Month: December 2011

PANETONE FOR THE AGES. COULD THIS BE THE FRUIT CAKE OF ITALY?

IS IT JUST ME? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYONE EAT PANETONE?
Just as Easter brings out the glamorous, big, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs in Italy, this holiday season brings out lovely, shiny gift boxes of Panetone, Christmas bread/cake in all sizes. Everyone in Italy seems to give them and get them. There are times it seems everyone you see on the street has one swinging from their hand as they hurry down the streets. But who is eating them? Sure after the holiday crush at Aldo’s bar you may see a straggler chopped up and put out as free nibbles. A nice chaser to wash down the morning’s cappuccinos or proseccos. But that is pretty much the only time I’ve seen it consumed. All of which strikes me as very strange, because I like Panetone. We even made Panetone one time. And still liked it.

See you in Italy,

Stew Vreeland

Holidays and all that Jazz in Umbria

HOLIDAYS AND UMBRIA JAZZ. EVERY YEAR BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS. ORVIETO

Remember Y2K? That once in a millennium holiday we found ourselves very deliberately in Umbria. Our thinking ran along the lines of “if there is a meltdown, and we are going to be stranded somewhere for ever, lets spend that forever in Italy!”
And that was detailed in this story about Winter in Umbria.

Regular Umbria Jazz, by the way, is epic and it happens every summer in Perugia. We have been there many times and love it, but I honestly think the winter version in Orvieto may be the best. They call it Umbria Jazz Inverno. And jazz or not, it rocks. I’m not what I would describe as a music nut at all. But this is special. It is such a big event, so multifaceted and Orvieto is such a smaller town, its just all encompassing. The music is all around you and pours out of castle windows and covers you in the streets below. We never wanted to leave.

See you in Italy,

Stew Vreeland