These pictures are compliments of our friend and colleague, Maria H. She is a Swede who lives and works in Perugia. One of her many projects is administrator of an apartment in Cortona for a group of Swedish classical music composers. She recently accompanied the composers on an Umbrian gastronomic outing. One of the stops was a family owned sheep farm that still makes pecorino and ricotta salata by hand.
Working the cheese.
Pressing it into a mold for ageing
Fresh Ricotta
Reuters is reporting that Meryl Streep has confessed that Prada shoes make her feet hurt.
“I own one pair of Prada shoes. They make my feet hurt,” the American actress told the latest edition of French magazine Madame Figaro, published at the weekend. “It’s not the shoes’ fault: they are exquisitely made. I blame my feet. I’ve got my mother’s feet.”
Ms. Streep is not alone in her assessment that it is not fashion’s fault! While Italian salespeople are usually very pleasant, professional and helpful, we have noticed that it is generally the shopper’s fault if things don’t go well in the dressing room. The products are perfect and while they are happy to help you find something else, you should be aware that your imperfect features are to blame if the ”moda” doesn’t fit properly. This is communicated to you without judgement, just to make you aware that if you had a different foot, hand, waistline, etc. the thing you are trying on would work. That is why I mostly buy things for the home, gifts and handbags!
This from the October 2006 Milan Briefing in The Economist:
Travellers who know Milan’s Malpensa airport are all too familiar with the problem: check in bag, lose bag. In September fed-up airlines operating out of the airport complained to SEA, which manages the city’s airport, and to ENAC, the national civil aviation authority. The annoyed airlines argued that the hub had few qualified employees and demanded a new, more reliable system for handling bags. If the problem persists, the airlines have not ruled out seeking damages for costs incurred for lost or delayed suitcases. This is not the first time that Malpensa has suffered bad press for its baggage handling: in other cases, handlers have been caught on film stealing luggage.
I’ve been through Milan Malpensa without incident twice this year and will connect there again on the way to New York in October. We find that the majority of lost luggage cases we hear about are on Air France/Alitalia connections at Paris Charles de Gaulle. To help expedite lost luggage searches, we always tell our clients to be sure to put contact information, itinerary, and a local phone contact (i.e. CIU’s Italy number for our clients) in their bags. As far as theft is concerned — security won’t allow locked bags anymore so the only advice is to carry anything of value into the cabin. As long as it isn’t in liquid form of course.
The well-dressed men of Perugia all know the name Donati. For nearly 20 years, Sergio Donati’s boutique, Donati Uomo, has been the haberdashery of choice for Perugia’s glitterati. His clientele is a “who’s who” of Perugia’s politicians, lawyers, doctors and celebrities. The only problem — Donati’s store, while located on one of Perugia’s most fashionable shopping streets, was in an underground cantina with only one display window on the street level.
This all changed on Saturday when he moved to a very prominent street level shop with four windows on the corner of Via Calderini and Piazza Matteotti in the center of Perugia. The new space is larger and filled with natural light. Despite the windows, it is still impossible to see what is going on inside the store without entering - thus preserving the private club-like atmosphere of Sergio’s previous location. There are two soft leather chairs for clients to relax in while Sergio and his assistant, Fabrizia, present the best from the legendary houses of Kiton, Barba, Giampaola, Jacob Cohen, and Raffaelle Caruso.
In the three years that I have known Sergio, I have bought a made-to-measure tuxedo (“smoking” in Italian), a suit, a navy blazer and some of the most comfortable and durable jeans known to man. The clothes are expensive — but are of a quality that is made to endure.
The clear, sunny weather that has dominated central Italy for the past 3 weeks broke on Thursday evening with a few showers. Since then rain has been alternating between sprinkles and a steady soaking that is threatening to last through Monday.
Yesterday, we needed to go to Firenze for a dinner appointment with Private Italy clients, and left Perugia in the afternoon in a drenching rain. Travel was a bit slow because of the weather but by the time we reached the A1 Autostrada the skies, while not clear, were no longer pouring rain down upon us. The drive from Perugia to the free parking at Piazzale Michelangelo is exactly two hours, if there is no traffic. We were cruising along at our customary 135 KM/HR when we saw a dreaded road condition alert just south of Incisa that advised of an accident ahead and “traffico intenso”. Ok, no problem we’ll be delayed a bit. Just south of the Firenze Sud exit, traffic suddenly ground to a halt. It was soon apparent that this was not going to be a disruption like we have in the US where traffic moves slowly around the accident scene. We were going to be parked. The Italians are very used to this type of delay and take it all in stride, although the elderly man in the Fiat Panda behind me did honk his horn a few times in the beginning – I’m not sure what he thought I could do, but he eventually realized that sounding his horn wasn’t going to get him to Firenze any faster. The family in the minivan in front of us popped the back and sandwiches and drinks came out for an impromptu picnic. Nearly everyone took the opportunity to smoke outside and conversation was focused on how horrible the traffic in Firenze, is even without a major accident, etc. We waited for over 45 minutes for the accident to be cleared. This is the second time that this has happened to us — the first was last year, a 30 minute delay after midnight just outside of Arezzo. When traffic began moving again, we saw 4 cars that had been involved in the accident and only one ambulance remained at the scene. This was a very serious crash and we felt very fortunate to have been only inconvenienced in terms of our schedule. As traffic slowed to a crawl again, we passed another spot where there seemed to have been another earlier accident. Every Monday morning, the Italian newspaper headlines are about the high number of traffic accidents and fatalities over the weekend, and this Monday will be no different.
Dinner, by the way, was excellent. We ate at Trattoria 4 Leoni, a traditional, casual Florentine joint. The Pappa al pomodoro (local dish of day old bread stewed in tomato sauce which tastes much better than it sounds!) and Maria’s Fiocchetti di pere con salsa di taleggio e asparagi (Pear stuffed little pasta purses with taleggio and asparagus sauce) were both very good. For a main course, Maria had the Tagliata di manzo (grilled sliced steak dressed with olive oil) and I enjoyed the Gran fritto dell’aia (a plate of lightly fried vegetables, chicken, and beef generously salted and served with a lemon wedge).
The drive home was a long one — it poured the whole way back to Perugia but thankfully there weren’t any more accidents in evidence.
For at least one producer in Montefalco, yesterday marked the first day of the vendemmia or harvest . I made the 40 minute drive from Perugia to take up my forbici (shears) and do some work. I spent the morning in the fields with the team learning the ropes of the harvest.
The necessary equipment is basic; gloves, clippers and a basket. There was a team of about 10 harvesters plus the foreman and tractor driver.
The tractor goes between the vines and we worked on both sides — moving quickly in a line to remove the grapes from the vine. Once your basket is filled it is unloaded into the trailer pulled by the tractor.
The workers on the inside line with the tractor have the extra duty of un-loading the baskets of those on the outside as well. In the interest of fairness, the workers alternate between the sunny and shady sides of the vines so that everyone got some relief from what was a rather HOT September afternoon. The workday began at 7 AM and we broke for lunch at 12 noon on the nose. Everyone was ready for a break!
I had a lunch of baked lasagna followed by mortadella and proscuitto with the owners. We washed it all down with beer and some Coca-Cola. After breathing, seeing and smelling grapes all morning, nobody was in the mood to drink wine. My co-workers took their break in the coolness of the cellar at a small wooden table. At 1:30, the rumble of the tractor announced that it was time to get to work once again.
The harvest began today because the small amount of Merlot at this vineyard was ready. These grapes will be used for a red table wine as well as the local favorite, Montefalco Rosso. I spent some time with Simona in the vineyard as she analysed the vines to plan out the rest of the week.
She uses a refractometer to check the sugar content and ripeness of the Sagrantino, Sangiovese, and Montepulciano grapes. She also did a manual test of chewing a grape and crushing the pit with her teeth. She then spit it into her hand to check the maturity of the pit. She determined that, as expected, these other red grapes will need some time before they are harvested.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in the cellar receiving truckloads of grapes. They are de-stemmed, crushed and the must is then pumped into a large temperature controlled fermentation tank. Work ended with the last load of grapes and clean-up at around 5 PM. I’ll be back on Thursday to help out with the harvest of Grechetto, the local white grape.
On Saturday we visited our friend and wrought iron artist, actually – we brought his daughter a puppy, but that is for another blog entry. Momo, short for Giralomo, spends his days breathing life into chunks of iron to create handrails, candelabras, gates, fireplace tools, beds, etc. His current workshop is behind his home near Montefalco. When we arrived, the fire was just getting hot. Momo explained that he gets his fuel from a large coal-fired electrical plant in nearby Bastardo (yes, that is the name of the town — according to legend, so named after the “bastard” son of local nobility who founded the village).
Dragons seem to be Momo’s specialty and he told us that he would be making one for us this afternoon. He then placed a long squared off piece of iron in the fire. Once red-hot, the hammers came out and the pounding began. Momo starts with the head and very soon eyes, nose, mouth and ears began to appear. It was then back into the fire to soften it up once more for some more hammering. The dragon alternated between the fire and the hammer for the next hour as he worked on refining the details.
Head completed, the beast was then given a corkscrew body before having its tail hammered flat and to a point and twisted into a circle. This was to be a small dragon paperweight for us to take home. When he was at last satisfied with the piece, Momo rubbed the still extremely hot object with beeswax to seal it and prevent rust. When the dragon was just cool enough to touch, Momo held it in his hand and asked Maria and I to feel its warmth, letting us feel that it was still alive from the fire.
This week marked the return to Umbria of the very first Concierge in Umbria clients. Sherry, Tim, Phillip and Sandy rented a villa in Bettona for a few days and became better acquainted with Umbria’s green heart. This time, Sherry & Tim brought their daughter Sklyar along and we had a FANTASTICO (Skylar’s favorite Italian adjective) time. One of the highlights was rafting and hiking with horses and mules in Norcia and Casteluccio – this is a day that we often suggest to families visiting Umbria with children.
Although it isn’t as easy (or comfortable) as one might think to hop aboard these gentle beasts, we were all good sports as Skylar wanted all of the “girls” to ride as she did. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was stunning. The guys walked, leading our animals, and getting a fair amount of exercise in the process. This was a good thing as we had indulged in a super-sized Umbrian lunch of local cured meats, cheeses, lentils (the lentils of Casteluccio are quite famous!), farro soup, fresh pasta, mixed grilled meats and a finale of sweet ricotta with honey and walnuts.
Fresh Ricotta in Castelluccio
Sagrantino Grapes on the Vine. They are small, very dark and have a tough, thick outer skin.
I had the opportunity last week to take a stroll through a vineyard near Montefalco with the proprietor. In the course of our walk, he pointed out all of the different red grape varieties growing on the estate; Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Merlot, Montepulciano and a bit of Cabernet. The Montepulciano vines are always a topic of conversation and confusion with our clients because the wines from Montepulciano in Tuscany (i.e Vino Nobile di Montepulciano) are not made from Montepulciano grapes but rather a local clone of Sangiovese called Prugnolo Gentile. Instead, Montepulciano is the grape that is used in the wine called Montepulciano d’Abruzzo that is produced in the southern portions of Le Marche and, of course, Abruzzo. The vineyards in Montefalco all have some Montepulciano planted because it is often used in the Rosso di Montefalco (typically: 75% Sangiovese, 15% Sagrantino, and the rest Montepulciano) and their red table wines.
We also spoke of the weather in Montefalco this year and by all indications 2006 is shaping up to be a good year. There was plenty of rain over the winter, a completely dry June and July, followed by a wet few weeks in August. There was a hail storm on the 15th of August but there was minimal or no damage to the crop. The past two weeks have been filled with plenty of sunshine and moderate temperatures that are perfect for the maturation of the fruit. The next big weather test will come during the harvest. La Vendemmia is projected to begin around the 15th of September.
Montepulciano Grapes. They are much larger but still have a very dark skin.
The weather has been spectacular for the past week. There has been plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 80′s with very low humidity. Perfect weather for a walk through the olive groves after lunch!
