’Eutizio. It is likely that the ability monks acquired in the slaughtering and castration of sheep and swine helped them to acquire the difficult expertise of surgeons.

Preci inhabitants became experts “norcini” (pork-butchers) and surgeons and they used to hand on these crafts from fathers to sons, which turned them into models renowned all around Italy and Europe in both fields. That’s why the ancient art of “norcineria” started at the beginning of the Middle Age, at the same time of the foundation of the Scuola Chirurgica (School of Surgery) in the close Abbazia di Sant’Eutizio.

Nestled in the Val Castoriana, inside the Monti Sibillini Natinal Park, Preci is a protected area and appears to the visitors like a small and charming village, full of narrow streets and staircases which lead up to the main square. Every year during the first weekend of July the City of Preci organizes “Pane, prosciutto e fantasia” an aeno-gastronomic event dedicated to the production of the famous IGP Prosciutto (ham) of Preci.

This ham is prepared and seasoned according to a sctrict code of production rules and is characterized by a “pear” shape, by a tasty but not salty flavor, by a rosy or red color and by a typical scent, slightly spiced. The production area is limited to thos villages in Valnerina placed higher than 500 meters on the sea level, that is Preci, Norcia, Cascia, Monteleone di Spoleto and Poggiodomo.

In all the streets and beautiful squares of the historical center, where stands have been set and the castle’s cantine have been opened, you can taste and buy the local products while admiring the pearls of an evocative and intact place, so rich in important traces of Middle Age and Renaissence times.

We had a lot of fun climbing uphill in the many narrow streets, filling our stomacs and eyes with many different and delicious colors and flavors, sitting here and there to rest once in a while and watch local inhabitants repeat the gestures and actions they have been performing for ages. In fact we could also witness the performance of ancient “crafts” which have been handed on from father to son, according to old customs, like the making of bread, cheese and pork, and see the old artisans at work: the farmer, the basket-maker, the horseshoer, the miller, the ceramist, the weaver.
This is a great place also to practice fishing and during the summer it can be a very relaxing and “green” place to spend a few hours or one day at leisure.

Anyway, last Sunday the protagonist was the panino col prosciutto (ham panino): tender, tasty and fresh. With a glass of red wine or of the locally produced beer it made the perfect dinner of a cool and sunny afternoon IN Umbria.