June 1:

We celebrated the beginning of a new month by being picked up by a mini-bus and taken to a farm for cooking lessons hosted by a cute host named Rafaela. 

She has a doctorate in Paleontology but could not make any money at it, so she came back to the family farm and started her own business. You can find more at: 
http://www.cookinumbria.it/. She provides rooms to rent, cooking classes, Italian language classes, guided tours, and truffle hunting. Quite the enterprising woman.



After a brief introduction, we got down to business. We started with the initial preparation of the crust for the Crostata (cherry preserve pie). She asked for volunteers and two of us got up to the table and mixed flour and eggs and created a large ball of dough that was wrapped and put in the refrigerator for later.

Then one of the helpers starting searing four pork tender loins and I went to help turn them in the skillet.


Next was cutting up asparagus into tiny pieces, plus pork cheeks and throwing them into a skillet to simmer for 20 minutes. This is called Guanciale Sauce and will be put on the pasta.




This was followed by preparing Millefoglie di melanzane: eggplant with tomatoes, and two kinds of cheese.



























The final step was learning how to make homemade pasta. This is a lot of work. 

The process starts with forming a pile of flour with a hole in the middle for the eggs. Mix and slowly combine with a fork. Then roll and knead.






Linda and Rafaela bonded over the pasta making.





The final steps involve running the pieces of dough through a pasta maker eight times to get them super thin and then changing the setting and having the maker cut the dough into strips.

The tagliatelle was cooked in boiling water for 5 minutes with no olive oil. I always was told that you put olive oil into the boiling water to keep the pasta from sticking, but not here.

The dough for the dessert was brought out and formed into a pie shell and filled with Rafaela's own cherry preserve, topped with dough strips and baked.

The finished product.

This is what the pasta looked like after cooking and adding the asparagus sauce and tossing.

We finished our work and were rewarded with multiple bottles of wine and all that food. A really good time was had by all. We cleaned our plates.  

We all drank too much wine and had a little trouble getting up from the table to board our bus for our WALKING tour of Perugia. Yes, two hours.

While we were saying our goodbyes, we learned that Rafaela was selling wine, preserves, and handmade placemats. Had to have some of that.

Then we were onto the bus and off to Perugia.
















We met our tour guide in the main square and we started our tour. 

He learned about our southerners in the group and started making jokes about them. I think Jerry told him to calm it down. Just a little too much.









Again, the town sits up on a hill and therefore you get a great view of the Umbrian countryside.

Our guide took us underground to get to the middle ages and even some Etruscan walls. I find it fascinating that the ground rises over the centuries and you have to dig to get to earlier structures. This is not news, but when you actually see it, it still surprises.

There was an exhibit of medieval costumes. Linda wore something similar when she was in the play, Murder In The Cathedral, about the murder of Thomas Becket.

This arch was originally constructed by the ancient Etruscans. That's pre-Roman (200 BC). Its still here. Hmmm. Pretty good engineering.

This room was called the Parliament Room. The distinctive feature are the walls containing the coats of arms of each president of the town assembly.














Then on to the Gothic cathedral. Its special feature: it contains the wedding ring used by Joseph and Mary to wed. Really? In the Jewish tradition, the wrists of the bride and groom are tied together and a ring is also tied to them. Its in a special safe and only brought out 3 times a year. They are afraid someone will steal because Perugia stole it from another city a few hundred years ago. Takes one robber to know another.

After the tour, we had just enough time to buy some chocolates and drink a coffee before it was time to get back on the bus.

That was enough for one day.

May 31:

I know some of these reports start sounding redundant, but the towns are cool and a bit different, even if I lack the talent to bring them to life. Almost all of them are hill towns and can be seen from a distance. Each one, obviously, arranged for defense. Having said that, today's town was Spello, just down the road.

The starting point is the main square. This one is a bit smaller than usual.








The guys (Sherpas) wait for the painters to select their places before hauling the supplies any further.







You get really good views of the valleys below. 

After searching, Linda finds a garden that is part of a cafe with a great view and decides to paint a landscape.










Here are some other potential sites for other painters.

While the painters do their thing, I walk around the town. Here is how the ancients built their streets to help you walk up and down the steep pathways.

This is a common position for Linda. Concentrating on ever changing sunlight, shadows, and colors.

Here is Janis, the instructor, available to help.

Near the end of the day, I walk back toward the center square and buy some prosciutto from this butcher who cuts each piece in front of me and hands me a couple of samples along the way. Good stuff. We'll have it tomorrow morning with melon.



As we start to gather to walk back down to the parking lot, we watch this fire truck negotiate turns around the square. What looked impossible was performed with a little help from the driver's friends. And, there was no damage.

Back to the "farm" and a drink to end the day. This is Linda's view from her seat on our veranda.

I'm getting a reputation as the "computer guy" because I've helped a couple of people change their iPhone settings to preserve battery life. This evening, Jan, came over looking for help putting clear photos on her blog. We played around but I wasn't much help. That's what happens when people start calling you an expert. Linda gave her some fresh mint tea and some chocolate. So it wasn't a wasted visit.

May 30:

Today was painting in San Gemini.
















Its a simple town with one main square, a couple of cafes, and a couple of streets.





Like most of these towns, the church dominates the central town square. Several of the painters decided this was the place. Others fanned out to parts of either of the two streets.






The streets oozed "old" and character. I like some of the doors to these old places. Sometimes the painters choose one to paint.






















After the painters made their final selections and some of us had our coffee, four of us headed out to explore. We had heard from Catarina, our Untours host, that there were some pristine Roman ruins close by. The site, Carsulae, was on the map but my Tom-Tom couldn't locate it. So, we drove out to the main highway and headed in the wrong direction. We soon figured that out and turned around. And then we (4 men) actually stopped to ask directions. Then, again. And again, and again. We were told one way to go and then the complete opposite. It reminded me a little of Cairo, Egypt. After almost an hour, we entered what looked like a deserted park, walked down a long gravel pathway and finally found a visitor center and cafe. We obviously came in the back way.

That was just one of many things we did wrong on this little adventure. After a beer and a brief look around, we asked Louisa to take us back to San Gemini - 15 minutes, down through the back roads. Boy, did we do that wrong.

We had thought that our painters might be interested in coming over to paint, but it just wasn't what they would want.

Back to the farm, a drink, and dinner and some bocce ball for the boys.

May 29:

Today was Sunday and we thought it would be rainy. Didn't happen. There was a flower festival being held this weekend in Spello, just down the road, with a procession of some kind around 10:00. I opted out, but Linda and several others got going early and drove over to check it out.


What they found were pieces of artwork created by using designs that were first outlined with chalk, then covered with flower pedals and trimmed with coffee and salt.

Linda walking down the street with flowers in her hair.

Butterflys are always a hit.







You walk down the street with not walking on the artwork. That's reserved for the procession.

A selfie with Linda and Jerry.















The artists worked all night and then the procession walked on them. I don't think anyone found out the reason for this ceremony.

The girls got in the mood with garlands.

Our people were back by 11:00. Later we were invited up to the hilltop apartment that one of our couples was staying at. Its perched at the edge of a cliff and the drive was along a twisting, narrow, barely paved road with sharp switchbacks that required the driver to gun the engine as he turned. Jerry drove and I sat in the passenger seat and sweated.

Once there, the view was outstanding.















A nice visit with some meat, cheese, and wine.

To prepare for tomorrow's painting, Jerry and I drove over to San Gemini to check out the parking and possible painting sites. It was about 45 minutes away, but we encountered some construction with one lane closed on the highway which delayed us about 30 minutes. That was a bummer.

Once we arrived, there were people everywhere and parked along the roads and all of the parking lots. We parked illegally, and walked into the town square. Low and behold, they were having a flower festival too. Two streets were covered with the same kind of flower art as Spello had this morning. And, the procession was about to start. We scouted the town and decided that the painters would be happy with this location. Later, everyone decided to go out for pizza at a restaurant just about 3 kms down the road.

Did I say Pizza?


Here's the chef. So very Italian.


They had quite a production line. Linda and I violated our diet restrictions and ate one with mushrooms and sausage. Yum, good. Nice thin crust and plenty of toppings.


Andrea was our cute Romanian waitress. Like some others we have encountered, her English was good enough to joke with us. 









There were 17 of us with two coming in late who had to sit separately.






















Pizza and wine - a very nice Italian dinner to end the day.