We Came, We Harvested, We Made Olive Oil!
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...
A Pig Named Sumo
Paolo and Marisa are, by all accounts, your typical everyday Italian farmers. That is, with one big exception: Their farm happens to be across the road from us… those crazy people that bring all of the Americans...
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Tales of Linguistic Missteps Learning Italian
Anyone that has learned a second language knows all about those embarrassing moments when they were trying to say one thing, but unknowingly said something completely different. In most cases, the thing they actually wound up...
Italian Food You Won’t Find in Italy
As we learned with Alfredo Sauce in the “Who is Alfredo Sauce, and Why do Americans Keep Asking About Him? ”, that which you believe to be Italian, very often is not. Since we do culinary vacations in Italy, you can imagine how...
The Mummies of Ferentillo
24 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...
The Battle with Jet Lag – How to Fight and Win (sort of)
It has always amazed me that some people suffer jet lag horribly, while others barely feel the effects at all. Me? I fall into the first group: I used to dread every trip because I fall squarely on the top of...
My 5 Favorite Words in Italian
Today I received a tweet from Melanie (Twitter: @italofileblog) at Italofile Blog asking me if I would be part of a mass-effort of Italy-focused bloggers to each provide a list of their five favorite Italian words, along with a...
How (NOT) To Implement a Recycling Policy in Your Town
I’m a big fan of recycling, and I was really happy to hear that our town, Soriano nel Cimino, was planning on implementing a recycling program. Better yet, it would include garbage pick-up. Cool! The fact is,...
You Want to Feed the Meal I Prepared… TO YOUR DOG?
On day one of every cooking vacation we offer, there is a little talk with all of the newly arriving guests. We go over the things that they can expect, and should not expect. We discus the plans for the days ahead,...
“Boh!?”… And Other Perfect Italian Words & Phrases That Don’t Translate Well
When you split your life between two cultures with two languages, it is quite easy to get trapped in the wrong language from time to time. I sometimes find myself speaking one language, then suddenly a word or phrase pops out...