What a difference two hours of travel makes, the driving time from frenetic Rome to bucolic Umbria. We arrived early enough for coffees at Aldo's in Panicale where we spent our vacations in 2006 and 2007. We missed seeing Beth Johansen and James Aponovich, he being the Painter Laureate of Vermont. They come to Umbria every year to do photo realistic pencil sketches. We then travelled to Paciano from where we wound our way down narrow dirt roads to Il Fontanaro. We were met by Giovanni and his fiancé who are getting married in June at the church in Paciano. Lucia was at the church service to restore good relations with the priest after her daughter Alina had announced to the priest that she was agnostic. While waiting for Lucia, we were given a tour of the property including the mill where they process their olives into award winning olive oil and a wine cellar loaded with the finest wines of Italy and a selection of foreign wines which usually includes a cab-sav from Cloudy Bay.
Next we hosted Lucia and her sister at lunch at Il Casale where I had made a reservation in the name of Carlo da Canada and the owner Josefina recognized us after so many years.
After lunch we checked into our accomodation which was drop dead beautiful. In the evening we returned to Il Fontanaro where Lucia prepared a a saffron risotto accompanied by sautéed artichokes and followed by a desert of strawberries that tasted like they had been picked an hour earlier.
On Monday morning we went back to Aldo's for coffee and a breakfast croissant and then to the market in Chiusi. On the way home we stopped in Orvieto to visit the cathedral.
The picture below is the view of Orvieto from where we ate our panninis for lunch.
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