A City on a Hill

The town of Gubbio is where my grandparents were from; it is one of the most beautiful hill towns in Umbria, probably because there is no train station here, and so the touristi must come on their own and with so many more famous towns around here (Cortona, Siena, Assisi) it could get overlooked.  We were hoping to have lunch at Il Panaro yesterday--it's a small restaurant and bar that has amazing food.  No coat and tie required at Il Panaro---we found it was closed, and headed on to Gubbio where we knew there would be another restaurant we could enjoy....La Taverna del Lupo.

As a child I grew up with this photo---my grandmother had a calendar that had this photo on it.  Although I was too young to remember or ask what it meant, I later found out that the townspeople of Gubbio asked St. Francis to come to the town to talk with the wolf who was eating the citizens.  St. Francis spoke with the wolf, and St. Francis made the wolf promise to leave the townspeople alone.  So La Taverna del Lupo is the Tavern of the Wolf.  Owned by the Mencarelli family, who own several hotels in Gubbio, it's a very elegant place...not exactly where you would take a 20 month old, but she did well, and we all enjoyed our meals. 

Warm Porcini mushroom salad with Umbrian Pecorino Romano on arugula....OMG!

Pesto Gnocchi for Dr. C. and a bit of Rosso di Montefalco

 Truffled eggs for Eric

Lasagna di Gubbio---thin noodles, truffles, ham, and porcini with a white Pecorino sauce

Strangozzi (strangled spaghetti) amatriciana

Foie Gras ravioli with white truffles...............oh my!

All in all a great day to see the beauty of this hill town...we are walking off the foods that we've eaten since everything here is up hill!  Today we went to Norcia, a town in the National Park of Monte Sibillini...Norcia had for years been where the butchers of Italy would train in their craft--hence the title
Norchino, meaning butcher. 

Here are a few prosciutti waiting to be bought along with some formaggio! 

Enough said!


Buona Note from Spello!