Umbria

If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Italy please don't leave without going to the province of Umbria (pronounced Oom bree ah). I was fortunate to spend a week just on the outskirts of Assissi and I will never forget the experience I had there. The major cities such as Rome, Florence, Venice etc. have a lot to offer to a tourist but they don't compare to the mystical aura that transcends the Assisi area.

Umbria is a landlocked region lying in the shadows of Tuscany. The area is well noted for it's lush chestnut groves and elm forests. Visiting Umbria will bring you back to the Dark Ages. Some of the small towns are unchanged in character and make you feel like you are living back in the 1400's. Umbria's rolling hills are dotted with castles, monasteries, and watchtowers. In many of the hill towns you will find beautifully crafted ceramics and the area also is home to one of Italy's largest lakes, Lake Trasimeno. Henry James called Umbria, 'the most beautiful garden in all the world.'

Many of the monasteries here were founded by a host of local saints. Other than the mystical beauty of the area, I think I'm partial to this area because this is where one of my favorite saints lived and roamed, St. Francis of Assisi. St. Benedict, St. Clare were also born and raised here.

There are three famous towns in the area that most have heard of; Spoleto, home of the Festival of Two Worlds, Orvieto, which has the cathedral of Santa Maria which took centuries to build and Assisi which is home to St. Francis' Basilica.

One of the most favorite hidden jewels that I found was the small town of Gubbio. The town has a lot of character and is well preserved with some of the houses dating back to the 1400's. This town is famous for the tale of St. Francis and Brother Wolf. If you wish to read about this do a web search of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio. I was mesmerized walking around this small cobblestoned hill town festooned with various flags. Another thing you notice is that there are various types of flowers in containers everywhere. No matter where you stop to get a bite to eat you will be treated like family.

The capital of Umbria is Perugia, world renown for it's chocolate and candies. If you have ever eaten Baci (hazelnut covered with chocolate), this is where they come from. This is the city that my mother was taken to (displaced from her home town which was 3 hrs. away) by the German soldiers during WWII. She was fortunate to find a lady that took her in and provided for her until the war came to and end.

There are a few towns that are famous for their wines. The town of Orvieto is famous for a white wine called Orvieto and Torgiano makes an excellent red wine fron Sangiovese grapes called Torgiano Rosso Riserva. Olive oil and wine, the two essential things in life that are said to encourage the body to live long and healthy, are specialities of Umbria.

There are few secrets to Umbrian cooking, other than the native's insistence or obsession, really, on home-grown produce: fresh vegetables and fruit, dense green olive oil, roast meats, poultry and game, pecorino cheese and the herbs, greens and mushrooms that grow spontaneously on wooded hillsides.

We were fortunate to have the use of a condo for a week and we lived with and shopped with the locals. We found a local butcher shop and we stopped there four out of the seven days we were there. He provided some of the freshest local meats such as pork loin and home made sausages that we made for dinner. Since we were traveling with the three boys we tried to be at home in the evening not only for dinner but also to rest our weary feet after long days of walking (which is the optimum way for sightseeing). The only time we ate out was during lunch.

Our treat after dinner every night was to go out and visit one of the many local Cafes to have gelato (Italian ice cream). My boys, who were in their early teens then, would agree with me when I say that nothing that I've had in the U.S. compares with the ice cream in Italy. By the way they would have blended in perfectly with the locals if it wasn't for their insistence on wearing Boston Bruins hats.

Visiting the Umbria region was truly a mystical experience. I found the area to be clean, smog-free, pollution free and noise free. I will definetly make it a stopping point the next time I visit Italy. You're welcomed to come along.