Umbria

We Came, We Harvested, We Made Olive Oil!

2 months ago

by Michael in Culinary, Culture, Food, Umbria

In November 2011, Culture Discovery Vacations brought a group of guests to a small traditional cold press olive mill. They harvested olives in Umbria, brought them to the mill, and operated the mill, making their own olive oil from start to finish.

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The Mummies of Ferentillo

1 year ago

by Michael in Culture, Travel Tips, Umbria

Tweet24 years ago on the Monday that followed Easter, we were boating on a beautiful lake in southern Umbria with a friend. He asked us if we had ever heard of “The Mummies”. Mummies? Naturally Egypt and King Tut suddenly popped into mind. No, not those kind of mummies…. So we [...]

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The Wine Is Always Finer On The Other Side of the Fence

1 year ago

by Michael in Culinary, Lazio, Tours, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

TweetI’ve been wanting to write about this for ages. Not about wine actually being better on the other side of the fence, but the impression that it is. We take groups to wineries in Tuscany and the surrounding regions several times a week, and once you have done it enough, you can’t [...]

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Spoleto, Italy – A Quick Peek

3 years ago

by Michael in Tours, Travel Tips, Umbria

TweetI tried to shoot a good amount of video this year to give me a bunch of material for the blog, so I will have quite a few of the various cities we visited on our tours. Spoleto was a place that we visited fairly often, but I only shot video once while there for a few hours. [...]

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Cooking & Touring Tuscany, Umbria & Lazio Italy in 2008, a look back

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Festivals, Food, Lazio, Music, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

Tweet7 months, 17 tours, 56 cooking classes, 144 guests and over 35,000 miles of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio are behind us. That was the 2008 season for us at Culture Discovery. As with last year, after coming back to the US, I have gone into video mode. Here is the first video I have [...]

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Tuscia in Jazz Festival 2008 – Schedule

3 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Festivals, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria

TweetCultureDiscovery.com is a proud sponsor of this year’s Jazz Festival in Soriano. We hope you will come and see us! We’ll be filming a great deal of the festival this year in High Definition, as well as conducting numerous interviews. This is the preliminary schedule for the 2008 Jazz [...]

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Soriano nel Cimino – Palio delle Contrade

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Festivals, Lazio, Sports, Tours, Travel Tips, Umbria

TweetThis year wasn’t my first time seeing the Chestnut Festival, but through the years, I have never made it to the Palio. First things first, What on earth is a ‘Palio’ ? Those who have heard the term generally know of it it in connection with the famous ‘Palio di Siena’, which is a [...]

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The hidden ruins of a 13th century Olive Mill in Italy

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Lazio, Personal, Tours, Travel Tips, Umbria

TweetAsk around Soriano about ‘Fosso Mulino’ (River Mill) and you will get mostly blank stares. So it is no surprise that after all of these years I had no idea that it existed. Very few people do. One day I was out with my friend (and our contractor) Andrea D’Alessio. He asked me if I [...]

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The Flag Throwers ( Sbandieratori ) of Soriano nel Cimino

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Festivals, Lazio, Music, Tours, Travel Tips, Umbria

TweetThings got quite busy since my last post. We had a wave of guests come to Soriano, and the annual chestnut festival ( Sagra delle Castagne ) began, which really kept me running, camera in hand. The folks in Soriano’s tourism office were kind enough to issue me an all-access press [...]

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The Wine Harvest – Making wine in Italy

4 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Festivals, Food, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

Tweet I remember my mother telling me about her move to Southern California, and how excited she was the first time she picked an orange off a tree and ate it right there. I was thinking, like… ok, big deal… you need to get out more! But then again, she was from New York, and I had [...]

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Living Mangers in Italy

5 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria

TweetA tradition in Italy during Christmas time is the living manger. Many towns go way beyond a simple manger scene, and produce a full scale reproduction of Bethlehem. What makes it so special in many cases, is that they have the landscape and existing structures to really make it [...]

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Discovering the True Italian life when vacationing in Italy

5 years ago

by Michael in Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria

TweetSome people travel to Italy, see the sights, eat the food, and go home thinking they experienced Italian culture. In reality, the vast majority of these people only experienced a tiny fraction of the amazing culture that Italy offers. You cannot experience the true Italy from a [...]