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Locked down but not out in Italy

Singing from the balconies! One nice thing about this crisis ... solidarity! “Guess you’re not living like a tourist anymore,” was the funny, truthful and somewhat gut-wrenching message of a friend the day the lockdown in Italy began. Today is day 6. My beloved Italia has been hit hard with the COVID19 epidemic. With the second largest elderly population in the world, the epidemic has meant a disproportionate amount of deaths in the country. So though I haven’t been worried about contracting it myself, this isn’t about me or someone like me who, if contracted it would probably have a sucky couple of weeks and then recover. It is about if someone like me contracted it and then spread it to a person with a complicated health history or an elderly person with a weakened immune system. Eerily orderly: Lines for the grocery store, each person one meter apart In a country with no concept (and no physical room really) for personal space, and in a city with reproachable hygie...
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Weekend trips to Italy



This past weekend, I visited Italy.

Yes, I live in Rome. Yes, Rome is in Italy. Yes, I know that makes the first statement of this post redundant. But what I mean is: Rome is an entity in and of itself. Like New York City or London or other self-contained worlds of hoards of people and mega attractions, Rome (without the type A personality of NYC or London)  feels like its own country. So it is nice to leave Rome on the weekends to visit Italy, the Italy beyond the Aurelian walls and the GRA.



Italy has a lot of other personalities as well: the winter snowy skiing side, the summery beach-bum lounging side, the small town/farmer harvesting side, the Florence Uffizi art-inspiring side, the Milan runway-walking business-making side... these are some of the many facets of "Italian" life.

Probably the one I love above them all is the rolling hills, agriculture growing, medieval town hosting country- side. I often crave the expanse of undulating land punctuated with cypress trees, dotted with sunflowers and indented with long curving driveways of agriturismi (farmhouses).



It is amazing. And I never get sick of it. I have been to Tuscany and Umbria so many times that I forget exactly where I have been; all the beautifully small, walled towns meld together into one lovely memory. I have often ended up in the main piazza of one of these towns and suddenly exclaimed, "Wait a second, I have been here before!" No matter. It is always nice to be there again.

Orvieto is a city I have been to countless times, and unlike some cities that fall into the black hole of my mind, I remember all the countless time I have been to Orvieto. I still love to go back to this noble but unassuming town high on the top of an Umbrian hill.

Noble Orvieto, high on its hill
We have lately found the perfect spot for gazing at this gentle and lovely city, the Cioccoleta agriturismo. I have mentioned this place once before in a past post you may remember; we had discovered it this past September as a desperate attempt to save a weekend-turned-wrong. This discovery was the surprisingly sweet lemonade after the gift of a lemon.

From the agriturismo's owners to the cats on its grounds, I love this place. Calm, picturesque  a bit undiscovered, it is everything I like about the Italian countryside. And it is a perfect place from which to discover other towns, to stop into cantine (e.g. Orvieto classico wineries in this area) and to see the unobstructed sky full of stars at night. It is wonderful.


This trip to Italy, as it should, also included amazing food and wine. Most notably, I tried umbrichelli, a local, typical thicker spaghetti-type pasta, made of spelt. This particular version was served with zucchini and ricotta affumicata (smoked ricotta cheese). Angela, our host at the Cioccoletta, recommended trying this dish and I am glad she did.

Umbrichelli
We drove on picturesque streets on the way back to Rome, saw the land change color with the setting of the sun and came back to a hushed Rome, quieted down after the rest of a Sunday.

All in all, it reminded me how happy I am to be living in Rome: I get to visit Italy every weekend.
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  1. SaffronMarch 24, 2013 at 2:55 PM

    I really enjoyed reading this post. What you say about Rome is true and yes, it's true of London as well. I think the difference for me is that I really like to go to London to get away from the rest of the UK!! I like London because it is so cosmopolitan and well maintained and alive but only as a visitor. I couldn't live there.
    But I really love Umbria and Tuscany. . Orvieto is so beautiful but there are so many enchanting towns, Assisi, Spoleto, Gubbio .... and wonderful hill-top villages like Panicale and Citta della Pieve.
    I feel very lucky because now, many, many years after first falling in love with the area, I am finally moving there! It will be so incredible to be within at the most an hour's drive from all my favourite places and to be able to see those rolling hills on my daily trip to the shops.

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    1. Karen MardelliMarch 26, 2013 at 5:02 AM

      Thanks for your comment, Saffron. You are right- I could have written something similar about Assisi, Perugia and so many other Italian towns. Everyone needs their own places to escape to! I am happy to hear that you will be moving close to yours!

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