Come mai Umbertide?

Winter has arrived. We can see things clearly now without the leaves that have blocked our view. The Stoic One has been let loose again with his camera. This was Umbertide this morning. People, mainly Italians, ask us "Come mai Umbertide? How come Umbertide?" The Tiber River (Tevere in Italian) is one of the reasons.

This is our bridge that crosses the river and the the path we take Luca on for his walks is to the right, barely visible.

The stillness of the water this morning afforded this reflection as we looked across the river. It is this stillness, the "tranquillita'" as the Italians say, that makes us fall in love again with Umbertide.

I have always been fascinated with rivers. I grew up on a small island, Grosse Ile, in the middle of the Detroit River. The Detroit river is about 28 miles long and is between 1/2 and 2 miles wide. The Tiber, Italy's third longest river,  after the Po and the Adige, is about 250 miles long. Its width, not so much. The source of the Tiber are two springs that flow from Mount Fumaiolo. The river's major claim to fame is that Rome was founded on its banks 753 BC. When we look across at our river, it is hard to really comprehend how long it has been there with people living on its banks.

Yesterday we went exploring in the back country looking for new wineries. Our guide is Luther our sommelier for our adventures. He and Gary are both quite taken with the Sagrantino grapes of Umbria. Sagrantino is called "a beast" of a wine.  It can be laid down for many years..We have the cantina for it if not the life span or will power. If you come to Umbria, I recommend you stop in at some of the wineries along the back roads. The people are very friendly and the wine is excellent.
strada del sagrantino

Luther led us to the hinterlands of Montefalco to the Tabarrini winery.

Tabarrini

This is Daniele, our guide at Tabarrini. Note how his shoes match his sweater. Don't you love Italian men?

Of course not all Italian men look like this. The wine maker there was a sweetheart, but didn't look like he was a fashonisto.

Even straight from the stainless steel barrels, the wine was good.

 This is some of their wine getting ready to be shipped to Los Angeles where you can drink it at high end restaurants for $25.00 a glass!

Or you can visit the winery and have a tasting for free.

After this adventure, we went to Bevangna for lunch at Trattoria da Oscar.

Great wine, great food, great friends, what could be better?