Irene in Rome

Some of you will notice that I’m a day late with my posting; none of you will care. But I find that when I go off to do “research” as I did this past weekend, it’s hard for me to get the new posting done on Monday. So, from now on, Tuesdays will be new blog posting days.

Last weekend was Valentine’s weekend, and Dennis and I decided to head to the romantic town of Cortona for an overnighter. This is the town where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed, and near the place where the author of the book renovated her villa. As a result, this is a touristy town, and we noticed more Americans than we’d seen in any other town we’ve visited to date.

We dropped our things in the little apartment we had rented for the night which was right off the main piazza, and headed out to explore the town. As usual with Italy’s hill towns, one of your best bets is just to head “up”. One of the first sights we discovered was a beautiful church dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. It is the second largest church dedicated to him outside of Assisi. This church had some beautiful frescoes whose photos I have included, and lots of renovation was going on to restore them.

As we continued our trek steadily upward, we caught sight of beautiful views of the valley below. The day was cold, clear and crisp with the smell of wood fires in the air. The higher up we went, the fewer tourists there were and we began to catch glimpses of everyday life in an Italian hill town. There was the apron wearing woman on the street talking to her neighbor who was hanging out of a window above (They were discussing a soup recipe). There was laundry hanging on a line in the sunshine three stories up. There was the fattest cat we’ve ever seen majestically guarding a doorstep, and an old man walking his sweater clad little dog.

We were out of the commercial area of the town and into the residential. As we walked along, stopping in old churches, we peeked into backyard gardens. Though it’s still very cold here (colder than it normally is), winter gardens are in full swing. Here in Italy, they are very fond of various greens that are less commonly used in the States. Almost every house had a well-tended garden with beautiful rows of chicory, chard, broccoleti, spinach and other unidentifiable greens. (Read today’s recipe column for a great chard recipe.)

By the time we headed back down hill in the late afternoon, we began to hear drums as we approached our apartment. It seems we were just in time for a procession of medieval pageantry! First came the buglers, followed by the drummers. Next were the flag bearers, and last of all the procession of royalty and crossbowmen. These were townspeople of course dressed in replicas of medieval costumes. When the procession arrived at the main piazza, the flag bearers gave a show as the royalty looked on in appreciation. After about half an hour, the procession reorganized itself and marched away. What a treat!

Speaking of treats, as usual, the weekend was full of culinary wonders as well. For lunch we went to an enoteca and treated ourselves to a lovely glass of red wine each. I had a bowl of ribolitta which is a very old peasant recipe for a soup. Back in the day, it was a way to use up veggies that were getting old as well as stale bread. It’s really more like a stew as it is so thick with beans, vegetables and swollen bread chunks. It’s quite hearty and very filling. Dennis had a platter of bruschetta; lovely hunks of grilled bread covered in melted cheese and cherry tomatoes with fresh basil and of course, drizzled in olive oil. We also shared a beautiful ball of buffalo milk mozzarella. Each bite made me close my eyes, murmur an “ahh”, and savor its soft, salty milkiness.

For the first time, our lack of making reservations ahead stopped us from eating in the best of Cortona’s restaurants for dinner on this Valentine weekend. We had to settle for a lesser trattoria, but the meal was wonderful nonetheless. Dennis indulged in a gigantic plate of grilled steak smothered in porcini mushrooms, and my bowl of spaghetti with a tomatoey duck meat sauce was quite yummy.

The next morning, we headed out of the apartment to find a cappuccino, and lo and behold in the piazza where last night there had been medieval pageantry, now stood about 10 white booth/tents. When did this happen? And guess what was in these booths?! CHOCOLATE! Yes, we had stumbled upon a Valentine’s Weekend Chocolate Festival! Oh, the sampling! One woman was selling the most delicious cake. It was so incredibly moist, and almondy, fruity and chocolatey all at the same time. Unfortunately, Dennis was headed out of town for the week. If I bought this cake, I would have to eat it ALL by myself. I refrained…..and now I regret it. Can’t stop thinking about it. We did not refrain however from purchasing a slab of dark chocolate studded with hazelnuts for Dennis and dark chocolate covered candied orange peels for me. And for both of us, the most intriguing, delicious, velvety smooth bottle of chocolate liqueur with hot red peppers. Spicy!