Arrivederci from Umbria, Roma tomorrow!

September 12th, 2009

Another beautiful day with the sun a shining and the bees a buzzing, we were up and off to Spoleto this morning to watch the All Blacks in a little bar where we spoke much Italiano!!! say no more ( the Italians all thought we were very funny ). The last note, we were off to the Opera, L'Elisir D'Amore, a wonderful gorgeous romantic love story, haha, all in Italian however we understood, sitting in the private box was such a treat to always remember. Everyone there was dressed up and looking very handsome ( the men gorgeous )!!! The Spoleta theatre is over 100's of years old, the walls & ceiling all with historic paintings and sculptures.

One of the things we will always say about our stay here as we go each day to a different village of Umbria, Umbria's robust and tasty cuisine consists of dishes that combine the best of culinary traditions, while taking full advantage of the produce and game of the region - highlighting wild mushrooms ( porcini ), black truffles ( Tartufi ) and wild boar ( cingbiale ).

We went to Foligno, this is the heart of medieval, knights in medieval costume retrace the journey of St Francis, from the hermitage at Norcera to his native Assissi. Tonight we go to the Giostra della Quintana festival where competing knights attempt to spear a ring held by a wooden puppet. the street are filled with historical processions of the journey of St Francis. We have the scarf to wear of one of the knights that compete. This we believe is magnifico!!

Last night we went to Montefalco to the Cantina Antionelli for a wine tasting, wine tour, oh yes we all liked this and have tasted perfecto Vino Rosso from Antionelli. They served Antipasto's of the region to go with each Vino Rosso & Vino Bianco. Grechetto dei Colli Martani is the famous white wine only from this area. We finished with Grappa di Sagrantino. Tney also had an Olive Oil which was also the best!! If only we had a big box to send it all back to NZ.

The Mama & Joelli ( Jo ) have been cooking up more Italiano delights; we are now experts in all the different pasta dishes with fabulous vegetables fresh from the market & garden filled with the local flavour. Wait till we show you how clever we are all becoming!!!! The Limincello is improving with flavour and tonight we have our final dinner and will toast with this many times!!!!!! Tonight we cook for the Mamma & Pappa and their family, a NZ dinner which Jo will be head Mamma teaching the cook class.

Ciao Ciao from us all, Bruscetta, Parmesean, Fayarelli, Spuedo, Joelli, Carlotta, Caramello, Geudo, Lambogeannie, Villagio Idiotica, Florenzo & Shona Bella: this is our fabulous group who have had a most wonderful experience. xxx