Umbria Day 5

Day five in Umbria.  We visited the medieval town of Montecello, then visited an olive orchard where we had some of the best olive oil I have ever tasted!  

 All the medieval towns have this gorgeous architecture with arches and stairs, stone walls and cobblestone streets. So quaint, but not an easy place to live.  There are not many cars here so people have to walk a lot.  And it's all either up or down, very few flat surfaces. Still a charming place!

 Love these side streets and all the flowers and plants they use to beautify!  

 Gorgeous!

 Montecello has the world's smallest theater, seating 90-ish people or so.  Charlie, one of our excursion friends, is about to put on a show.  It would be a cozy place to see a play!

 DJ is peaking up at me from his box... 

 And I'm peaking down at him! :)

Ubmria is one region in Italy where truffles commonly grow. Truffles grow under the ground.  People traditionally use wild hogs (though now it is more common to use dogs) to find them because the hogs love the flavor so much and they can stiff them out from the ground.  Because they are so common in this region they have a prominent role in Umbrian cuisine.  With all of our cooking classes Michelle developed quite a taste for them - they're delicious!  Problem is, they're really expensive - like 100 Euros per kilo expensive (and that's when they're in season.  They can sell for as high as 1000 Euros per kilo!).   Well, I couldn't leave Umbria without bringing home a taste of this traditional Umbrian cuisine.  One of our Italian hosts had a friend who harvested truffles.  He met us in the above piazza in Montecello and I bought 200 gms of truffle from him (a good pint or so, luckily they're not too heavy).  DJ calls it my Italian drug deal.  Maybe, but he'll be thanking me when he eats my truffle risotto and truffle fritata!

 After Montecastello we toured an olive production facility run by an Italian family in Umbria.  They served us one of the best meals of the trip, traditional, home cooked Italian food.  So good!  First course panzanella salad, grilled zucchini, and bean and lentil salad.  Second course Bruscetta (DJ was in heaven - bruscetta is his new favorite Italian food).  Third course Umbrian sausage grilled over an open flame.  Fourth course, a simple dessert.  The hardest part of this trip was always feeling so full - the food was so good it's hard to stop eating!

This company produces the best olive oil I have tasted (of course, it doesn't help that I buy the cheapest olive oil I can find).  It was so rich and flavorful!  Here is a picture of the oil being poured from their large storage vats into a 3 liter jug for sale.  They gave each of us a small bottle of oil to take home with us as souvenirs.  Can't wait to make some bruscetta with this flavorful oil!