Biding Our Time

  Well, it's getting to be that time. 

  Time to head over the pond to our our little piece of heaven in Umbria. 

  There is way too much to do in the meantime, as always, and I should buckle down and get to it...but I'd really rather look at photos and dream a bit.

  Is that so wrong?

  No, no, it isn't.

  That being in mind, I'm looking at our visits from last year. Spring and Autumn. Both were a blast.

  Upon arrival in late February, we were greeted with a blanket of snow...

Our 'first morning' view from the terrace.
Um, Brrrrrrrr!

  Fortunately, the snow only lasted a couple of days, and eventually the area warmed up and got green and pretty...

Now, this is what I dream about!
Lunch with a view.

 Unfortunately, the winter took it's toll on our marble table, and it broke! We had to borrow another table from our dear landlord, Carlo, for the rest of the year.

This temporary table worked just fine.
Thanks, Carlo!

Lunch at The Nut is always a dream come true for me.

  We are having a new marble piece cut to fit the old iron base, though, and I can't wait to see the new terrace table when we finally have it in place.

  Another new addition will be a much more efficient wood burning stove. I'll miss the fireplace, which has been knocked down and removed, but we really need a warm Nut to come home to, and the new stove is going to be great.

  We loved the romance of the old fireplace, and it was a blast to cook in, but if we weren't right in front of it, we were really cold. We'll be super cozy during those brisk days now.

  We ordered wood in October, so we'll be all ready when we arrive:

Johnny will still have his work cut out for him!
Good thing he likes to chop wood.

We have lots of good, green Umbrian oil waiting for us, too. We helped with the harvest, and the trade off for our hours of work was oil, oil and oil. Oh, boy, I can't wait!

Green Gold.

Watching the olives from the trees at The Nut being turned into oil.
That was a treat to see!

  

There are many things I'm looking forward to, but one of my very favorites is to spend time watching sunsets at Lago Trasimeno. With a glass of good Umbrian wine, of course.

  This never gets old, man...

Isola Polvese, one of three islands on the lake.

  I'm always up for a day trip, and if we go by train, even better!
  I love looking at the train schedule. It gives me wanderlust.

Let's go, Baby!

The train is perfect for catching up on reading.
Or sleeping, like the dudes over my shoulder...

  We love being able to relax with a little treat to sip and a little something to munch...

Mid-day Proseco enjoyed in a pal's garden...

Wine with a view in Spello...

...or with a view in Montepulciano.

  

  If you have spent any time at all on this blog, you know I love to eat.

  I'm holding back calories now so I can enjoy double doses in Italy. I enjoy eating out as much as cooking and eating in. It's all good, and to have the time to do either is pure luxury. When we are here, in California, I'm working full time, and on my days off, we do chores, etc. We do enjoy ourselves when we can, don't get me wrong, but it's usually work, home, sleep...repeat.

  I love being able to enjoy a leisurely lunch out, especially in Umbria...

  

Cheesy good pasta and grilled eggplant, why yes, please!

My favorite pizza in the world.

Spring veggie risotto for Johnny, simply wonderful
stuffed pasta with tomato sauce for me. Mmmmm.

  The thing I don't usually share?

  What my reality looks like after one of these meals:

Just find me a sunny, warm spot, and I'm good.

Real good.

  I don't know if I'll get another post done before we leave, but I'd like to.

  If not, just know that there will be many more once we get there, and this year we'll be stopping in Paris for a week, so that will be big fun to blog about.

  While we wait, I'll just think about stepping onto the terrace at The Nut at the crack of dawn to enjoy the sunrise....

Ahhhh...I can already hear the birds singing.

Last Morning Walk, Umbria 2018

  Well, it's late...almost midnight...and I wanted to post this tonight because we leave Umbria tomorrow to head back to California.

  Yesterday the weather was brutal, but we were lucky to get in a last morning walk today. 

  These are just some highlights of the walk. 

  Beautiful scenes after the massive rain and winds...

Everyone who lives here knows this place...

The view of the valley below town.

Our walk starts and ends here...

Johnny checking out the scene.

A 'Caki" tree. We call them persimmons.

It was lovely light this morning.

The weather was perfect for a walk.

I love the early morning light on the olive trees...

Johnny is a happy guy, enjoying the colors of autumn.

A favorite scene...

More autumn color.

Heading back up the hill...

We'll be back before we know it!
Ciao, Umbria..See you soon...!

On Arrival....

  After spending a night in Rome and having the best pizza ever (see previous post), we hopped a train to the station near us in Umbria, picked up our rental car, and drove the twenty minutes to our beloved "Nut". Our home away from home...

  We were greeted by our two furry pals, Nemo and Tiger Lily. 

  They watched as Johnny brought our bag up. 

  These stairs do get easier. 

Silly kitties.

  Below: 

  The view we dream about when we are not actually sitting here on our terrace enjoying it. 

  It's perfect for coffee at sunrise, lunch in the afternoon, wine at aperitivo time, and especially late at night when there is lightening way across the valley, like last night. Bats, too.

  I love to watch the train crawl through at night, too...like a caterpillar all lit up.

  After unpacking and doing some freshening up, we went to visit a very wonderful pal who had planned a little 'do' in her garden to celebrate Johnny and Gudi's birthdays yesterday.

  Lots of proseco, wonderful food, amazing cake. Fun was had by all, and we stayed way past our bedtime.

  It was perfect.

Watching the sunset from one of our favorite spots.

  Still jet lagged, we woke up this morning at 4am. All good. 

  Got to watch the sun come up, and later took this early morning shot from the front door...

We are blown away by all the growth on the trees and bushes.
The olive trees are massive!

 We popped down to a seasonally open fruit and veg farm stand that we normally don't get to enjoy in early spring. Picked up these goodies, below:

Looking forward to using the garlic, especially.

  Lunch fixings include the local tomatoes from the farm stand, arugula, focaccia and a fabulous baked ricotta we brought up from Rome. Oh my god, it's so good. Worth carrying with ice on the train!

I think this will add up to a pretty good sandwich.

Lunch is ready!

Our usual 'lunch with a view' that we so look forward to.

  So what's next?
  Well, after that lunch, it was nap time.
  It's a couple of hours later, and I think we'll go check out the local nursery to see what plants are around this time of year.
  And later...first night of the Panicale Wine Festival. Hmmm.....?

Day Trip: Montefalco 2018

  Sitting here at work...on a Saturday in June...waiting for magic to happen...WAIT!

  My whole life is magic happening, dang it.

  Glad I got that one figured out.

  In truth, I am sitting here contemplating on whether or not to write this post I seem to be writing.  Good music mix going on in the gallery (my favorite 80's & 90's alt rock), not super busy, sun is almost shining. Life is a-ok, baby. 

  So, let's get it on with this post I'm contemplating.

  

  Whist in our beloved Umbria this past spring, we did much driving about, hither and dither and where not and what not. Most every trip out was a trip to somewhere that Johnny could paint. He knew he wanted to paint around the land just north of Montefalco, in that valley out there, so why not make a day out of it?

  We love that area, and one of our favorite places to have lunch is in Montefalco...the wonderful L'alchimistsa. Oh, yummy.

  Day trip!

  We started out pretty early, enjoying the beautiful drive, listening to...as always... Italian Top 40 radio, just a pinch too loud...as always...We sing along at the top of our lungs, even though we have no idea what we are singing. Does not matter. It's fun. Plus, these stations also include a big dose of Top 40 hits from the States, so we can keep up with all that. Why? Don't ask me...just adds to the general goofiness, I guess.

  We do like to belt it out, I gotta say. The car is the place we really let go.

  We found a road that veered off to the right, one we'd never been on, and took it for a good mile or so. We came to a place that we could pull the car over, and there were views to be painted.

  

  

  

The beginning of a painting.

  Johnny let me know that he'd be in this place for a while, so I took a look around, spotted a small hill town down the way, and figured it could make for a good walk.

  It did.

The wee village of Torre del Colle, just calling my name...

  I'll admit, I was hoping for a small local caffe, so I could stop in for a sip of proseco, but it was closed. I really enjoyed walking the few streets, and the views out the other side were incredible.

  Here are a few shots I took just strolling around...

  

A sweet little borgo...really nice.
I think I saw just one person out and about, though.

  The views out over the valley on the other side were super. I told Johnny that we need to take a nice ride out that way next time, just to see what we can find.

See that little road on the left? I want to be on that road some day.

  I walked down a different route to get back to the car and Johnny, and I was so glad I did, because I wandered across several terra cotta sculptures just out in the fields below.

The way back to my baby.

I can't find any info on these delightful works of art...

This one was really cool, too...

Love it.

This was my favorite.

  We both had had a chance to work up an appetite, so off we went to L'Alchimista for another fab lunch. Man, I'm glad we made a reservation...it was packed, inside and outside. We had asked to sit outside when I called, and the day was just right for it.

  We were early, so we enjoyed glass of wine while people watching in Montefalco's sweet piazza.

Nice to enjoy some sunshine.

That's L'Alchimista, in all her glory.
I love this building.

  I believe we have had lunch here every time we've visited Umbria, except last July. Too damn hot to even consider it. It really is, for us, a must do. The chef always has something interesting for vegetarians, the pasta is great and they have an enoteca, as well, so we can purchase wine to bring back to The Nut.

  Speaking of Nuts....here's a couple of happy ones.

  Geez, I'm trying to remember what we ordered. I used to always take notes (smart!), but have become a real flake lately!

  I know we shared two appetizers...

A selection of goat cheeses with roasted asparagus.

This was really interesting. It's an artichoke sformata(like a soufflé) with burrata
and tiny lentils that the area is famous for. The pink is a reduced sauce of tomato water.

Johnny opted for one of the daily specials.
Stongozzi, a traditional Umbria type of pasta, with fava beans and artichoke.
Springtime in Umbria!

  Ok, I have to just put this out there. I almost always order the same thing here. I'll get Johnny to order something adventurous that I want to 'try', but I always know what I want.

  The 'house special' lasagna. It changes, but it's always beyond good.

Yeah, it's all that.
Porcini, red cannara onions, and radicchio. So good, I crave it.
Note the crispy pecorino cheese on top. Yep.

  We were super excited that they had agretti on the menu. We like it so much, and we never see it here in our part of California. I'll buy it at the farmer's market there, and cook it at The Nut.

  I would equate it to seaweed in texture, but not flavor. It tastes green.

Usually it's blanched, then tossed with good olive oil, garlic and lemon.

Dessert? Why, yes, please.
Biscotti with a glass of 'passito', a dessert wine made from Sagrantino grapes.
Happy artist!

I went down Decadent Avenue.
It was a good trip.

That would be almond gelato with a warm chocolate sauce. Thin toffee bits for crunch.
I seem to remember this being pretty darn great.

  It's fun looking back on this day.

Heavenly landscape around Montefalco.

  I do believe it's time to start planning the next trip back, eh?