A Day in Perugia

Tuesday, April 24 2012.

Today we went to Perugia, the capital of Umbria and perhaps also its capital of higher learning, with its university and school for Italian language for foreigners.  It rained here, too - poured in fact.  It was so wet that at lunch I took off my shoes and stuffed them with paper towels to dry a bit.   Real pleasant image, huh?  Another travel tip:  bring weather proof shoes, if you've room.  I digress.

First, we went to Marta's who owns a building full of Jacquard looms on which she produces exquisite designs reproduced from Renaissance paintings.  Her ability to reproduce these designs on the Jacquard cards (1st computer with its 1s and 0s)  and then to execute them on these work horses of weaving machines is phenomenal, especially considering that she is dyslexic.

These threads in the warp are held down by lead weights.  To lift the loom to allow the bobbin to go through requires (and builds) lots of  leg and core muscles.

Marta's works of art:

 Marta's studio, a deconsecrated church:

 Marta conserves lace from one of the last lacemakers on Lake Trasimeno:

Besides this most fascinating artist's studio, we visited the town, had a lunch of a soup sampler (delicious), and then went to the gardens of the Horticulture Department of the university.  And I just lost all these photos.

Medieval garden at the University.

 Below are more pictures at the Horticulture Department of the Unversity in Perugia. The gardens are reproductions of medieval plans.

Cheese Making with Francesca.

Monday, April 23, 2012.

Monday morning we drove to Francesca's to learn how to make cheese.  Francesca and her family have many sheep, some of which are milked twice a day.  The milk is made into cheese every single day.  ' Tis a very labor intensive passion that the family and especially Francesca have embraced, along with her 2 beautiful children and handsome husband from New Zealand.  Of course, she makes Pecorino cheese, the word derived from the Italian Pecora or sheep.  From the whey left over, she makes Ricotta, which means twice cooked or recooked.  Here are some photos.

See YouTube video below:

1.      http://youtu.be/NBu-VHz0IQI

  
The milk is stirred constantly over a gas burner until it reaches approximately 80 Centigrade, at which point it forms a large ball, which Francesca turned over and then cut into sections.  From this ball, five or six forms were filled with the very wet curd, which had to be pressed evenly to drain it of all liquid (the whey).
The forms were then salted and placed in the cave to cure for 14 days,  during which time these immature pecorino cheeses were washed, scrubbed and resalted.  After 2 weeks, they graduated to a more stable curing stage for 3-6 months.  Some forms were infused with pepper, ashes, or truffles.

See more YouTube videos:

http://youtu.be/iAVyesID7Ww

http://youtu.be/lhzHbmhQmoQ

 (One video won't play.  Will try again.)

Then, after the pecorino is formed, the whey is boiled again and ecco! ricotta is born.

A Day for Saint Francis.

Sunday, April 22, 2012.

Today we drove to Assisi, which isn't at all far from Montefalco.  There, of course, is the famous lower basilica where Francis of Assis is buried, and the upper basilica, adorned by frescoes by Giotto, perhaps.  (New theories keep coming up about who really did these frescoes, which are crumbling both from the earthquake and humidity and from lack of funds to repair and restore them.) The upper basilica is more interesting to me because of these paintings.  In the lower one, guards keep warning "Silenzio" to the worshippers who are captivated by the saint's remains.  You must understand, that if one doesn't grow up Catholic, this concept of leaving behind personal belongings to a dead saint is quite foreign.  I was brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church, which is quite simple.

I didn't take any photos inside the church, but as we were exiting, we heard drums.  The Lions Club presented a pageant with participants dressed in medieval or Renaissance garb, I'm not sure which.

It was a good.  We walked around throughout town, buying books, gelato, soap for Erin, art, and just enjoying this fine hill town.

Nice windows.

A horsey by that fat lady sculptor, whose name I always forget.

Roman Temple.

Wendy.

Some arches and levels.

Saint Francis.

The carousel cried for by a little girl.

View from the wall.

Marilyn

Marilyn and Jamie

Cool lamp.

More arches.

And some more.

A very skinny door.

As it did almost the whole time we were on this trip, it rained off and on.  Here's evidence.

And then a drive to Deruta.

Saturday afternoon, April 21, 2012

After the cooking lesson at Antonelli San Marco and after we ate our delectable lunch and, one more thing, after a tour of the Antonelli cantina, we travelled to Deruta, which is famous for its ceramics.  We only went to one factory, that of Ubaldo Grazia, who sells worldwide.  Ubaldo personally deals with lots of people that most of us just read or hear about, like Chuck Williams and George Clooney and lots of others.

Here are some photos from our visit there:

Ubaldo is starting an international school of ceramics in Deruta at his factory, so if anyone is interested in attending, you can email him at ubaldograzia@ubaldograzia.com.  Tell him that Wendy and Joan sent you.