Month: August 2015

The parish church is just up the street from us, and my Catholic, former altar boy husband, really wants to go to church. This Sunday we went to church. It took us a while to figure out what time the service started. It doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere,...

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.  There’s always something going on here.  If they’re not blessing something, or celebrating something, or commemorating something, they’re going to find some reason to come together – or maybe no reason at all.  Just this weekend we’ve been to three different...

Lots of people have asked what a regular day is like for us so I thought I would chronicle a day in the life of our sabbatical. We usually get up about 7:00 or so.  Since we sleep with the windows open a little, the neighborhood starts waking up...

We drove to Sansepolcro this morning to get a few odds and ends – a colander, some wooden spoons, some Vick’s vapor rub – and had a very pleasant drive. It’s about a 10 minute drive to Sansepolcro.  Anghiari is split by a long straight road that slices the...

Every Wednesday morning in Anghiari there’s a market. There’s a little bit of everything there. T-shirts, winter coats, underwear, socks, bath mats, towel bars, and food. It’s the food, of course, that we go for. Although, I’m a little ashamed to admit that I did buy a skirt and...

One of the things we really wanted to do when we made this leap was to travel around Italy and other parts of Europe.  We thought the time was right to test the waters and take a little overnight trip.  We decided to go to Verona, mainly because we’ve...

Today dawned stormy with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Perfect for a lazy morning around the house. We fixed a little breakfast, pancetta cooked like bacon and fruit and yogurt. Pancetta is basically bacon, so we figured, what the heck, we’ll bring a little of the American South to...

On our morning walk yesterday we saw a sign advertising the festival for the blessing of the truffles in a town called Chuisi della Verna. Yesterday was the last day of the weeklong festa and we decided to go. The sign said there was a dinner at 8:00 and...

August 15 is Ferragosta, a national holiday in Italy. It’s a day of celebration and marks the ascension of Mary into heaven. It also it somewhat of a start of the August vacation period that most Italians take. Literally, it means the Festival of the Emperor Augustus and was...