festivals – Italianissimo

Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, The Autumn Feast

Just a short drive out of Città di Castello, Monte Santa Maria Tiberina welcomes you with beautiful vistas and great food, where chestnut and oak forests spread out over the hillsides, and where truffles, porcini mushrooms, excellent olive oil and local wine dominate the menus!

La Festa d’Autunno is the biggest festival of the fall season here, celebrating the chestnut harvest in the most delicious way!

Feel free to take in the spectacular views during the fall foliage…

Framing the festival, as usual, is the picturesque piazza, with live music and performances.

An interesting re-enactment of knights in combat by the Lupi di Ventura, the knights armament group from Città di Castello

Monte Santa Maria Tiberina is really full of charm! The former Prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, has his summer retreat here. The town sits right at the border where Umbria meets Tuscany. It’s quite small, but there are several restaurants and cafes.

You can visit Palazzo Bourbon, built in the 1500s, the castle and the lovely Church of Santa Maria (La Pieve), with an interesting baptismal fount and the Bourbon family chapel.

You can savour the abundant chestnuts, gourmet food, artisan beer (including chestnut beer!), and sample a mouth-watering variety of chestnut foods.

Lunch at local taverna with gorgeous views

Treat yourselves to the local flavours: traditionally-made cheeses and salamis, porchetta, chocolate, honey and more. Local restaurants and food stalls are packed with nothing but life’s little pleasures 100% made in Umbria.

There’s always something for everyone to enjoy!

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Perugia, the Chocolate Capital of the World

Head to Perugia this weekend for Eurochocolate 2015, October 16 – 25. I don’t need to be convinced that nine out of ten love chocolate, and that the tenth one is, well, probably, lying…

It is an annual international chocolate exhibition, where you get a chance to meet the best chocolate companies famous all over the world, chocolate experts, who can teach you a lot about chocolate, you can taste and purchase as much chocolate as you want. The choice is overwhelming!!!

And since the Festival takes place in Perugia, it’s an opportunity to visit the main city of Umbria, and its beautiful monuments and squares. Just walk the little lanes that lead from one piazza to the next, assist various street performances, chocolate art displays with chocolate sculpting. The lanes follow the original medieval layout, whose roots go back to the Etruscan times.

The city offers many attractions: beautiful historical buildings and palaces, real architectural masterpieces, and then, of course, the art of its native son Perugino (c.1446/1450-1523), an amazing Art Museum, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, filled with works by famous Italian artists.

The city, wrapped in dreamy views, has several universities, lots of hotels and restaurants, and musical history. Perugia’s location in central Umbria is surrounded by other gorgeous historic towns, which are easily reached by car, bus or train.

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Cortona & Acquasparta: Let’s Go Sagras!

Festivals in Italy are a true delight. It’s about meeting the locals, discovering surprisingly beautiful places and having fun at charming late night alfresco parties. These are wonderful experiences which you’ll hardly forget.

Every Italian town boasts its share of festivals and sagre, (and I love a sagra!). Lots of them trace their roots back to medieval times and the people proudly uphold the heritage right down to the smallest details.

cortona (4) — “Cortona: Mother of Troy, Grandmother of Rome” (from the Third Book of Virgil’s Aeneid).

cortona (2) — A breathtaking view of the valley with Lake Trasimeno in the distance.

Originally an Umbrian town, Cortona was conquered and enlarged by the Etruscans, who called it Curtun. Parts of the Etruscan city wall can still be seen today.

Luca Signorelli, one of the greatest Renaissance painters, was born in Cortona in c. 1445 and died there in 1523. His first work is dated 1474, when he frescoed the Bishop’s Tower of Città di Castello, which Picture Gallery hosts the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian painted by the artist for the Church of St. Dominic.

La Sagra della Bistecca

The Sagra della Bistecca in Cortona, where food rules the day. — Sagra della Bistecca in Cortona, where food rules the day.

This festival celebrates the true Florentine steak that uses Chianina beef and is always served rare. The Sagra takes place at Ferragosto. The T-bone steaks are cooked on a 14-metre wire rack (the largest in Italy I’ve been told). Chianina cattle have been raised (and praised) in Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio for over 2000 years.

So I say, let's plate up! — So I say, let’s plate up!

Festa Rinascimentale, Acquasparta

Acquasparta is a beautiful Umbrian town that dominates the valley of The Naia River. During the Roman domination the area with its mineralized hot water baths was a retreat.

La Festa Rinascimentale in June recalls the 16th-century Acquasparta and the celebrations in the honour of Duke Federico Cesi. The ‘contrade’ (Ghetto, Porta Vecchia and San Cristoforo) form the main part of the parade, where the flag-bearers perform a spectacular flag-waving exhibition in synchrony with the drum roll, this followed by various tournaments.

La Taverna di Porta Vecchia served us an amazing meal.

After dinner, just cross the road and you are at the Renaissance style Palazzo Cesi. Today meetings and exhibitions are held in the palace, and during the Renaissance Festival an important event Vino A Palazzo takes place. Here you get a chance to taste good local wines proudly presented by the local winemakers.

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