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/  

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”!

Roveja from Castelluccio: the official recipe

by Silvia Matricardi

In our last article we talked about a typical legume of Valnerina-Castelluccio area that we just discovered: the roveja.

We had the chance to try it on the spot, one stormy day in Castelluccio, with a group of American guests.

It was delicious on bruschetta; that’s why we asked for the recipe.
We got it and immediately after we cooked it ourselves.

That’s the outcome.

And this is the official recipe.

Dose for six people

500 gr of roveja
Extra virgin olive oil
Celery, onions, 3 spoonful of peeled tomatoes
Salt
Hot pepper
Unsalty bread


Soak the roveja in water with some coarse salt for about 12 hours. Put the salty water and the roveja in a pot and let cook for 2 hours.
In a pan prepare a “soffritto”, that is: slice onions and celery, add some peeled tomatoes (just a little) and hot pepper and let fry for some minutes in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Drain the roveja and add it to the “soffritto”.

Let cook another 10-15 minutes.

Slice some unsalty bread and roast it; add the roveja on top of each slice and season with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Serve immediately, before the bread gets cold.

This plate would normally be part of an antipasto-course or, together with some vegetables, it can be a perfect light dinner or lunch.

We are sure that there are several other ways of cooking roveja. One of them, we guess, could be to prepare it, like we would do with lentils, in a soup. You would only have to avoid draining the roveja after having boiled it: you would have to pour it into the soffritto together with its boiling water and let cook for another 15-20 minutes to let amalgamate. Then serve it in bowls and season with some extra virgin olive oil.

We are going to try it soon, as we, being 100% Umbrians, love legumes soups, especialy in cold and rainy days like the ones we are having now, here IN Umbria.

Thanks to Gianni and "La vostra cantina" for giving us the recipe.

And there comes the legume: the roveja!

by Silvia Matricardi

Most of you probably know that the area of Valnerina-Castelluccio is famous for the production of legumes. We, Umbrians, have been eating lots of legumes since our early childhood, as they are a highly nutritious and healthful food that brings very high quality proteins to the body.
Anyway, even after more than 30 years of eating legumes, sometimes it happens that you find out one that you have never had before, which has been the basic element of nourishment for many of your fellow Umbrians.

The occasion was given to us by a group of 15 guests visiting our region a couple of weeks ago.
We took them to Castelluccio, a beautiful place IN Umbria (see details on our article “Castelluccio dressing white”, dated March 23rd 2010), for a glance at the beautiful plateau and a taste of our typical products.
And there we found it: the roveja.
And we immediately became visitors ourselves, eager to know more about it.
And to have it, of course!

The roveja (pisum arverse) is a small wild pea which can be called also by different names, such as roveglia, corbello, pea of the fields, rubiglio. It can be found in Valnerina area and in the past it represented mountain people’s essential means of nourishment, together with other legumes and cereals. They told us that local people were eating a lot of it at the beginning of the 20th century, when our country was going through a severe period of hunger; when bad times were over people were so sick of eating it that they would not want to have it anymore. So the cultivation was abandoned (also because of the difficult processes related to its harvest).

It spontaneously grows on the slopes or in the fields at an altitude between 600 to 1200m, it is harvested between the end of July and the beginning of August and threshed like lentils are. It has got coloured seeds tending from dark green to browning-grey or red.
Roveja can be consumed in the form of soups or ground into flour between stones.

That day in Castelluccio our host, Gianni (whose father manages the Consorzio for the protection of local legumes), served it as part of our antipasto-course, on a slice of bruschetta (roasted bread) cooked in the traditional way.
It was delicious: its taste reminds a little of lentils, maybe a little stronger, as it is a very tasty legume.

Which was the perfect food for a stormy day like that one was.

We immediately got a pack of roveja together with the official recipe, which we are going to try soon. And write an article about, of course!

Our American friends did the same and so I like to imagine that these days in some homes all over Massachussets, Pennsylvania and Florida, some lucky families are having their own roveja for dinner and tasting a little of far-off, wholesome Umbria.

P.S. By the way, did you know that besides most common legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and beans there are many others, typical of different areas in Umbria? We found out some of them: the risina, the bean of the eye or monachella, the bean of Cave, the roveja (of course!) and the cicerchia. Do you know other legumes?


Specific information about roveja has been taken from “Enogastronomicae” edited by Sistema Turistico Locale Valli e Monti dell’Umbria Antica.

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.

As if we were visitors: a day with extra virgin olive oil (part one - morning)

by Silvia Matricardi

Past weekend, In Umbria, was one of those dedicated to olive. In fact, this is the time when owners of olive groves all through the region dedicate themselves to the harvesting and, immediately after, to the pressing of olives, in order to extract one of the treausres of our Region: extra virgin olive oil.
That is why, to highlight all the traditions and customs linked to this activity, almost every town and village involved in the production organizes several events.
One of these is Frantoi Aperti (Open Olive Mills).
This year, having a little more time available to nourish our passions, we decided to devote one day to ourselves, as if we were visitors coming to Umbria for the first time; we organized a day of full immersion in the activities promoted by our town, Spoleto, to celebrate the Frantoi Aperti.

In the morning we decided it would be a good idea to visit a family run olive mill, not a big or a famous one, as we were sure that by such a choice we would find an authentic athmosphere and genuine people.

The mill we visited is 10 minutes by car from Spoleto city center. A public shuttle bus organized on purpose picked us up in the city center and led us at destination; we were glad to notice that there were several tourists, a group of about 15 people: we were two of them.
The family which owns the mill has been working and harvesting olive oil since 1762, but now of course they have acquired mechanised techniques and, despite still been placed in the same old house, the production is realized with modern machinery.
A courteous lady welcomed us in a very informal and friendly way and guided us throught the different areas of the mill. She showed us how people can come to the mill, bringing their own olives and wait for the entire process to be over, then go away with their freshly squeezed extra virgin olive oil. And infact there were several farmers waiting to finish their job.

The lady showed us the process through which the olives are turned into extra virgin olive oil: the receipt and storage (no longer than 24 hours), the dumping of olives into a hopper and rolling into the mill, the removal of leaves and sprigs inside the washer, the washing in order to eliminate impurities, the grinding of the whole olives (flesh and stone) through which olives are turned into paste at a room temperature, the transferral of olive paste to the containers and malaxation (slow mixing) of olive paste, the pouring of the paste into the decanter and centrifugal extraction (drinking water is added to separate oil from vegetable water) and finally the centrifugal separation of oil from remaining water. The remaining water and paste is recycled as a fertilizer in the olive groves.

This extracting process is made at a temperature that should never go beyond 25°C and the oil that comes out has got a very bright green colour and a very strong smell. It looks delicious and it has got a bitter taste, stinging your tongue. This is a guarantee of the fact that this oil has kept all of its nutritional factors and vitamines. In fact, in order to make a very good extra virgin olive oil, with a very low acidity factor, they pick up the olives when they are not yet completely ripe and squeeze them within 24 hours at maximum.

When you visit family run olive mill you always get the chance to taste the freshly squeezed oil; and we didn’t make any exception. We were received into a warm and cosy room were a merry fire was crackling in a corner and two ladies were preparing some delicacies to be served to the guests. The athmosphere was very warm and friendly and as they served us they showed us a video about their olive grove and oil making process.

All the dishes were prepared with their freshly squeezed extra virgin olive oil, of course: haricot beans soup, chickpeas soup, lentils soup, bruschetta (of course!!) and “tozzetti” biscuits, all accompanied by a good glass of local red wine.

At the end of the visit you can buy one or two bottles of extra virgin olive oil “on the spot” or you can order some that will be sent directly to your house....or you can just step out after having lived a interesteing, lovely and genuine half-day experience.

The cemetery of Spoleto: a peaceful place

by Silvia Matricardi

Umbria is a region of peace. It is not a place of silence, but a land where the sounds of nature are loud and soft at the same time and we really enjoy listening to them.

One of the most peaceful places I know, one that I really love, is the cemetery of Spoleto.

It must be the architectural structure that makes it so charming, with its surrounding walls, the many paths that climb up the hill, with their rows of cypresses and bushes and wild roses, and also the great view of the city center.

Or, very likely, my love for this place comes from the fact that I have been coming here since a was a child, with my Mum and Dad, to visit the people I love who are no longer with us. I was never scared when I came here; on the contrary, it seemed to me as if I were entering a fairy land, full of small churches, ancient tombs, narrow paths, flowers, old pictures that tell stories of past lives, silence. I often used to sing while walking there with my parents...

I know Umbria is full of old cemeteries but I am sure none of them is like this one.

It is placed right besides the city center and yet in a secluded spot, amongst fields of olive trees, from where you can enjoy a great view of the Rocca and of the sweet hills that surround the town. It goes uphill, gently, creating different terraces of tombs which are always well kept and full of flowers and "lumini" (small lights).

On top you can find the beautiful San Salvatore Basilica, the most ancient church in Spoleto, dating back to the 4th - 5th century, with a nave and two side aisles and a semicircular apse, which still retains its early Christian atmosphere and charm.

Though a cemetery is not the first place you think of visiting when you go to a town, this one might be worth peeping in, just to get a glimpse and to taste an old-times atmosphere.

Last time I went to the cemetery it was four days ago, before All Souls' Day (Il Giorno dei Morti), in a warm sunny day, at lunch break; there were a few people working on their family tombs, preparing them for the celebration of their beloved departed. Every path, narrow street and place was neat and colourful and I could really enjoy a special moment of meditation and prayer, and love for the mankind.

Being close to the people you lost and you still love makes you feel the strength of your roots, the indissoluble bonds in your life and the joy and warmth that accompany life's promises and plans for the future.

The tradition of "San Giovanni": a natural elixir of beauty

by Silvia Matricardi

In a few weeks it will be San Giovanni’s Day. In our life this day never passes unnoticed on the calendar, for several reasons, mainly linked to the memories of our childhood, when on this occasion our grandmothers let an old tradition come to life again.

San Giovanni’s Day is on June 24th; in Catholic tradition we celebrate the birth of San Giovanni Battista, which happened 6 months before Christ’s. But there is also a pagan tradition linked to this day: the change of direction the sun takes between June 21st and 22nd is seen as a particularly magic moment.

In fact, June 24th , right after summer solstice, is the first day of a new season and just in the short and intense time of its passing, all the plants and herbs on the Earth are influenced by a particular strength and power, are wet with dew and drenched with a new power. Therefore, this is the right time to pick up the plants that will be used in different ways, until next year, when they will be burned in the bonfire and renewed. Besides, according to an old belief, in this day the sun (fire) marries the moon (water): that is why in different parts of Italy people celebrate with rites linked to bonfire and dew, which are deeply rooted in rural and folk tradition.
It is this tradition linked to water and dew which is repeated in some rural areas of Umbria, in several families, amongst which ours.
It is a pure feminine activity which involves different generations: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, cousins, sisters leave in group to reach an unpolluted place not so far away from home. Here, armed with gloves and scissors, they pick up all the ingredients to prepare " San Giovanni water": leaves and flowers of lavender, broom, pennyroyal, wild rose and rosemary. The harvesting process is quite fun and feels a little bit like magic, as it evokes atmospheres and tales that have been handed on through the years in the family, linked to legends of fairies and elfs who used to prepare ointments and potions with different virtues, more or less magic.
Once you pick up a basketful of herbs and fragrant petals you need to put them in a basin full of water and leave them to rest all night, outside your house door. Next morning women take the herbs and petals away and use this water, “San Giovanni water”, to wash their face and body, in order to increase their beauty and protect themselves from illness.

We know that many versions exist when it comes to San Giovanni’s Day traditions; somewhere people light up bonfires the night of the 23rd: fire is considered a purifier, like dew, and you get good luck if you jump across the fire while having clear in your mind the things you want to change in your life; elsewhere “San Giovanni’s herbs", held together in small bunches, are kept under the pillow during the night, in order to have premonitory dreams.

Whatever is the tradition that each family which celebrates San Giovanni’s Day observes, these habits are something precious, which bonds an ancient past to a living present, through centuries of life inside families and local communities; a bond made of affection, warmth, life in common and sharing. That’s why every year at the beginning of June we start getting ready, thinking about the organization of this day, anticipating the sensation of wellness and freshness we are going to feel and share by washing our face with this fragrant elixir, which smells like good things!

La tradizione di “San Giovanni”: un elisir di bellezza naturale
di Silvia Matricardi

Tra qualche settimana sarà la festa di San Giovanni. Nella nostra vita questo giorno non passa mai inosservato sul calendario, per varie ragioni, soprattutto legate ai ricordi della nostra infanzia, quando le nostre nonne, proprio in questa occasione, facevano rivivere una antica tradizione.

La festa di San Giovanni, cade il 24 giugno; nella tradizione cattolica si celebra la nascita di San Giovanni Battista, avvenuta 6 mesi prima di quella di Cristo. Ma c’è anche una tradizione pagana legata a questo giorno: il cambio di direzione che il sole compie, tra il 21 e il 22 giugno, è visto come un momento particolare e magico. Il 24 giugno, infatti, proprio dopo il solstizio d'estate, è il primo giorno di una nuova stagione e proprio nel breve ma intenso arco di tempo in cui esso trascorre, tutte le piante e le erbe sulla terra vengono influenzate con particolare forza e potere, bagnate dalla rugiada e intrise di una potenza nuova. E’ quindi il momento giusto per la raccolta di piante che verranno utilizzate in vari modi sino a quando, il prossimo anno, verranno bruciate nei falò e rinnovate. Inoltre, secondo un’antica credenza, in questo giorno il sole (fuoco) si sposa con la luna (acqua): da qui i riti e gli usi, in voga in varie parti d’Italia, dei falò e della rugiada, presenti nella tradizione contadina e popolare.
Ed è proprio questa usanza, legata all’acqua, che viene ripetuta in alcune zone rurali dell’Umbria, in molte famiglie, tra cui la nostra.
E’ un’attività puramente femminile che coinvolge varie generazioni: nonne, mamme, figlie, cugine, sorelle, partono in gruppo e si recano in un luogo incontaminato non troppo lontano da casa. Qui, armate di guanti e forbici, raccolgono tutti gli ingredienti per preparare "l’acqua di San Giovanni": foglie e fiori di lavanda, ginestra, mentuccia, rosa selvatica e rosmarino. Il processo della raccolta è molto divertente ed ha un sentore quasi magico, poiché evoca le atmosfere e i racconti che si tramandano nella famiglia, legate a storie di fate ed elfi che preparavano unguenti e pozioni con svariate virtù, più o meno magiche. Una volta raccolto un bel cesto di erbe e petali profumati essi vengono riposti in un bacile colmo d'acqua e lasciati riposare per tutta la nottata fuori dalla porta di casa. La mattina successiva le donne tolgono le piante dal bacile e con quest’acqua, “l’acqua di San Giovanni”, si lavano il viso e il corpo, per aumentare la propria bellezza e preservarsi dalle malattie.

Sappiamo esistere molte varianti riguardo alle tradizioni di San Giovanni; da alcune parti si accendono dei falò la vigilia del 24: il fuoco è considerato purificatore come la rugiada ed è ben augurale saltare sul fuoco avendo ben chiare le cose che vorremmo veder cambiare nella nostra vita; da altre parti le "erbe di San Giovanni", legate in mazzetto, vengono messe sotto il guanciale per avere dei sogni premonitori.

Qualunque sia l’uso in ogni famiglia che celebri il Giorno di San Giovanni, queste tradizioni sono qualcosa di prezioso, che lega un passato remoto ad un vivo presente, attraverso secoli di vita vissuta nelle famiglie e nelle comunità locali, un legame fatto di affetto, calore, vita in comune e condivisione. E’ per questo che ogni anno ad inizio giugno cominciamo a prepararci, pensando all’organizzazione di questa giornata e pregustando la sensazione di benessere e freschezza che si prova nel bagnarsi il viso con questo elisir odoroso, che sa tanto di buono!

Penelope lives in Umbria

by Silvia Matricardi

All of you surely know who Penelope is. Just to remind: she is a character of Greek mythology, the wife of Ulisses, the symbol of conjugal faithfulness.

She left happily in Itaca island with her husband until he left her to go fight in the Troy War and she waited 20 years for his return.

During his long absence the island was occupied by Proci, some nobles who asked her hand in marriage; she avoided to give a response by assessing that she had to weave a shroud for her husband’s father and she wouldn’t take another husband until she finished her work. Therefore, for several years, she would weave during the day e un-weave at night; until her husband returned, killed the Proci and got back to his life with her.

But maybe not all of you know that Penelope lives in Umbria too. Better to say, there are many Penelopes in the world and some of them, with different names, of course, left in Umbria centuries ago, while some still do. We are talking about women who are deeply-rooted in their land, who remain faithful to the things they love, whether they are a man or a tradition their mothers and grandmothers have handed on to them; and they take care of these things, doing their best to cherish them and to keep them alive.
We found Penelope in Rasiglia, an hamlet in Umbria at about 18 km from Foligno. It is a pleasant spot indeed: protected by the mountain which contributes to its relative isolation, it stands on a spring at the base of a mansion that once belonged to the Trinci dynasty, when it used to reign over Foligno territory. Tons of water flow through the village with incredible strength, infiltrating through the ancient buildings, emerging and then disappearing, to emerge again somewhere else with all of their vital force. The atmosphere is truly medieval and the constant flowing of the water resounds all over the village, making it a really unique place.
The abundance of water has contributed, through the centuries, to the economic development of the village: the inhabitants, most of whom were millers, learned how to exploit this precious resource by creating watermills for wheat, fulling-mills and woollen mills. But they were also shepherds and they used to work wool; therefore, since ancient times, Rasiglia women dedicated themselves to the art of weaving. One of the two main woollen mills belonged to the Tonti family: their memories of ancient times are gathered in the book “Vita col padre Umberto Tonti” in which they tell their real-life experience as millers and the story and traditions of Rasiglia community.

Wool would be spinned, died and woven through complex and laborious steps, until cloth was ready to be sold or to be transformed into beautiful coverlets, decorated with traditional drawings.
Some of Rasiglia women use ancient methods of weaving still today and (which is really interesting!) they are ready to open their houses’ doors to whoever is interested in knowing more about this art, in order to show their masterpieces and their production methods. It’s the case of Tonti family which also this year, on April 24th and 25th, was the protagonist of the event 'Penelope a Rasiglia' , which represents a unique occasion to watch old hand looms at work and to witness the different phases of the ancient art of weaving.
Unfortunately we could not be there this year, but our friend Corinna Tonti told us what happened: “Our family owns 4 traditional looms dating back to the end of 19th / beginning of 20th century and on April 24th and 25th it has been possible to see one of them working; we also showed a wide private collection of original tools. All around the village the guests could watch several activities going on: photographic exhibitions, display of old blankets and linen sets, shearing of sheep and theatre performances. Many visitors came, especially on Sunday, and the event has been very successful, thanks also to the sunny weather”. The good news is that Tonti family is available to show their activity and tools to interested visitors all year long.

As we said, the art of weaving is deeply rooted in Umbrian popular tradition: it is said that the fairies who used to live in these woods were skilled weavers. We don’t know if these fairies ever existed, maybe they were just women with a “magic touch”; what we know, though, is that when you arrive in Rasiglia you enter a secluded place, protected by rocks and woods, made of stone, of water coming out amongst houses and disappearing again, lullabied by the constant sound of water flowing, which covers any other worldly noise. A sort of magic atmosphere where ancient traditions come alive.