Fiore! Sempre Fiore!

Sometimes it is all about the flowers!  From the sacred celebration of Corpus Domini and its Infiorata floral tapestries we move to one of the most romantic and fragrant rituals of summer, La Notte di San Giovanni, the night St. John’s Feast.  It is magical how intertwined this Feast Day of St. John, born six months before Jesus, has become with Midsummer’s Night.  The marriage of the sun and moon in the Summer Solstice comes alive in many different ways from culture to culture.  In Scandinavia huge bonfires are lit to celebrate the longest day of summer in the land of the Midnight Sun.  People take turns leaping over the fire to prove their courage.  In Italy it is a little more subdued.  The morning of June 23 we go out into the fields and forests to gather flowers for “Aqua Odorosa”, Fragrant Water.  The golden flowered summer plants are believed to possess great powers of healing for body

and soul.  St. John’s Wort and Calendula are the most favored for miraculous healing powers and for girls of a marriageable age to ensure a happy marriage.

As my friend, Omar, a young stone mason told me several years ago when I asked about Solstice celebrations, one of his most treasured memories is of rising early on the day of St. John’s Feast and

going out into the woods with his beloved grandmother to gather all sorts of flowers to make St. John’s water, Aqua di San Giovanni.

Here is the recipe: First gather as many of these flowers and wild herbs that you can find to make enough for everyone in the family: St. John’s Wort, Calendula, lavender, rose petals, sage, wild mint, chamomile, laurel and geraniums. 

Then immerse them in bowls of fresh, cold water; enough bowls for each person. 

Leave the bowls overnight outside the window of each sleeping person.  St. John will pass by and bless each bowl to enhance its healing and soothing powers. Rise early, strain the flowers and bathe your face and hands in this divinely fragrant water.

Although I am not in Piegaro for this beautiful and fragrant tradition, I will be in Norway with Laara and Milo building the traditional bonfire.  We will jump the fire to show our courage in the Viking manner.  I may even convince them to go into the fields to try to find flowers for St. John’s Water.  Summer comes later in Norway and the wild flowers are not as abundant as Italy now.  We may have to cheat and raid our friend’s gardens.  I did see spectacularly tall pink, purple and blue lupine along all the roads here. 

I wonder if lupine can be substituted for the golden flowers of Umbria. I’ll let you know!

Read my friend, Roberta's blog to find out more about St. John's Feast and the tradition of "Aqua Odorosa"!  She is a great writer at: http://friendsofcama.blogspot.no/

Dancing the Ancient Tarantella at Festa Primavera!

Any excuse for a festa, a big party!  Sometimes it is an annual spring festival at an Umbrian farm located in the center of fields of sunflowers and wheat near Piegaro. It is a magical place to gather in the month of May for a full day of feasting, singing and dancing! Musicians gather with antique instruments to play the traditional tarantella music for the folk dances of Southern Italy.  

In this mesmerizing courtship dance, couples entwine and then separate. The woman excites her lover with rapid motions; the man charms her with his elegance and tenderness.

The long table groans with food which is replenished throughout the day.  Another is full of homemade Sangiovese organic wine that has aged since the harvest in October. 

Throughout the day children run around and people join the dancing and singing or just hum along. One guest recognizes a familiar folk tune, joins the dance and is transported back to the days of his

childhood in Israel.  Many of these ancient songs have haunting melodies and traditional rhythms that travel easily from culture to culture.

Under a cloudless blue sky, spring is welcomed back and winter days are forgotten!

Cocksure in Orvieto!

There is much more to bring visitor to beautiful Orvieto.  I could write odes to the Orvieto roosters, those hand painted ceramic pitchers that prance across the shelves of most ceramic shops there.  You can find just about any color and design to delight the eye.  It is one of the most practical of gifts, guaranteed to find many uses: a small one for cream, medium size for juice or milk and a larger for a liter of wine. Perched atop a giant mound of tufa created by an ancient volcano, Orvieto is one of the most colorful towns in Umbria.  Famous for its glorious Duomo whose façade of thousands of glass mosaics glitter in the sun, there are also tens of dozens of ceramic shops that lend color to each

little street or vicolo.  There are traditional and modern takes on hand painted ceramics and you can watch artisans at their craft in some studios.  Take the time to visit several and you will be amazed at their workmanship. 

Wander around making friends with these cheerful creatures and you will become cocksure in Orvieto!

Oh.....that ode?  Here is the little one who leaped into my hands on my first visit to Orvieto so many years ago and the ode she inspired.

Ode to an Orvieto Pitcher 

Oh handmade pitcher from Orvieto!

Who fashioned the cockscomb frill

around your head?

What clever artisan

created a beak for your spout?

Or did you spring fully out of the kiln

and prance onto the worktable

demanding to be painted

with bold turquoise, rose and green flowers

and golden singing bird?

For centuries you have been fashioned

to grace our tables and hold our milk.

You bold and sassy piece of work,

passing from generation to generation.

You inspired many plates and pots,

who clamored to strut their stuff,

leaving off their Renaissance patterns,

stately though they were,

to become bold and playful creatures.

Sitting quietly on a dusty shelf

with your twin brothers and sisters,

you called out to me to take you home

when I wandered into a shop in Orvieto.

Now, you are cousin to my flowered egg cup,

doting aunt to my coffee mug,

and sister to my creamer.

You make me smile each morning

when I see you on my window shelf.

I can’t wait to fill you up now

with fresh-squeezed orange juice!

The Miracle of Bolsena.

Orvieto is one of my favorite places to take guests of L'Antica Vetreria. Less than an hour down the road, it has a special connection to L'Antica Vetreria.  The glass artisans of our Vetreria were favorites of the architect, Maitani, of the Duomo of Orvieto and made the thousands of glass mosiacs that

glitter on the incredible facade of the Duomo.  The approach to Orvieto is awesome as it rises up on an enormous tufa cliff above the valley below and the grand Duomo can be seen for many miles.

Many popes took refuge in Orvieto over the centuries for it was so easy to defend and gave them security from the many sackings of Rome that plagued their safety.  Standing before the Duomo that dominates the piazza visitors can see how the beautiful mosiacs glitter in the sun of a cloudless day.  The mosiacs depict stories from the Old and New Testament and I never tire of telling people about our glass maestri who spent years making the glass.

 Each visit to this piazza, where the Duomo looms like the rock star it, reveals new views and sights.  On this day banners for the Feast of Corpus Domini are appearing as they prepare for this unique festival in Orvieto, for the Miracle of Bolsena that is celebrated at Corpus Domini all began here!

Before the Miracle of Bolsena, the Vatican did not accept the doctrine of "transubstantiation" that the Body and Blood of Christ was actually present in the Eucharist of Communion.  In 1263 when a doubting Bohemian priest was serving Communion in nearby Bolsena, he spilled the Communion wine on the altar cloth and it became blood.  Rushing up to Orvieto where Pope Urban IV was living, he brought this proof of a miracle and the Pope shortly issued a Papal Bull incorporating the doctrine of transubstantiation and ordered a magnificent cathedral built to house a chapel for the Corporal of Bolsensa, the altar cloth.  Today the Corporal can be viewed above the altar in the beautifully frescoed chapel.

Whether or not one believes in this miracle, a close look at the stained altar cloth certainly fills one with a sense of mystery.

Each time I quietly sit in this chapel, I think of our own glass artisans who contributed to the beauty of this incredible Duomo and the link that Piegaro has to Corpus Domini, the Infiorata festival that celebrates the Miracle of Bolsena.  Each year the Corporal is taken from the altar and paraded with tapestries that depict the miracle around the flower-strewn streets of Orvieto.

Even the interior of the Duomo has intricate flower tapestries that have taken hours to create.

Someday I will tear myself away from Piegaro's own sweet Infiorata of Corpus Domini to attend the one in Orvieto, a much grander but no less magical one!

An Explosion of Flowers: Corpus Domini in Piegaro

Living in a small village in Umbria, I am bound by daily and yearly rhythms.My life is characterized by ease and naturalness.  I am easily bound to my neighbors. Friendships develop and are easily nurtured in a village.  Our lives are naturally intertwined in many ways.  From the first opening of our window shutters and our morning greetings to each other, to the last "buona notte" when we leave the piazza and head to bed, we easily pass the time of day and share our lives.  We care about each other and naturally share our lives.  The fabric of village life is woven with these daily and yearly rituals.

On Sunday, June 10, one of these rituals is the celebration of Corpus Domini, the day that the tiny village of Piegaro is changed into a mystical warren of streets lined with flower tapestries.  On this day everyone wakes early to go into the fields and along roadsides to gather wild flowers, the fragrant yellow ginestre, white Queen Anne's Lace and red poppies.  Closer to home we raid our gardens to clip geraniums, pansies and roses to create religious symbols, huge hearts and goofy smiling suns.

The guests of L'Antica Vetreria are excited to join in this magical day, picking the petals of geraniums and roses and stripping the huge boughs of ginestra.

Each street and neighborhood of our medieval village has its own tradition; my street is always adorned with a big heart outlined in green ivy and filled with red and pink geraniums and roses. Adults and children pack the heart with blossoms and create a trail of poppies and ivy up the

street to the big sunshine the children make with pine cones as the radiating beams, and continue on up towards my neighbor's doorway where we contribute a bucket of rose petals to fill in her design

and on towards Lea, my Italian sister who quickly commendeers the children to help drape the walls of her street with boughs of ginestre and wheat sheaves.  The children are excited when she tells them they can create any design they want...so once again they pick a smiling sun to fill the street.

Surrounded by the fragrance of the yellow ginestre and the blooming jasmine clinging to the wall of the church rectory, we are just about swooning.



We all have to work quickly before the villagers exit the church service of Corpus Domini to begin the procession through the flower-filled streets which are now a warren of infiorata tapestries.

Banners appear draped under windows and flapping from balconies; one surprise is a banner festooned with fresh cherries.  The family in this street has substituted the traditional vase of flowers for boughs of cherries also.  My neighbor, Genesio, steals a cherry and pops it into his mouth as we process by the altar after Don Augusto, our priest, has blessed us.  The serious and sacred is easily leavened with whimsy and wonder.

Each year I look forward to this day when we are joined together in preserving cherished traditions that resonate powerfully within all our hearts.  This year is special for our guests have experienced something unique, but to us who live in Piegaro,it is just naturally how our lives are connected.  The ease and naturalness of this day has its own mystical blessings for villagers and guests alike.