A Tuscan View - from Umbria

More about Perugino

12th April 2007

There is something real and earthy about Perugino despite him being a ‘minor player’ in the great opera of renaissance art. He has captured my imagination.  Perhaps it’s his contradictory nature that appeals; a thick set, grumpy, thug of a man who could paint with a sweet deft stroke, a man who had no belief in God yet made his living painting religious frescoes of saints and virgins. He retreated to his home town when fame began to fade, a local boy made good who took a beautiful young trophy wife to salve his wounded pride when derided by the young contemporaries of Florence and Rome. He travelled these country roads armed with a staff to beat off robbers, always returning again and again to his beloved lake.

Dawn, Lake Trasimeno

I read that the place that captures the true essence of Perugino is the small chapel at Fontignano where he died, a victim of the plague, still painting at the age of about 80. It is mid-morning when we arrive and the sign on the chapel door directs us to the bar from where you can ring the key holder who will come and open up.  We ring Matteo and a few moments later he arrives. He is gorgeous, a ripening youth who fills his red, slim-fit t-shirt to perfection and in the dim light of Fontignano chapel his easy smile lights up the one remaining fresco.  I am liking Perugino more and more…

The Madonna at Fontignano

The best thing I ate today:

A cornetto (not the ice cream), a rather dry, vanilla flavoured pastry that can be eaten plain or with a little filling of marmellata or crema.  Plain for me, in honour of today’s first cappuccino.
Initially, when breakfasting in Italy, I bemoaned the lack of the ‘fat’ French croissant, indulgently rich and laden with calories.  Now, however, I have seen the light. When eaten with a smooth, strong cup of foamy cappuccino the cornetto provides exactly the right counterpoint.  Its sweet fragrant dryness is the perfect sop, and I wonder if the allure of the rather obvious French croissant isn’t craftily designed to disguise their weak and inferior coffee.

In pursuit of Perugino

10th April 2007

You know how guide books often refer to a church and say that to get in you have to ask the man in the local bar for the key and someone will come down to open it up for you?
And you know how it seems rather unlikely, or at least you wouldn’t think of actually bothering to do it?
Well, we did it the other day, and it worked!

Our most famous local artist is Perugino, and any Art courses that I run in the future will have lots of History of Art as part of the course. So we began looking into his life, and I’m getting a little bit hooked. He’s not the most famous, not the best, and is certainly the least glamorous of all the artists of the Renaissance period, but his life story is full of grit, determination and hard work, resulting in him being recognised in these parts as the greatest painter of his generation. We went to the church because he died there, painting a fresco at the ripe old age of 80, during the Winter, on top of a scaffold. He died alone, in view of the Lake, a victim of the plague, having just painted a portrait on the left side of the chapel dedicated to San Rocco, patron saint of plague victims. His body was unceremoniously dumped into a ditch at the side of the road and was only later discovered and reburied with suitable pomp.

None of those chocolate-boxey, rather obvious landscapes of Provence here. This was a painter who grafted all his life and ended up teaching Raphael, (who soon outshone his master and went to Rome to work for the Pope).

Perugino stayed loyal to his landscape throughout his life, and in the background  of many of his paintings you can see “a rarified ring of low hills that hovers around a misty lake that is and isn’t Lake Trasimeno.” – Brent Gregson, Drive around Tuscany and Umbria, 2005

Anyway, four of the five frescoes were taken in the middle of the 19th Century - the largest to the National Gallery in London – and all that remains is a solitary Madonna and Child. But the chapel is more than about the painting, it’s about Perugino, and it’s fabulous.
The chapel at Fontignano.
NB. You have to go to the local bar to get the number of the guy who will bring down the key and show you round.

The stupidest thing I did today;
I went to ask how long it would be to get rid of the water tank.

 

My mate's got a JCB

28th March 2007

When you first see a JCB up close, it's a pretty impressive sight, and you know it means business. And when the men riding it jumped off with bottles of water and sledgehammers, I felt at once that I had to put my big boots on and puff my chest out to help, even if it meant having to borrow one of their sledgehammers.
They were here to get rid of an enormous, 20,000 litre water tank, which was taking up loads of the space where work will hopefully soon start, and between them and the JCB they made light work of the wall in front of it. Within a couple of hours it was out, sitting on the grass in front of the house. Unfortunately it will have to sit there for a while, until they figure out where to find a lorry big enough to stick it on the back of. It was a big day for us, though, as this was the first time we've seen some real action around the house and a noticeable declaration of intent on our part to get on with the project.
Must go now and look at my tank, again.

The stupidest thing I did, later on that day;
Went out and bought myself a sledgehammer, just in case those men come back. Not sure what to do with it now.

Bears and Wolves

21st March 2007

Today the tall one came home from school with a gift from the teacher, a small guide-book to help discover the mammals of Umbria and Tuscany. It's packed full of information about the various creatures that inhabit this area, a few of which seem to live in our garden. Armed with the book (which includes useful drawings of animal's feet and different types of poo) we spent the afternoon walking through woods and abandoned olive groves trying to identify the tracks left in the clay soil. We identified (we think) tracks belonging to porcupines, badgers, deer, boar, hare, rabbits, fox, several small rodent things and an extremely large bird, of which I dread to think. We found the tracks more useful than the poo, all of which looks identical after a few days out in the sun. The tall one pointed out that the book also mentions bears and wolves, and I was happy to reassure her that there is no indication of either in the immediate neighbourhood. However, later while lingering outside with a glass of wine, I found myself staring hard at the high green Umbrian hills and hoping that somewhere in those wild impenetrable forests bears and wolves are still lurking.

Best thing I ate today;
Torta della Nonna - although I'm usually willing to risk it, this can sometimes be a bit of a dry disappointment. However, today's 'torta' was mouth-wateringly moist and had obviously been made by a superior class of Nonna. Lots of 'pinoli' too.

Where to get it;
Pasticceria della Campanile, San Casciano di Bagni

Weather Report

16th March 2007

The most fantastic thing about being here is the landscape itself. The views from the house are amazing, and you could spend time (and we do) just gazing out over the valleys towards the distant hill towns. The weather seems enormous here somehow. I didn’t really notice the weather much in Kingston, it was either raining or not - sort of thing - but here the weather is immense; dense fog, huge storms, snow, hard frosts, mist in the hills, deep blue skies and low golden sunshine all come and go sometimes in the space of week.

And the mood of the landscape is constantly changing, so that each time you look at the views you are mesmerised yet again.
I can’t believe you could ever take it for granted.

Best thing I ate today;
A Jammy Dodger - I caught this vice from the children, and when a friend flew in with supplies I just couldn't resist. There must be something addictive in the jam!

Where to get it;
Tesco, Goodge Street W1

Scuolabus

7th March 2007

It's been a leap of faith to send the children off to Italian schools we know very little about. When you ask people here to recommend a good school they look at you strangely and say, "which ever one is nearest to you”. It would seem that, according to the Italians, all schools are the same, none better none worse.
The other thing that I have had to cope with is letting the tall one have a little more independence as she now travels to school on the Scoulabus, a vehicle of great excitement, which the small one is desperate to board when she joins her sister in September.

I was so worried the first time we waved her off from the bus stop and watched her squash in with all the Italian children, her rucksack all twisted and her hat coming off, but when she turned to wave she looked so happy and proud, I could only feel excited for her...

Best thing I ate today;
Ricotta al limone - a delicate wedge of pale ricotta, sweetened and flavoured with lemony zest then baked until the outside is all golden and crusty was devoured in one greedy go!

Where to get it;
On the cheese counter at any Italian supermarket.

The beautiful game

February 26th 2007

Went for my first 'kick about' yesterday evening, with a bunch of really friendly guys from Citta della Pieve. Or at least I thought it would be a kick about, as that's what I'm used to. This was training. Proper training, with one guy telling the rest of us what to do; jumping over bars, stretching, sprinting, stretching, shooting practice, stretching, and on and on for a good half hour before we even got to kick a ball. I was very keen to make a good impression, but fell rather short of my expectations. I am old enough to have fathered many of the other players, so I have to keep that in mind, and I must keep at it to help improve my Italian. The problem is that the 'banter' is so fast and so furious that I understand less than one word out of every twenty, so I just grin a lot and try to pass the ball carefully. I now play football with the world champions - that's enough for now.

New pitch - new rules

The stupidest thing I did yesterday;
Went to football with a ball, but without the essentials; plastic slippers, hooded dressing gown, hair drier and dictionary

Valentine's Day Massacre

February 14th 2007

Marito and I spent yesterday cutting nests of poisonous caterpillars out of one of our pine trees. Marito, all gruff and manly, was revving his new chainsaw before breakfast. The small one had kept telling us there was a tree with lots of 'beards' that was growling at her! On further investigation we found a pine tree infested with what looked like lots of huge ugly cotton wool balls. A local informed us that each ball was filled with about 50 extremely poisonous caterpillars, they are covered in acid powder and can burn through skin if touched! They had to go. So we built a big fire and spent a pleasant afternoon incinerating.
Nice way to spend Valentine’s day!

The tall one and the small one approaching dangerous tree

Best thing I ate today;
Prosecco (cold) - There is something so moorish about this fizzy drink, it is easy to see why quaffing it as almost a national pastime. No pretensions of grandeur, it is what it is; frivolous and fun and all to easy to polish off the bottle. Tip - don't spend less than 3 euros, but there's no need to spend more than 5.

Where to get it;
Available from supermarkets, bars, restaurants and petrol stations all over Italy

My first blog

February 10th 2007

I have decided that the best way to keep warm is to do lots of manual work around the house, and to wear two pairs of trousers. Today is all about tackling the woodshed, finding out what lies beneath our fast diminishing pile of logs, and creating some much needed order in that part of the house. My previous experience of this sort of work amounts to knowing roughly on which aisle in B&Q to find whatever I need. Things are a little different here, and the combination of a specialist vocabulary and local dialect make every trip to the local DIY store a challenge.
I have also begun a visual diary of the small hilltop towns around where we live in order that, when the time comes to arrange a painting course, I know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and what places look like at different times of the day.

The woodshed

The stupidest thing I did today;
Bought a chainsaw. Thought I must have one, but picked out the smallest in the store because I was a little scared of the others. Someone later described it as more like pruning shears. Have learnt my lesson, though. To establish your credibility in a small town, always buy the manliest tools you can afford.

End of the hunting season

February 1st 2007

The other night I saw another boar sniffing about on the road in the estate ( this one was alive, thankfully), and seeing a creature like that is a bizarre and amazing experience. I also saw a porcupine for the first time, crossing one of the paths, his quills splayed like an Indian headdress. There are a couple of hares who play around our house and a family of pheasant who wander along avoiding the hunters around our outbuildings. The hunting is over now and so we can go into the woods without fear of being shot. Mio marito has turned his attention to the real business of why we’re here, setting up and running painting courses. He has meetings during the day with the architect and builder, and we spend evenings scratching our heads over the plans, moving walls backwards and forwards, trying to make sense of the building in order to accommodate both his studio and the apartments.

We have had to come to a bit of a pause with all our plans while we wait to find out what the house is built on; if it’s just clay that’s good, if it’s clay and sand that’s bad, and if it’s just sand we’ll be back in the UK by the Summer!

The lake on the estate

Best thing I ate today;
Porchetta - the savoury highlight of every Tuscan street market. Stuffed with salty fennel, and crackled to perfection. If you get there early, the hog will still be hot, and all the more delicious for it. eat in a panini or forget the bread and gorge on it straight out of the wax paper wrapper. Tip - don't forget the tissues to wipe your chin!

Where to get it;
The porchetta van at the market, you'll smell it before you see it...