Assisi - Calendimaggio - 3/4/5 May 2012

The beautiful historic town of Assisi celebrates the arrival of May each year with the stunning celebrations called Calendimaggio.  It runs over 3 days and is riot of colour and tradition.

The first day  starts with a procession of the townsfolk dressed up in medieval costumes starting in the Piazza di Sopra and finishing in the Piazza di Sotto.  There are blessings in the Cathedral of S. Rufino and the Basilica of S. Francesco.Later in the afternoon the flagthrowers (sbandieratori) demonstrate their skills in the Piazza del Comune. The bells ring out and the Maestro del Campo assumes his soverign powers! Later there is a crossbow challenge between the two factions of Assisi.

The second day is devoted to the crowing of the Madonna del Primavera, the Maid of Spring.  There is another medieval procession and medieval games including archery and tug of war.

The afternoon of the third day sees the challenge between both factions of Assisi with both groups in medieval dress processing into the the Palazzo del Comune for the results followed by a procession down to the Piazza Santa Chiara.  Later there is the presentation of the Palio.

A really beautiful event, where much care has gone into the detail, the costumes, the reenactment of past times.  If you get chance come and see for yourselves.

The self catering apartment at Villa Bastiola is available for weekly rental (www.villabastiola.com) and is within an easy 40 minute drive to Assisi.  New parking has been put in place at Assisi with lifts and escalators to take you up to the main town.  It couldn't be easier to enjoy this special event especially with the new terminal open at Perugia International Airport. 

Sagra della Castagna, Morra - 8/9 Ottobre 2011

Roasting Chestnuts

The Sagra della Castagna (Chestnut Fair) at Morra, is held every year at the beginning of October just as the chestnut season is starting.

Morra is a small but thriving village on the road from Città di Castello to Cortona (Tuscany).  The wooded hills in the area around Morra are full of chestnut trees and produce chestnuts that are highly valued for their quality.

Chestnut gathering is a really serious business!  At this time of the year, you will find the woods full of locals searching for the best chestnuts.  You can only harvest if you own the woods - don't think about scrumping someone elses'!! 

During the festival you can find out how widely chestnuts are used in Italian cuisine from simply roasted, to cakes and pastries, jams, marron glacè and even honey collected during the time when the chestnut trees are in flower.

It's a lovely event and there is usually traditional Italian music and dancing with a young group coming up from Lake Trasimeno to take part.

A really good way to pass a Sunday afternoon especially if the sun's out and the sky is blue.

The apartment at Villa Bastiola is just 10 minutes away from Morra, so makes a great base to visit this festival and the rest of the area.

Truffle Fair, Citerna, 8 - 9 October 2011

Delicious black truffles (tartufo nero)

La Bisaccia del Tartufaro (or the Truffle Hunters' Satchel)

The tiny medieval hilltop village of Citerna (just over the border in Tuscany)  is host to the annual truffle fair this coming weekend on the 8th and 9th of October.

The streets are lined with stands from local suppliers selling everything woodlandy from truffles and porcini mushrooms to honey, chestnuts, homemade jams, and vin santo.

All the suppliers are based in the north of Umbria and it is a wonderful chance to taste the delicious goodies that the Upper Tiber Valley has to offer.

October is a fantastic month to see Umbria, with the autumn colours just setting in and lots of festivals taking place, including Eurochocolate in Perugia! The apartment at Villa Bastiola offers a great base to stay while visiting the area and enjoying the different festivals.

Tripadvisor - Villa Bastiola listing

TripAdvisor - Villa Bastiola - luxury self catering apartment

For ages, I couldn't manage to get our apartment listed on TripAdvisor (apart from a tiny photo and two word listing with no link to our website!) as we didn't fit into their specific criteria for hotels and B&B (need to have more than one accommodation for rent for a free listing).  

Sure, you could pay for the listing but that kind or defeats the whole point of TripA which is supposed to be a neutral guest driven website with honest comments about accommodation.

Anyway, TripA have now linked up with FlipKey and although you have to pay (a very tiny amount) it means an automatic listing on TripA.  So here we are!  I'm really chuffed - lots of our past guests have already logged on and left really charming reviews about their holidays here.

Most of our guests leave feeling that they have become part of our family, or at least become good friends and that they have had an authentic and genuine Italian experience.  They still want to know what's happening in our lives and keep in touch on Facebook or Twitter.

I'm not a great fan of these social networks but for keeping in contact with our new friends, lots of whom are on the other side of the world (Australia and NZ), it's a wonderful thing.

We'd love you to come and experience Umbria - don't take my word for it, click on this link:

TripAdvisor - Villa Bastiola

and read what our guests say about their holidays here.

www.villabastiola.com

Why I love Umbria!

There are things that can always surprise you in life and one of the wonderful things about Umbria and Italy is the spontaneous, generous nature of the locals! Having lived previously in London where everyone very much keeps to their own business, here it can be a little overwhelming that all of your neighbours know what's happening in your life!

As I found out yesterday though, this can have it's advantages!

I have some friends over visiting for a week and we decided to pop out for a quick drink (and I promise, I only had a non-alcoholic one!) in the evening. Driving home up the hill my friends spotted a porcupine! If you've never seen one, they're actually pretty big and it's amazing to see them in real life. I rolled the car back down the hill to get a better look and ended up slipping off the road down into the ditch!!!!!!!!!

As usual when you really need a mobile there's no signal, so my friend set off up the hill to walk the 5 minutes to our house to get help. She gave me instructons to stay in the car, lock the doors and close the window. Laughing, I told her that this is Umbria and that within 2 minutes somebody would come by that I knew.

And that's exactly what happened! One of our neighbours drove up, stopped, assessed the situation, went home to get his Panda 4x4 and came back to help tow my car out the ditch. In the meantime, 2 other sets of neighbours went by, all stopped for a chat and a laugh at the crazy English woman who drove into a ditch to look at a porcupine, made sure I was OK and then went on their way.

Most embarrassing of all, the following morning I went down to the local florist to get a plant to say thank you and found that everyone in the shop already knew about the porcupine incident, thanks to the fact that the florist was one of my neighbours that saw the whole thing the previous night.

What a great end to what could have been a pretty difficult situation!

www.villabastiola.com come and have your own adventures!

Weekend in Umbria

We had some friends over visiting from the UK this weekend, so finally took some time out to do some sightseeing and remembered just what is so special about this part of Italy and Umbria. It's always interesting seeing it through the eyes of others, like seeing it for the first time again. We didn't do anything particularly special, but the whole area is just so beautiful that even driving around is a treat in itself.

First off, we went down to Perugia and parked so that we came up into the old medieval town centre which belonged to the Baglioni family. It was filled in and vaulted over in the Papal salt wars with the Rocca Paolina built on top just to remind the Perugians who was boss.

Painstakingly excavated you can now walk up through the old medieval streets, and into the houses and imagine just what it might have been like in those times. Strolling down the Corso Vannucci from the Brufani Hotel, the architecture changes from Rennaisance (the Rocca Paolina was destroyed in 1860 with the Perugians stating their claim to their own city) to 12century by the Fountain, the Town Hall, the National Museum of Art and Collegio del Cambio and is totally breathtaking. Great to see the locals buzzing around just doing their thing too!

We did a small round trip the following day to Cortona (OK, it's just over the border in Tuscany!) which although is very touristy, still has so much charm and history and incredible views. We had a wonderful lunch in FuFluns (very reasonable, home cooked Tuscan food with a twist) and then drove through beautiful countryside down to Lake Trasimeno for a stroll and an ice cream at Passignano.

It was very relaxed and lazy! There was so much more we could have stopped and investigated, like the Etruscan tombs just outside Cortona or the site of the incredible battle between Hannibal and the Romans at Tuoro (by the Lake).

My friends were overwhelmed by the beauty and living history of this part of Italy and, I have to say, I was too! Don't take my word for it though, come and see for yourself!

We have special discounts on our lovely self catering holiday apartment for bookings made by Easter 2011! Look at http://www.villabastiola.com/ for more details or email me at info@villabastiola.com.

150 years of unified Italy!

Last Thursday saw Italy celebrating 150 years of unification! Berlusconi's government decided to mark the event with a bank holiday!

Although there were flags, bunting and banners out everywhere, the day itself was really quiet. People just seemed to enjoy being at home with family having a great lunch and maybe a stroll after. There wasn't a loud ringing of bells or huge parties to celebrate.

Maybe because, Italy still doesn't feel very unified. The social and economic differences between the north and south of Italy are still very marked. Even in this area of Umbria where we live, everything is very local, dialects can change from one village to the next and although formal Italian is taught in schools, youngsters still speak dialect at home as well.

That said, the appeal of Italy, the "thing" that we all dream of when we think of holidaying here, exists from north to south. A love of great food, amazing wines, beauty, talking, discussing, arm waving, family celebrations, sunshine and an open, take-you-to-their-hearts-manner exists wherever you go.

We tried to make the Italian flag with some cupcakes but it came out long and skinny (see the photo)!!