Italian Culinary Adventure ~ Day Six & Seven - Umbria

Umbria- Day Seven
Friday, June 28th. 2002

It was a beautiful morning when we awoke, and we enjoyed a nice, leisurely breakfast on the patio of fruit and croissants before heading off to Gubbio that morning. Gubbio was the first medieval town we had ever visited in Umbria, and it has always been a favorite stop on our trips to Umbria. Rising up on the slopes of Mt. Ingino, it is quite an impressive site as you drive up to it. As well as visiting the town itself, I wanted to purchase another piece of the ceramics produced only in this city to go with other pieces I already had. The patterns and colors used here in Gubbio cannot be found anywhere else. After finding our favorite ceramic store and making our purchase, we climbed up the street to Piazza della Signoria, the main piazza in the city. We admired the amazing view from the piazza, and took more photographs to add to our collection. Gubbio is famous for it's truffles, both black and white, so my husband stopped off at a local market and bought a piece of hard cheese with truffles to try which was very good. We soon left Gubbio, driving past the ruins of the Roman Theater, which is one of the largest surviving Roman theaters to be found. I stopped for more photos, and we headed off to Assisi where we were meeting friends for lunch. Click on photo for larger view!

Our friends took us to a local agriturismo restaurant that is famous for its truffle dishes, where we ate yet another exhaustive but amazing meal. We finally had to say "basta!" (enough!), or they would have continued bringing out dishes forever! Our host chose a local Umbrian red wine from Montefalco which was light, yet full of flavor. Our meal began with a series of dishes for our appetizers including homemade prosciutto, panzanella salad (bread salad), a plate of locally produced cold meats, and marinated mushrooms. Next came hot appetizers including a slice of roasted stuffed zucchini, a small stuffed onion, and a slice of grilled pecorino cheese which I found a bit too salty to eat.

We asked to limit our first courses to just two after seeing the table next to ours being brought plate after plate of soups and pastas. Our first sampling was their specialty which consisted of fresh tagliatelle pasta topped simply with butter and fresh truffles. the flavor was quite subtle, but we enjoyed it. The second primi we were brought was a plate of small potato gnocchi sauced with a very tasty meat, or ragu sauce. It was delicious, but I was too full to finish my plate knowing more food was on its way.

Our main course began with a slice of stuffed chicken breast that was stuffed with truffles and served with a side dish of sautéed dandelion greens. At this point we asked for just a small taste of grilled lamb which was also one of their specialties to complete the meal.

Although I felt I could not eat another bite at this point, dessert arrived, and I was coaxed into sampling it. It was a type of bread pudding made with an egg custard with raisins, and served with a wild blueberry sauce. We were served a small glass of fragolini wine with dessert, which I found very sweet yet light. The meal was yet another repast we would not soon forget, and we said goodbye to our hosts and headed into Perrugia to try and walk off lunch.

We arrived in good time, parked the car down below, and took the escalators up to the city center, stopping to take yet more photos of the view from the top. While strolling around Peruggia, we decided to cancel our upcoming trip to Rome, and instead go somewhere quiet along the sea for the two days we had planned for Rome. After my experience in Florence, I wasn't up for more throngs of tourists in the heat of summer, and my husband longed for more time by the sea than I had planned in our itinerary. We made the calls to cancel the booked hotel in Rome, and found one in Forte dei Marme along the Tuscan coast instead. We walked around the city center, noticing many English speaking tourists there, and made a few more phone calls home. After strolling around the main streets of Peruggia, doing more window shopping, and admiring the awesome view, we decided to head next to Bevagna, a small town close to our hotel, who we were told held a medieval festival every evening of that week. Click on photo for larger view!

Arriving in Bevagna at just after 6pm, we found most of the festivities didn't start until 8 or 9pm, so we walked around and checked out the town. After an hour or two, we went back to the main street and sat at an outdoor table at one of the bars, and enjoyed a nice glass of local wine and watched the people coming into town. We noticed booths being set up selling tickets to buy traditional food, as well as exhibits showing how they made everything from silk to paper during medieval times. All the townspeople were dressed in costume, and the big activity planned that night was an archery contest set in the main piazza. Once they opened, we visited a number of the exhibits, and were impressed in the detail used to create them authentically. We had thought we would wander around until we were hungry enough for a small bite of the local food, but the lines selling tickets were increasing and not decreasing by 10pm. Instead, we headed over to a nice restaurant we had passed earlier called Ottavius, and we each ordered an appetizer and light meat entrée. Click on photo for larger view!

I chose the house specialty appetizer plate after the waitress told me it contained grilled vegetables which I thought would be nice and light. It did indeed some zucchini and roasted red peppers, but also contained a chick pea fritter, a piece of porcini frittata, a crostini with mushrooms, and a helping of faro salad. Everything was tasty, and my husband helped me to finish the plate, after eating his salad of pancetta and arugula.

For our main course, I chose the lamb cooked "in padella". which the waitress assured me was a small portion, and my husband ordered Tagliata di Vitello. His dish consisted of barely cooked, tender slices of veal topped with crisp, peppery arugula lettuce, while my lamb was stewed in a light tomato sauce, and both turned out to be good choices.

We strolled around Bevagna a little more enjoying the festivities, and then headed back to Villa Roncalli which was only a fifteen minute ride away. We had a fairly long ride ahead of us to Positano the next day, and we needed to get some rest.

Villa Roncalli
Vlle Roma 25
Foligno
Phone: 390742391091
Only 10 rooms so book early. All are simple, yet clean, and decorated with antiques.
The showers are not great (Italian style), and there are no hair dryers in the rooms, but the price of the rooms is very low.
If you want to explore the Umbrian countrside, then this small gem in Foligno is very central.

Ristorante Ottavius
Via del Confalcone 4
Phone: 0742 36055

Buon Appetito!
By Deborah Mele 2002
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