March 2020

Recipes from the "Decameron": Radicchio-Risotto, Food for Body and Soul

We are starting our fourth week of quarantine today and we feel so priviledged to be healthy and to live in a remote place in the countryside.
But the continuing tragedies with losses in so many families in Italy and the whole world make it hard also for us to keep spirits up.

Therefore cooking and eating together is an important part of our everyday life in the "Decameron". We try to preserve this "momento conviviale" (the moment of being together) which is so wonderfully important in Italy.
It is helping us and hopefully many other families in our country in these difficult times.

Our chef is Amira, who also takes care of our vegetable garden. Today she presents a traditional risotto recipe - with radicchio.

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Snow is falling on our "Decameron"

This morning we woke up to our little world covered in snow, the first in this winter and a rare thing in Umbria anyway.

It feels even more quiet and isolated than before.

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Humor is when you laugh anyway

Two days ago my mom brought us some nice photos when she had to go to Passignano to the pharmacy.

This is the church tower of San Vito, which was already used as a lighthouse for boatmen on Lake Trasimeno before the christianization.

A lighthouse is always a sign of hope in the dark and in stormy times!

How do we get through? Read on!

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"Decamerone"  by J.W.Waterhouse
"Decamerone" by J.W.Waterhouse. wikipedia.org

Life as in the "Decamerone" by Boccaccio

For more than a week we are staying in our Umbrian country house in an almost idyllic "protected area".

It feels ghostly: the everyday life (or what is left of it), the fears and the sufferings of our fellow citizens in Italy lie behind the gently rolling hills, the bees are buzzing in the spring sun and hyacinths and lime bushes exude their sweet fragrance.

This reminded us of the book "Decamerone" by Boccaccio. It describes a group of young people who flee to a country house near Florence at the time of the plague in the 14th century. They pass their time with storytelling.

And so we came up with the idea of sending stories, pictures and experiences from our Umbrian hill over the next few days (and weeks?)

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