Travel to Umbria

Friday, June 18
Travel to Umbria (warning: this one’s long)

Our itinerary for the next three nights had us up in Umbria. To maximize our flexibility we opted to drive and first thing Friday morning we picked up our rental car, a nice new BWW 3 series sedan – which was NOT the car we thought we were reserved – at the Rome Termini. BMW’s aren’t known for trunk space (unlike the car we had reserved) so it was quite the experience trying to first get our luggage (the picture doesn't show the 2 bags and half case of wine inside the car...) into the car along with four adults. John’s the Driver but more importantly Sheila’s the Navigator and she set to getting us out of Rome. Driving in Italy is not as bad as generally believed, the state provides traffic suggestions and the cultural laws of the road are simple and generally followed: 1) if a vehicle will fit it is ok to drive there, 2) don’t make eye contact unless you want to give way, 3) use of the turn indicator is optional, 4) be patient, 5) don’t hit anyone and 6) all but #5 don’t apply to motorcycles and scooters who can do whatever they want whenever they want to. Really quite simple – except that the roads were built in Roman times and are usually only 1.5 cars wide… And we were off!

Sheila found us a way out of Rome and onward to the little city of Orvieto. We hoped to take the funicular from the modern town up to the ancient hilltop city but it was unfortunately closed. We drove up and were taken quite by surprise by what a charming town it is. Most of the little tourist towns in Italy are on hilltops and built up around a castle and a church with the buildings surrounded by great walls but not all are charming as is this one. We wondered the streets looking at the buildings, stonework and plants and visited the occasional tourist shop. The Duomo di Orvieto is particularly stunning for such a small town and due entirely to the relic (a bloody cloth that miraculously showed the sign of the stigmata in blood after a monk used it) that is kept there. We stumbled upon a restaurant off a side street under a beautiful arbor and had lunch. With lunch we had the local blended white wine called Orvieto Classico which was wonderful.

On to Deruta which is known for Italian pottery. We visited both ancient upper city which is a traditional walled hilltop city based around a church and fortress and the modern lower town. The upper is filled with serious artists in their studios creating individual unique pieces of both traditional and modern design one at a time and the lower is filled with workshops where artisans handcraft many copies of mostly traditional designs in a mass production workshop setting aimed for the tourist and export trade. One can guess the price differences; however, the pottery is beautiful regardless of origin.

Last stop for the day was the Volpe de l’Uva (the fox and the grape) located just north of Perugia in Umbria and the agriturismo we would be staying at for our next three nights. Quite the challenge to find as it was located well up in the hills and off of any map the we had with us – but we did get a great tour of the old town of Perugia and the Perugian countryside (and John learned that a sign that shows what looks like a corset with the number 2.0 below means that the gap between the buildings suddenly becomes narrower than the car – never a good thing). But all turned out well. After dinner we sat outside in the warm evening drinking wine (a Chianti Rustico given to us by Pietro earlier in the week. Not bad at all…) and watched the fire flies in our own personal light show.


Saturday morning we left for Montepulciano on a tour of the hilltop town and wine tasting. Very charming tourist town full of shops and wine bars (most tasting is done here not at the wineries themselves). We tasted at some of the shops with nothing – either way – of significance to report. However, our Driver, Fabio (no long blond hair, sorry ladies) was able to arrange a tour and tasting at a local, small family run winery called Cantina Crociani (harder to arrange than it seemed as it was Sunday and those wineries that do tour are not open on weekends). Their specialties are Montepulciano Rosso, a young red wine based on Sangiovese, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano which is a DOC recognized wine blend of three grapes, and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano which is a DOGC recognized blend of three grapes with a significantly longer aging program. Crociani is a small winery (only about twice the size of August Ridge) that looks, acts and feels very much like us. We enjoyed the people and the wine – even to the point of flying a few (the wines not the people) back home!

That evening we had our first cooking class at Volpe de l’Uva. Stefani led the class and we prepared a four course dinner. We started with an Italian long green pepper bruschetta followed by homemade linguine pasta with fresh cherry tomato, basil and ricotta salata. Our main entrée was pork tenderloin braised in grapes and red wine with bay and shallots. Our dessert was a fig crostata. John was amused to discover that the pasta recipe was virtually identical to his (how many ways can you make pasta anyway?). Overall a good meal. The next morning we started cooking early for lunch. The antipasto was a pastry filled with fresh swiss chard (Sorry John!), parmesan and red pepper. The pasta was homemade gnocchi and fresh basil pesto with potato and green beans. For our main course we prepared a turkey cutlet with fresh herbs which was lightly floured and sautéed and placed on a bed of arugula salad (don’t ask any questions about the farmhouse cat and the turkey…). To finish off we made classic Tiramisu. Overall a great lunch to start us on our way to taste wine in Montefalco region of Umbria.

First (and last as the stop took 3 hours) stop in the Montefalco region was the winery Arnaldo Caprai were we were provided a very in depth tour of their large scale (750k bottles annually – they don’t measure in the standard US 12 bottle case in Europe) winery. The owner Marco Caprai, with whom we spoke briefly, was even in Paso Robles a short time ago visiting the wineries of our region. The operation is a very well run affair and the wines reflect the care given. We very much enjoyed their wines from a Sangiovese to a varietal special to Montefalco called Sagrantino. Apparently Marco has made tremendous efforts to revive the Sagrantino variety from near obscurity and in the last 20 years or so brought it to the attention of international wine connoisseurs and critics. As part of the efforts he is conducting many well thought out trials of vineyards spacing and management that were interesting to see and learn of. I highly recommend both the wines and the winery (if you just happen to be in Montefalco one afternoon…).

We also visited the hill top town of Montefalco (you probably guessed: fortress, church(es), little alley’s, stone buildings, etc….) and the medieval city of Bevanga (picture). They were in the midst of their annual medieval festival which made the trip even more fun. Then back to Perugia for our last evening dinner. Fabio, suggested a place called La Taverna on the other end of Perugia (away from the students) and we had a fabulous dinner of soups, pastas and veal in truffle sauce! We also enjoyed talking to the owner (who used to run hotels all over the US) very much.

That’s it. The net of Perugia: of the places we visited Crociani, Caprai and La Taverna are recommended. Very pretty countryside, nice people. You may have noticed that Volpe de l’Uva didn’t get a lot of press. Your conclusions are invited.

Now it is time for bed.

Ciao!

John and Jill