Happy Saturday

It's Women’s Day and the tradition is to recieve or give mimosa sprig to the women in your life. I got a lovely bunch from my husband and son.

The mimosa tree is the first to flower in March, the sunshine yellow flowers brilliant against the grey leafless trees. The days are fluctuating between very cold and a warmer 54F allowing the cherry trees to be next. I can’t wait.

I am so looking forward to spring which is always the most beautiful time of the year. I’m obsessed with learning the names of each flower that arrives throughout the seasons.

Festa della donna is very important in Italy as there is still a wide gap for women's equality especially in the workforce. Up until the 80s women's expectations were to get married and take care of the home. Check out this clip where little girls where asked if they go to school. Many of them dropped out by 12 to help their mothers and some got married at 16. They totally depended on their husbands and later their sons as they got older.

On Friday morning, when I was heading down to the cafe, there was a nice procession with the elementary kids celebrating. The beauty of living in a small village there is such comraderie as we stood together watching the kids pass by.

After Alex's horseriding class we decided to go to the Rischio for lunch in La Bianca. Luckily we made a reservation, it was packed. The Ristorante rischio which is really a trattoria is in my opinion - the best in of Monti dell tolfa. The flavors leave me feeling so satisfied. The dishes are consistent and never waiver. How they do it I dont know. Romans even make the 60 minute or more journey on Sunday to eat there. We had our usual first dish of Bruschetta, fresh cheese , proscuttio (I forgot pictures) and house wine.

For the pasta, taigatella con porcino from the woods - in fact had a very woodsy taste;

Ravioli with ricotta, sage and walnuts inside topped with ragu is to die for. I savoured every morsel. Its perfect for a cold winter day.

Beautiful little pillows of dumplings - gnocchi with ragu. I need more of this in my life!

Usually we have a second dish which is meat but we had to leave room for dolce.

A most delicious slice of Mimosa Cake with light vanilla spiked cream spilling out of its layers. Fluffy yellow circles in the shape of the mimosa flower is on the top. So rich, it must be shared.

Branches of mimosa tree

It was a beautiful morning. Now I am heading home to prepare for my Instagram live for the promotion of my women's support summit.

You can see the recording on Instagram

I hope you will join us on Monday

And a warm welcome to all new subscribers. Who is looking forward to spring?

It’s a cold, grey, damp morning in the Tolfa hills. I am about ready for some sunshine. I can’t complain though, if I want to find it, only 20 minutes away is the coast of Civitavecchia where it is much warmer.

Usually on a Saturday, the first thing for breakfast is an espresso and yogurt as we have to rush out for morning errands. Later we will take a second breakfast, which is a nice ritual in Italy.

Yesterday was Jamaica day, so to brighten the day I am finding my yellow socks which I am totally in love with and my Jamaica sweater and I am ready to take on the grey day. It is a day for Jamaicans to feel national pride and where the colours of our flag. Black, yellow and green. The only flag in the world that is unique to these colors and design.

Saturday mornings are Alex’s horse-riding class. First, a chat with Alessandra, his teacher of 5 years and we love to watch the progress. I always enjoy watching any of Alex’s activities. Like many parents, we spend much time attending these activities. I hope you are like me and get to choose the ones that you enjoy watching. Unlike the children of Tolfa who begin riding since they can walk, Alex started lessons late at 11 and in Italian. We feel he has progressed nicely and now that he is fluent in Italian, the classes are really enjoyable and he looks forward to them. He is now learning how to do the obstacles, which is the foundation of rodeos that take place in Tolfa in the summer.

I am a country girl at heart. Watching the lambs playing together, the smell of hay and the fresh air of the countryside is so cleansing. The riding lessons are on Alessandra’s farm, which takes me back to my farm days in Jamaica when I worked at an agriculture research station. On this day it’s too cold to go for a walk, but in the spring when the wildflowers are out, the smell of the wild roses, rosemary and other wild herbs is heavenly.

After class, we head to the library, where Alex and I are teaching English classes. It is something that I insist that he does, which is to participate in the community and volunteer each week. Taking honours English online definitely helps him with the lessons. So while he is teaching a group of 10-year-olds, I assist high schoolers who need help for their exams. There are very few ( maybe 2 families ?) of native English speakers in this area, so it is really nice to be able to give back to a community that has welcomed us with open arms. And besides, it helps in learning new words in Italian as I have to explain in Italian the lessons.

Although it is drizzling, I wanted to make one more stop before leaving Tolfa. I have been meaning to purchase a Tolfa bag for my upcoming trip to Jamaica. When traveling, a saddle bag is the most convenient for me and these bags can hold a lot. If you see the original logo, you know that it was purchased in Tolfa. Now, there are only two families handcrafting these bags that were very popular in the 70s. It was a thing to drive from Rome to Tolfa to purchase an original leather saddle bag that was used by the cowboys of Tolfa while riding in the fields. The Bartolozzi family has been making these since 1883. While so many family crafts are dying, it is always nice to see when the next generation is continuing the line. I love the smell of the leather shop and today Signore Bartolozzi was working at his craft. Although I am still conscious about asking people for their photo, I knew I had to capture history at work. He is always very gracious about it. Every time I come to Tolfa I have to stop inside and check out the workshop.

Back to Allumiere - only 2 miles away. It was time for the second breakfast and we stopped at our favourite pasticcerie, Peccati da Gola. They make the best pastries. Now it is raining so it was a perfect time for cappuccino and cornetti. There is always a newspaper around. Today it was screaming the latest headlines of the latest surreal happenings in America, which now feels so far away. I still find it incredible that our breakfast still cost less than £10.

Last stop before home, to our very small supermarket - which I love. I only purchase what I need. No millions of choices which gives me a headache, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. One dozen eggs is still under £2. And we don’t take hours shopping. The extra time is needed to start the fireplace, which will take another hour to warm up the house.

So that was our morning. Thanks for spending it with me

I was asked to translate my debut book, THE COLOUR WHEEL OF MY DREAMS, into Italian, so I picked it back up today to review it for the first time since I published it in 2023. It is the first of my memoirs that I have been working on since moving to Italy, and re-reading the stories and poems about my journey from America to Italy feels so relevant to what is happening in America today.

While putting the collection together I came across this piece I wrote for my friend Chrishan’s organization called Blaxit Global where she assists People of Colour in America to find a home outside of America. Trying to find a place to call home has been an Odyssey. After 4 years of living in Italy, I’ve concluded that home for me is where there is nature, the sea, security, good food and tranquily. Essentially, home is a place where you don’t want to run away from.

PURCHASE MY BOOK ON AMAZON.COM

OCTOBER 6, 2021

My Life In Italy: Monti della Tolfa – A place to call home

by Juli-Anne October 6, 2021

I often get the question – why the Tolfa Mountains? How does a Jamaican move to this region of  Italy? Considering that my husband was born in Rome, why is it that we chose these hills instead of  Rome? I think perhaps you may have to visit Jamaica in order to be able to fully understand.

They say a Jamaican can be found anywhere in the world and as it is, I’m the first and only Jamaican that has ever lived here. Italy has truly become a second home to me. I recall my very first visit to Italy when Riccardo brought me on a 10-day vacation back in 2003. Even though it was one of those you must see everything kind of visits to all of the tourist spots, I still fell in love with Italy. As the years went on and our visits to the country became more frequent, it was less about seeing the tourist sites and more about being in the moment and enjoying the company of family and friends. 

Even though Rome is where my husband Riccardo was born, it feels like the Tolfa Mountains have been whispering to us quietly in the background. Over the years, we dreamt and pondered about how and when we would ever move to Italy, and as fate would have it the coronavirus pandemic decided for us. 

In February, Riccardo just returned from visiting his family in Italy and the country was already in the throes of the virus’ devastating surge.  For some reason it felt like we knew what was in store in America before most Americans could even comprehend what was to come. In March 2020, as we experienced the first wave of deaths in America, and as New Jersey went into that surreal lockdown, it felt like my heart stopped beating in my chest. I later came to realize that I’d experienced a panic attack. 

By April, I felt like we’d waited too long to fulfill our dreams of moving to Italy. Riccardo and I knew in our hearts that we did not belong in America. America isn’t either of our birth countries nor is it a place either of us wanted to die in. The realization that the latter was a possibility felt stifling, and when the borders to our home countries closed, the stifling gave way to suffocation. We could not leave! I needed to leave!

The summer of 2020 became an even more toxic and unsafe environment in America, especially for Black people. Most importantly, I did not want my middle-school-aged son to grow up in such an unhealthy environment. America was no longer that sparkling dream I thought it was when I arrived in the summer of 1998.

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The Medieval towns of Allumiere, La Bianca and Tolfa that make up the region of Monti della  Tolfa, are a little over one hour’s drive north of Rome. It is one of Lazio’s secrets and it has become the place we wanted to “come home” to. Riccardo and I thought that the woods would be our haven from a world gone mad. After all, the second thing on Maslow’s pyramid of happiness is the need to feel safe and secure, and we were in desperate need of both.

As we drove along the coast, from Rome towards La Bianca, I felt the same sense of familiarity as I did growing up on an island. The sea on the left and the mountains on the right, were just like the coast of Jamaica. Those first glimpses of the sea transported me in my mind back to Jamaica. Even though the circumstances were chaotic, the reminiscence of my home country gave me comfort.

Growing up as a child in Jamaica, my dad would often drive us from Kingston to visit our relatives on either coast. As my family of three left the coast of Santa Marinella and made our way up a narrow, winding two-lane mountain road filled with potholes, the memories of those childhood drives to visit my father’s relatives in St. Ann came flooding back. 

The drive up Constant Spring through the flaming red blooming Poinciana trees of Stony Hill, was replaced by the shocking pink Judas trees that invaded the green mountainside.  I could no longer discern the rolling meadows dotted with white long-horned Maremmana cows from the goats and sheep grazing in the rainbow of flowers.

For me, Monti della Tolfa is the place that feels most like Jamaica, but the uncomplicated version. Jamaica is one of the most beautiful countries and it’s where I feel the most whole. Where other people look like and sound like me. But it is a complicated country. Its complexity has more layers than an onion and is constantly changing. I feel like once you’ve left it – and 23 years is a long  time – you’ve lost a piece of what it means to be Jamaican. The Jamaica of the 70’s is  different from the Jamaica of the 80’s and is different from the Jamaica of the 90’s. Each immigrant has a nostalgia for something different based on the time that they left their home country behind. 

While living in America, I was never able to assimilate into the culture. Oftentimes for immigrants, assimilation often involves letting go of certain nuances that make us unique. Accents, personality, culture and backgrounds are hidden to try to become American. Over the years,  the nostalgia of the Jamaica that I’d left behind became overwhelming. I wanted to find my way back home. After spending a summer in Jamaica in 2018, I realized that I had changed so much along with my country. Although I will always consider myself Jamaican, my rate of change did not keep pace with my country’s rate of change, and I suddenly felt “foreign”. At least that’s what the taxi drivers and the vendors in Jamaica led me to believe. I am foreign. I looked different, dressed differently, and no matter how much I tried to sound Jamaican, apparently, there was enough of a change in my accent that led them to believe that I was “foreign”.

My nostalgia for Jamaica and thoughts of returning home were tempered by my new reality. Nevertheless, I still felt that I needed to find a place that felt like home. The place I know I belong. They say home is where the heart is. Maybe I am wrong but I am one of those people that needs a physical location and community.

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Prior to making our eventual move, we’d been visiting the Tolfa Mountains pretty regularly. We did our first extended stay in the spring of 2015, and it was then that the seeds were planted. After spending several days in the company of friends and observing their lives which appeared to be more in tune with the way I lived in Jamaica, I had an ah-ha moment. Ultimately, it was our 6-week stay in La Bianca during the summer of 2019, that I knew this was the place that I could call home. It offers the best of both worlds. Mountains 4000 ft above sea level and when I have a yearning for the sea, it’s just 20 minutes away. For an island girl like me that grew up and worked near the ocean that is of number one importance! 

Fast forward to 2021, driving up the winding road from the Port of Civitavecchia, my mind is at times transported to St Ann driving towards Claremont from Ocho Rios. Or, I think back to those drives from Kingston Harbor up to the Blue Mountains. The mountains reflect the serenity that I have found in the cool air. 

Where is home anyway? The Dalai Lama said home is where you feel at home and are treated well. For me home isn’t only a physical space, it is having a community of family and friends. But it must feel like home, smell like home, and look like home. For now, I have found home in this Medieval town of Allumiere, a place that was once inhabited by a group of people nearly 3000 years ago, long before Jamaica or America were even a thought in the European mind. A place where I can transcribe attributes of Jamaica that make me feel like I have come home.

AUTHOR

Juli-Anne Russo

I am wishing you all good health and as we say in Jamaica ‘Nuff Blessings’

January 6th marks the end of the Christmas season in Italy and not on December 25th as in other countries. I quite like this extended time as when December rolls around, like this year, there is hardly time to decorate or put up a Christmas tree. So having the season extended to the second week of January allows me to enjoy the festivities a little longer. The feast of the Epiphany is a national holiday in Italy so everyone is at home enjoying the last day before work begins tomorrow on the 7th.

This morning Alex and Riccardo went to mass in La Bianca. Later the ‘Three Kings’ rode into the village in the afternoon. This year we had a very modern take on the three kings as sisters Azzura and Marta and their cousin Alessia, the Amazoni (expert horsewomen) of La Bianca and Tolfa, arrived in La Bianca on horses. It is always so wonderful to see a community so engaged in participating in all the festivities and keeping traditions alive.

La Befana

Meanwhile last night La Befana flew in. In Italian folklore, Befana is an old lady who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on the eve of Epiphany (the night of January 5th). Bags of Kinder chocolate are prepared for all the little kiddies and we used to look forward to surprising Alex the night before with his bag of Kinder chocolate.

see la befana arrive in Piazza Navona

The end of the Christmas season also means starting the exercise and healthy eating resolution for 2025. We are having our last Pandora tonight. We have eaten enough panettone, pandora, cookies and chocolates and a certain amount of restraint is now being called for.

Panettone which is the Italian version of Christmas fruit cake is more traditional. However, I prefer pandora which is more of a plain bundt cake with a dust of sugar coating. This year we had an interesting but very delicious version of panettone which was called Carbon as it was dark in colour but the colour came from black and blueberries. Instead of dried fruit and nuts there was a soft paste of the berries lining the cake. As with most Italian foods, I am now spoiled and can no longer just purchase any old panettone.

The last Friday of the year.

The weather is beautiful. The sun was out. Una bella giornata was heard from anyone I met. My husband Riccardo woke up early to go shopping with his friends from La Bianca for lunch. Today we wives will join the men who will be the chefs for the day. Usually, they have their friendship time together in a cassetta on the outskirts of town in the woods—another tradition I appreciate- the friendships between men.

It begins very early. These close bonds between men are formed during the high school (liceo) years and sometimes even earlier. Riccardo has known his friends since he was 14 years old. Despite living in America for over 20 years, the time apart has not changed their friendship. Through thick or thin, they are there for each other.

You can see how it begins and ends. Little kids as early as 10 have the freedom to hang out in groups and take fare una passeggiata alone without parents trailing behind.

While doing the Christmas shopping in Civitavecchia, I noticed a group of young men possibly late teens similarly dressed in black- black leather jackets, black jeans- moving together in a light jovial manner around the isles laughing in a manner so refreshing to see young men enjoying each others company. Not accustomed to seeing this in America but yet reminded me of my University days in Jamaica when I lived on campus, I soon realized they were shopping together for their get-together. The cooking between male friends begins very early.

In Jamaica, we would call it “running a boat” or just “ run a boat”. In the 1980s and 90s, this practice taught Jamaican men that cooking was not only for women. At worksites or on the campus of the University the men brought the ingredients for the food that they would cook together. Often done outside on a woodfire, it was an opportunity for men to enjoy each other’s company while jovially criticizing or having an input on how the food was being prepared.

And how it ends is with groups of elderly men sunning themselves on benches in the piazza. In this village where they have spent their lives, a friendship lasts a lifetime.

I have always loved this concept - a house in the countryside away from your house which is already in the countryside of Rome. It is a tradition to have a casetta (a small house) which served the purpose a hundred years ago (as now) as a place of rest while working on the land. Olivetti (olive groves), Castagneto (chestnut trees) and vinieto (vineyards) dot the territory around Monti della Tolfa and outside of the main villages. Spending hours on the land especially during the harvest season requires a place of rest and to prepare lunch without having to go back home. In time, it has also become a getaway house, especially on a Sunday when the extended family can meet for Sunday lunch.

The casetta would have a kitchen, a dining table in front of a fireplace to seat at least 10 and a small sofa. In winter time it is the best place where we can huddle together and keep warm in front of the fireplace. In summer it’s perfect to sit outside in the cool of a gazebo lined with grape vines. Another table waiting to seat friends and family.

The men were already in the house when I arrived. Before entering, I took a moment to view the panorama in front of me. Beyond the expanse of the valley of chestnut and other fruit trees, directly in front was a view of the 1300-year-old remnants of the ancient Tolfa castle Rocca. My Friday afternoon began in tranquility, enveloped in the winter Etruscan sun. There is nothing like this meditative silence of the woods. The fresh mountain air makes me feel light and creates space in my brain. A place where I could stay for a couple of days in its simplicity in a retreat reading and writing away from the world.

I entered the house in time to see the preparation of polenta.

This polenta was the fast one. Premade Cornmeal was added to boiling water which was whisked into a sort of porridge. As the cooked polenta was rolled and smoothed onto a plate in preparation for the sauce (sugo), I am remembering a similar dish in Jamaica called ‘ Turned cornmeal’ or ‘tun cornmeal’

I have always found fascinating similarities between Italian and Jamaican dishes.

Perhaps Christopher Columbus and his Spaniard friends, who lost their way on arrival in Jamaica, had a hand in the creation of Jamaican cuisine as we know it.

I can name a few dishes so far;

Baccalà - salted cod fish which in Jamaica is called salt fish, is prepared with onions and tomatoes in a similar way that is prepared in Italy

Pasta for soup or brodo (soup) is so much like dumplings that are put into Jamaican soups. I watched as they were being made when we were at the live nativity. I was gifted some and was told it was for the brodo.

Oso bucco (oxtail), liver and onions, and kidneys are just some of the foods that are enjoyed both in Italy and Jamaica.

Even Jamaican Christmas sorrel with rum is a reminder of hot spiced wine (vin brulè ) red wine warmed with cinnamon and oranges.

‘Tun cornmeal’ was often prepared with scraps of chicken for the house dogs in wealthier homes in Jamaica because it was a cheaper way to feed the pets. It was often thought of as a Jamaican poor man’s dish made with refined cornmeal, coconut milk, green onion and other spices. So can you imagine my surprise when I first saw polenta being served in Italy. I quickly understood that polenta was so much more of a refined dish than what I grew up with. In the north of Italy like the preparation of risotto, the preparation of polenta is a slow meticulous process.

Back in the casetta, the quick version of polenta was used. The sugo or sauce spooned on the polenta is a perfect dish for winter. Nothing is to be left on the plate. Any remaining sauce is removed with a piece of Bruschetta. Local bread toasted on the fireplace and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, recently harvested from the Allumiere trees.

With the polenta rapidly expanding in our stomachs, I passed around the sorrel drink I made with a bottle of Jamaican rum. With or without rum. Panettone with chestnuts, chestnuts in honey, and slices of cheese ( all locally made) with thimbles of thick black espresso completed our lunch.

After lunch, we sat around the fireplace with the afternoon sunshine streaming in from the windows, content. With our bellies full from the rapidly expanding polenta we spent the next hour ‘liming’ just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

July 9, 2023

I went on a passiegata with local tour guide Alessandro Oggiano to learn more about the history of Allumiere and its past with the mining of Alumite and to recall when I first used to spend many hours walking the woods during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2022.

Born in Civitavecchia and grown in Santa Marinella, Alex is passionate about showing both local Italians and foreign tourists the region not most explored outside of Rome. From Cerveteri to Monti della Tolfa there is so much unexplored area that dates back to Etruscan times.

That is one thing Italians love to do; trekking or going for long walks in the woods. Now that we are in the heart of summer, the woods up in the hills is the best place to be. Sheltered by the ancient trees of the Faggeto it is at least 20 degrees cooler than in Rome. In fact it is common for Romans to have a second home in the hills and Tolfa is home to quite a few villas.

I really enjoyed this walk as 3 years later my Italian has improved and with a little background knowledge I could follow along with Alex’s explanation. This walk was acompanied by the group Country Food that also does excursions in and around Allumiere accompanied by their donkeys. If you thought kids love donkey rides, well so do adults. Next time I will be brave and go for a ride. My intial imagination saw the donkey taking off down the mountain with me holding on for dear life but these donkeys were very docile and sweet.

REVISITING TOLFA & ALLUMIERE

Many don’t know that only 60km North of Rome and only 20 minutes from the cruise port of Civitavecchia, there’s a heavenly green place and an important natural area in the northern Lazio region known as the TOLFA MOUNTAINS!

The TOLFA MOUNTAINS are a volcanic chain of mountains characterized by a large number of water courses, a great variety of plants, flowers and animals and whose mountains’ ridges are covered with thick woods!

If you are wandering “WHY VISIT TOLFA and ALLUMIERE?” the reply is: ” BECAUSE THEY MAKE YOU EXPERIENCE FREEDOM!

Within these hills are natural protected reserves, with paths ideal for relaxing strolls, hiking, mountain biking, and birdwatching. In the very centre of this beautiful natural area there are two quaint little towns: Tolfa and Allumiere

TOLFA
Like many towns in central Italy, Tolfa has Etruscan – Roman origins. The Archaeological Museum, housed in the historical Convent of the Augustinian Fathers built at the beginning of the 1500s has a wonderful exhibit on the Etruscans.
Tolfa is a medieval town built on a rocky plateau, 600 metres above the sea level. There are approximately 5000 inhabitants.

Tolfa is surrounded by thick Mediterranean vegetation, rich in evergreen shrubs and holm oaks, and cork oaks. When in season you can see wild strawberry and blackberry bushes. There are red junipers, laurels, olive trees, mushrooms and oleanders. From the panoramic Town Square or Piazza facing the Town hall Commune on a clear day, it is even possible to see the roofs of Rome at a distance!

In the 13th century Tolfa was part of the Papal State but, in the following century, the Pope entrusted some noble roman families with its governance. One of these families, the Frangipane, still gives its name to the ruins of the Fortress which is on the very top part of the town and which was seriously damaged by the French troops in 1799 when the locals tried to fight against the French conquest of Rome by Napoleon.

The second half of the 14 and the 15 hundreds were centuries of economic growth: the discovery of Alum in the surrounding hills produced a great income for the Popes and the rich families who were entrusted with the trade of this important mineral so that they had beautiful palaces built in Tolfa as their private residence. They can still be admired nowadays: the PALAZZO CELLI and PALAZZO PANETTI.

An amazing highlight is the 17th century Convent of the Capuchins which has been turned into a bed and breakfast. The ancient cloister is the elegant breakfast area where the guests start their day in Tolfa with a good “Cappuccino and Cornetto”!

Another highlight of Tolfa is the Leather Workshops which produce many kind of leather goods, mainly those once used by their local cowboys, the BUTTERI, such as the typical local bag named CATANA.

ALLUMIERE

Less than 10 minutes drive from Tolfa, Allumiere derives its name from the mineral “Alum”, which was discovered in 1460.

The discovery of Alum was incredibly important!! In fact Alum was as important as oil has been for some centuries and still is nowadays. It was used for tanning hides, for the dyeing of fabrics, for the production of paper and, in medicine, it was used as an astringent.

For years it was imported from Greek and Turkey so you can easely imagine how important this discovery was for the Popes, who ruled in central Italy! While some of the rich families entrusted by the Popes with the Alum’s trade had their palaces in Tolfa, the miners’ houses were built closer to the caves so that they formed a tiny village called Allumiere (from Alum).

Allumiere has a beautiful Museum which recounts the transformations of the Tolfa area and the history of its inhabitants, from prehistoric times to the exploitation of the alunite mines till the 19th century.

Allumiere is a culinary secret. It has organic meat, sausages, pork products, cheese, wine and olive oil. There’s even a Pule donkey farm that makes one of the best dairy products in the world – donkey milk.

Another gastronomic highlight of Allumiere is the PANE GIALLO (the yellow bread of Allumiere) produced by a local family running an artisan bakery that has been working since 1870. The Yellow Bread is characterized by the yellow color of its fine-grained crumb and a strong fragrance of grains. This is due to the use of organically produced durum wheat (Triticum durum). It has won the international ROMA PRIZE and was selected by the Slow Food Organization.

Last but not the least, for those who are fond of walking, is the “Sancturary of the Madonna delle Grazie”. It is a place of meditation located above Allumiere which let you enjoy a gourgeous view of the sea downwards along the coast. The Sanctuary was built between the 15th and 16th century near the mines of alum. The area located behind the church was once a municipal cemetery now known as the Memorial Park dedicated to those killed in Allumiere during the war.

WHERE TO STAY
If you decide to spend a couple of days there, you’ll have to unlearn your concept of “tourist” and be ready to live like an insider, to breath the clean air and the authentic local dailylife atmosphere, enjoying gorgeous views of the surrounding woods and rustic, simple and delicious food, far away from the crowds and the souvenirs shops.
There are a few very nice and comfortable B&B and Guesthouses accomodations are available and bookable through the major booking platforms. Our favorite is run by our friend Antonio Morra who is in Tolfa.

photo gallery of Tolfa J. Russo

There are six official Contrade, each one has its own history: the name and the coat of arms have a precise meaning.

BURO’: derives from the French word “bureau” and indicates the place where the offices of the management of the alum mines were during the tender of the “Societè Finanziere de Paris” in the second half of the 19th century; the coat of arms represents an arch present in the district; the colors are black and white.
President Mr. Amedeo Mariani

GHETTO: is the name of the place where the first miners’ houses were built thanks to the concession of the land by Pope Pius VI; initially it was called “borghetto” and later ghetto; the coat of arms represents a fountain present in the district; the colors are yellow and red.
Mr. Giovanni Superchi was present

LA BIANCA: the name derives from the color of the alum, it was the first area where the quarries for the extraction of the mineral were opened around 1462; the coat of arms represents the holly plant, the plant which, according to tradition, is linked to the presence of alum, the colors are white and green.
Chairman Mr. Massimiliano Speroni

NONA meaning NINTH: from the name of a district present in Civitavecchia, the ninth district which has buildings very similar to those of the Contrada di Allumiere: the coat of arms represents a factory for the processing of alum minerals; the colors are red and green.
President Mr. Stefano Ceccarelli

POLVERIA (POWDER MAGAZINE): the name derives from the powder magazine tower in which the gunpowder used in the mines was kept; the coat of arms depicts a mill resulting from the
transformation of the tower into a windmill for grain processing; the colors are red and blue.
President Mr. Alfredo Moraldi

SAN ANTONIO: the name derives from the aedicule in the district dedicated to the saint; the coat of arms shows the newsstand of the saint; the colours are white and red.
President Mr. Marco Del Frate

Organization of the Contrade

Each district has a complex organization; there is a board made up of the president, vice president, secretary, cashier; then there are the barbarians, the blacksmith, the jockeys, the person in charge of the celebrations and costumes, the flag-wavers who, together with the forty extras, parade in the historical procession; then again the seamstresses, the choreographic group, the grooms, the cooks of the social dinners, the activists, the members and supporters.

Palio of Allumiere

But the undisputed protagonists of the palio delle contrade are the jockeys and donkeys, a combination capable of inflaming the hearts of the contradaioli with immense joy or vice versa of causing them a tremendous disappointment depending on the positive or negative outcomes of the dispute.

It should be noted that the care and training of the donkeys, involving the workers for about the whole year, has allowed the maintenance of the donkey breed which was in danger of extinction.

But the involvement does not only concern the jockeys and grooms, but many other people: in fact, there are various deadlines to be respected and initiatives to be implemented, especially those aimed at finding the necessary funds to cover the huge management costs, among which the purchase and maintenance of donkeys, stables, the creation of historical costumes, the rental of premises and offices where the various management periodically meet, discuss and propose initiatives for the success of the event.

It is precisely in the peculiar organization of the individual districts, in the industriousness of the contradaioli, in the passion and desire to make their initiatives more and more original that originates the undisputed success that the event obtains every year.

Good luck to all and may the best man win…

Words cannot describe the feeling of being involved in the Palio. If you are a regular traveler to Italy you must attend at least once.

Adapted from the palio of Sienna and brought to the village by Agostino Chigi who himself was from Sienna. Instead of horses the races are with donkeys which were so a vital part of village life and still is.

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“Beware the Ides of March”

This day has forever been burned into my brain…it's the Ides of March! I had a wonderful 10th grade literature teacher - Mrs. Ramsey, who made us reenact Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar that we were studying for our O'level exams. It is the day on 44BC that Julius Cesar was assasinated in the Senate in Rome.

As Brutus his closest friend stabbed him, Shakespeare wrote in the dying words of Julius, "Et tu, Brute?," meaning "You too, Brutus?" Hence when a friend stabs you in the back he/she is a Brutus!

Yesterday there was a reenactment in Rome. You can read more in the link below

JULIUS CESEAR CELEBRATIONS IN ROME

How has your winter been so far? Personally I can't wait for Primavera to arrive. Spring in Italy is my absolute most favorite time of the year. The beauty of the wild flowers, rolling green hills and blue sky makes me wish to be an artist.

I call living in Monti della Tolfa in winter, The Tundra! It's so much colder than near the coast, only 20 minutes to Civitavecchia. It is a damp cold that seeps through your clothes. Near the end of February I stopped trying to venture outside to go for walks. In fact I really missed walking in the woods and around the mountains. Especially after a cold rain it just feels so much colder. Luckily I have been meeting up with some ladies from Allumiere and teaching yoga and pilates 2 or 3 times per week. At least we are getting in some exercise. I started teaching in December, a challenge to myself to help with my faltering Italian. It is most challenging to teacher in another language. One of the many new things I find myself doing in the last 3 years. Despite my mispronunciations and hand gestures, I love challenges, it keeps my brain alive. I have learned to not be fearful of mistakes, just keep going. And from my mistakes I have learned numerous new words, made new friends and importantly force myself to excercise!

Lemon cake and spring flowers

Last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and was the forbearer to the spring that I long for. I was compelled to do a Sunday afternoon walk. It was to be the first in 2 months. Riccardo and I drove the 10 minutes down to the villa Farnesiana located in a valley. Farnesiana was a self sufficient borgo (village) in the renaissance times supplying wheat to the alumn miners in Allumiere. We noticed on the drive down, past the chestnut groves that Allumiere has several family plots of olive groves. We believe that there is a drive to increase the quality of olive oil produced in the region. We parked the car near the old train station of Allumiere and took a 2 mile walk down a dirt path.

This train station modern by Italian standards functioned from 1928 to 1961 carrying passengers from Civitavechia through Allumiere and on to Orto. In Italy nothing gets destroyed. So the building remains a romantic structure with memories of when there were no cars in Allumiere and only one road from Civitavechia to Tolfa. Travel by donkeys was the only way up. So I can imagine how important this train was at that time.

As soon as I stepped out of the car into the fresh mountain air, the sweet smell of the wild fennell finochio selvatici filled the air. The bushy green fronds line the brown stems of the winter bushes. It’s such a refreshing smell, I am reminded how wonderfully different it is from the musty smell of crowded suburbia Ostia and the outskirts of Rome. After the initial shock of spring smells, Riccardo and I continued on in a meditative silence savoring the noises of the loud bumble bees and other insects emerging to search for pollen on the flowers of the biancospino otherwise known as the Hawthorne tree . The brilliant white flowers are especially spectacular against the brilliant blue sky. It is the start of my flower photography. Forgive me but for the next 3 months you will be seeing a lot of flora.

Unlike the manicured terrain of Tuscany, Monti della Tolfa is wild. Tourists may not see it the way I do as movies tend to portray the perfection of Tuscany as Italy. However, only 70 minutes drive south of Tuscany this region delights me in its unpredictability and beauty in its imperfection. Within the dried dormant winter bushes are flowers, fruits and herbs waiting their turn to emerge.

Back home, with sunshine infused blood and flowers on my brain, I felt the need for lemons. I went straight for a recipe from one of my favorite chefs, Ina Garten’s lemon cake. I added a bit of vanilla flavored rum and let the cake soak in the sugar laden lemon juice making it a more lemony lemon cake.

Ina Garten’s Lemon yogurt cake

makes 1 loaf

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

• 1 cup of yogurt

• 1 1/3 cup sugar, divided

• 3 extra-large eggs

• 2 lemons - grated lemon zest

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1/3 cup squeezed lemon juice

  For the glaze

• 1 cup confectioners sugar

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 81/2 x 41/4 x 2 1/2 - inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

  Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure its all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes clean,

Cook the 1/3 lemon juice and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.

You can serve with a favorite proseco

Bon appetito!

Orange season

Winter time is citrus season and as we approach the end of the orange season I am making sure to enjoy all the different kinds. Orange blossom scents are my other favorites and citrus which is so tropical reminds me of Jamaica. Like all other fruits citrus is seasonal. By June there are no more oranges or mandarins! I'm still getting used to this concept of eating what is in season, even though I grew up eating this way. I guess I got used to getting any kind of fruit throughout the year in America. You can taste the difference in seasonal vs. all year round. Fruit here in Italy is much more flavorful as the travel distance from the south, Sicily, Calabria or Napoli is relatively close than when the fruit has to be imported. We even get lemons and Citron from nearby Santa Marinella.

So like all seasonal fruit you will see bowls of oranges of clementini or mandarini center pieces on the dining table which are passed around after lunch or dinner .

Mandarines, Clementines, Tangarines-whats the difference?

I grew up eating tangarines. Not quite as round as an orange but not an orange. Stick your thumb through the center of the skin, poke a whole and peel revealing thick pegs covered by a translucent skin. Inside bright orange pulp. Sometimes quite sour.

At the market I thought they were tangarines. Instead there are two varieties; clementines and mandarines. What's the difference? Do you know? I keep getting confused.

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From Jane Grigsons Fruit book, she refers to the tangarine being the same as a mandarin. It’s orange is the colour of the robes of ‘mandarin’ monks in China. From what I understand mandarins have a higher sugar content and are sweet. I do love them and we have them on a daily basis as they are so easy to snack on.

Oranges arrived in Italy towards the end of the Roman Empire, brought to Europe by Arab traders. Groves of oranges, tangarines, and lemon trees form a trail of the Muslim armies in the sixth and seventh centuries from India to Spain to Italy.

WINTER CITRUS SALAD

Fennel and orange salad are served after every meal during the winter time. My mother in law serves it with a dressing of olive oil. Personally I like the taste without the oil. I drizzle a little lemon juice on the sliced fennel and pegged oranges and maybe a pinch of salt

BLOOD ORANGES

My favorites beautiful ruby red blood oranges. Casually sold at the Market, I never saw then in America. They are just so aesthetically beautiful on a dish. Freshly squeezed for breakfast. I purchase by the dozen. It is a treat I relish in.

Lastly I learned from my ceramic teacher to dry the orange peels which can used as kindle for the fire. Nothing is wasted here.

My postcard is a bit long today to make up for the last few weeks. Hope you enjoyed. And please feel free to send me an answer in the comments. Much easier than sending an email and I can go back and re read your replies. - Letter writing in the modern age.

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Ciao🥰

Juli-Anne

Looking for a mid week recipe? We have one for you. Nothing gets wasted here in Italy. Old recipes are made into new. Ricetti cirulare. Chef Antonio from Tolfa, showed us what to do if you have left over pasta to make another meal.

Here he had leftover rigatoni with ragu and he made a timbalo or a pasta in the oven (pasta al forno).

Instead of having the same meal again he made a bechamel sauce, combined the rigatoni and baked it in the oven. Alex loved this dish that had a combination of cheeses. So much so we made our own version throughout the week.

My version of left over pasta

With left over pasta (preferably penne or rigatoni), in a bowl to the pasta, I added the bechamel sauce and a cup of parmesan cheese. Combined well then added the mixture to a baking dish, topped with bread crumbs and baked it in the oven at 200C for 15 minutes or until the bread crumbs were golden. A sort of mini mac and cheese if you will.

For the Timbalo, Chef added mozarella, mortadella and parmesan cheese to the rigatoni and bechamel sauce mixture.

Although we can find bechamel in the supermarket its always better to make it

Chef Antonio’s Bechamel Sauce

50 g Butter unsalted (burro)

60 g Flour (farina)

1/4 teaspoon of salt (sale)

1/2 liter of milk (late)

Nutmeg (noche muscata)

First add butter let it melt, then add flour slowly. Add milk and keep mixing for 5 minutes until all ingredients become homogenous. Use a hand blender to get a more even bechamel which is a bit thick. Nutmeg is the secret ingredient. Its a spice we use in Jamaica quite alot. So it was a surprise and a pleasure to see it being used in this dish.

Mid week pasta al forno con bechamel

Put the left over pasta in a mixing bowl and pour the bechamel sauce over the pasta. Add mozarella cheese. Parmesan cheese, mortadella (see note) and mix all.

Put the mixture in a baking dish and bake for 15 minutes at 200C. Or until the top is golden. And there you have a quick dish for when you have some left overs.

Mortadella is a large sausage originally from Bologna composed of cooked and finely shredded pork , mixed with cubes of pork fat (mainly the hard fat of the neck), generally cylindrical or oval in shape. It is traditionally flavored with black peppercorns, some versions may also contain pistachios or more rarely myrtle berries . The best known version is Mortadella Bologna but there are other varieties, also made with other meats

Wikipedia

Let me know if you tried this recipe or what was your version. Remember you can add any ingredient to make it your own.

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Before it got too hot in July, Alex and I did a daily walk to La Bianca. From Allumiere we walked through the Faggeto (ancient beech forest) and out to La Bianca only 1 mile away. For a few weeks, Ale helped out for a couple hours at the Ristorante di Rischio (if you want to experience the authentic cuisine of the countryside of Rome, in Italy you must visit). While I waited I got a chance to re-live the memory of when I first came to La Bianca. https://www.facebook.com/Ristorante-da-Rischio-1566109540276831/ This is where the story of our living in Allumiere begins. Living in La Bianca for one month in the spring of 2015 and then again in the summer of 2019 I realized there were so many similarities to be found in this region of Italy and reminded me so much of the country of my birth – Jamaica. I was ready to leave America and it was the place that I thought was closest to home.

Often I get the question why Allumiere? Why choose to live here? And the reason always is that La Bianca was where the idea began that we could actually live in Italy. In La Bianca you will find mostly families that have lived here for generations. Only 390 people, 17 families of which my friend Leo’s Dad tells me there still is the original 4. You can tell which from their last names.

It’s a quiet town with remains of the past. It reminds me of my childhood growing up in Jamaica. Very similar to Claremont and Yorkcaste, where my father grew up and where we would go during summer and Christmas holidays. It’s a town where you have a large family and can grow old in.

The people move to the rhythmn of the seasons and flow with the weather. In the summer early to rise in the morning, back inside for lunch when everything closes between 1 to 4. In the summertime, no one comes out until 5pm. In the wintertime bedtime is early. It is a place that once you are a teenager you want to escape from. There is not much to do. A bakery, a bar, a church, and several restaurants. Nothing else. At 14 you can get a scooter and then there is more freedom to bike off to Allumiere or Tolfa. When you are 16 or 17. You can get a car and go to more exciting Civitavecchia.

But often they want to return when they decide to have a family. Quiet, and serene it is perfect to raise a family. The little piazza is a place for kids and adults alike to hang out in the evenings. Perfect for a cool summer night when it’s common to stay up in the wee hours of the morning. I can understand why. It is 20 degrees cooler than nearby coastal town of Civitavecchia

For me, it was the place where I discovered I could live as a nonwealthy tourist. The magazine and travel industry portray Italy for rich and fabulous. Here as I look around and saw people living affordably and with the balance that I craved. In America, it felt like the forever hamster wheel. Even though our salaries were higher we seemed to have less quality of life. Here in La Bianca, the cost of living is less and much more affordable. How was it possible? Life is slow and rhythmic.

BRIEF HISTORY

La Bianca, was the first village to be formed after more than 1000 years of occupation of Tolfa. Before it was all forest before the mining began.  Now a commune of Allumiere, it began fifty years before the town of Allumiere would be born in 1506. The white and black sign shadowed by the green leaves of the woods welcomes us. Benvenuto La Bianca. In the spring a Judas tree, blossoming bright pink petals in all its grandeur ushers us into the town.  Named for the white of the alum that the miners worked in. Its flag is green for woods and white with a holly in the center as a symbol. A landmark where the alum could be found flies proudly from a pastel pink house. Another with the red, white, and green of the Italian flag.

Known as the white, La Bianca is a small hamlet and a neighborhood otherwise known as a Contrada of Allumiere in the region of Monti della Tolfa. It can be defined as the ancient Allumiere as it was here that Giovanni da Castro in 1462 created the first plant for the production of alum.

Around 1462 , the woods were cut to build the first houses for the miners that came from outside the area. La Bianca was a result of the rapid growth in Tolfa on the discovery of this alum. Palazzi, grand houses, churches (seven in all) and monasteries were popping up all over Tolfa. Soon there was no more room and the workers spilled over into the nearby what was then a forest.

Alum was a highly prized mineral and in the La Bianca, a plant was subsequently installed for the production of kaolin, a sedimentary rock that can be used in construction, the production of ceramics and porcelain, and also in the medical field. La Bianca was one of those many mining towns in Italy that is not talked much about. In fact, the Tolfa Mountains were rich in minerals. The processing of this mineral in 1500 was moved to where the town Allumiere now stands.

It is the place where I was welcomed by all of Riccardo’s friends – and he has alot. I call him my social butterfly. On every trip to the area when we visited Italy, he would arrange a dinner for everyone that he grew up with in La Bianca at the Rischio. It’s a testament to Italian friendship as they now live in other Towns, Tolfa, Santa Marinella, Civitavecchia but they all show up at the dinner which with plate after plate of the most incredible food we ate, drank, laughed and were merry just like in Boccaccio’s novel

This weekend was the beginning of making new Christmas memories. This is our 3rd Christmas in Monti della Tolfa and despite the damp weather we were determined to entertain in our house this year. It is something we have looked forward to for some time as the last 2 Christmas holidays were spent in lockdown. In the summer everyone lives outside. Here in the mountains, people flow with the seasons. In the summer, when the weather is great and the days are long no one wants to be inside. Summers are for hanging out in the piazza and being at the sea in the afternoons. We met in the garden or at a bar for aperitivo and at 8 pm at a restaurant for dinner which could go on until 1 am.

With winter, dark evenings, and the constant rain we are left to be indoors as soon as it gets dark. Italians are people persons. They love to be together so being indoors alone is a no no.  We took the opportunity of a rainy weekend to host a party with friends. Since the beginning of the school term, we have been preoccupied and busy with the children being the center of attention and life. So for the weekend we would be the party hosts. Actually, it was Riccardo’s birthday on Saturday, so it was a perfect excuse to celebrate his birthday and our friendships with some of Riccardo’s oldest friends whom he has known since he was fourteen. In Italy, friendships are for life.

Preparation for a get-together with friends is simple. No stress. As long as we have pizza, and lots to nibble and drink. The party is about friendships. We ordered pizza from our favorite pizzeria in Allumiere, L'Ora Della Pizza 2. Perfect small squares with a thin crispy crust that I like. Why are Italians able to eat pizza every day? It is not dripping with an uncertain oil and filled with uncertain cheese. The best ingredients are used in effortless combinations. Pizza Margherita – marinara sauce and mozzarella and only marinara are the most common flavors. Marinara in its simplicity tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and basil. Cooked for an hour sometimes to make a thick sauce and topped onto that thin crust. The specialty at pizza due (number 2 because there is another in Tolfa only 2 miles away owned by his brother) is one of my favorites. Thinly sliced marinated eggplant baked on a white pizza (no cheese) and top with slivers of parsley. No guilt is to be had when having a slice of pizza still warm from the forno.

LORA DELLA PIZZA DUE

From the Macelleria in Tolfa, Riccardo bought sausages of all kinds, liver, spicy and sweet. Copietta – a dried pig jerky flavored with fennel seeds, herbs, and some with pepper flakes. Marinated green olives and diced tomatoes dosed in a generous portion of olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

 My new friend Jodi came to visit. Another Jamaican in Italy. The second Jamaican living in Italy that I know of so far.  It was a perfect weekend for her immersion into the Italian language as in Florence where she lives it is much harder to be in conversation with Italians. So many speak English and to me, Florence feels quite Americanized. Jodi and I were trying to figure out what else we could put on the table. We had gorgonzola, walnuts, and pastry shells and decided to combine the cheese with walnuts and bind them with honey and olive oil. First, the walnuts sprinkled with salt were toasted in the oven for 4 minutes at 160 C. The honey and olive oil mixture were poured over the warm nuts and the cheese was added which melted easily into the mixture. Then Jodi spooned the mixture into the warmed readymade pastry shells. Something was missing and thought about adding a pear slice to the mixture. I always make a pear arugula salad topped with walnuts. It was a hit. The salty gorgonzola combined with the nutty flavor is slightly addictive.

Everyone arrived around 8 pm and if you don’t know that is the usual dinner time for Italians.

We pulled out the ends of the dining table which is usually shortened for 4 people and turned out sofa around so that we had enough seating for 10 people. This we could not do during the time of COVID. How we once again take it for granted. All huddled cozily close to each other like we love to do - no masks. I think all of us by now even if vaccinated have gotten covid at least once if not twice. We are determined to live life without this crazy fear that we had the last 2 years. Being with friends is essential to Italian culture. Drawing energy from one another is what sustains our lives.

Traditionally, the men sit on one side and the women on the other. Many years ago when I did not know enough Italian and relied on Riccardo, I found this disconcerting. Now I can see the value in the sexes bonding and sharing their own conversations, secrets, and advice. The ladies were trying to find a finanzata for Jodi and one suggested an unmarried cousin! Later in the night, the seating arrangement would change as we moved around getting more comfortable on the sofa.

After toasting our friendship and Riccardo’s birthday with Prosecco, Roberto passed around the homemade red wine he brought. I am surprised to learn it was made by one of my neighbours. But then I shouldn’t be. Making homemade wine is a thing in these parts. I am fascinated as I walk home in the evening from Italian class to see wine being made in someone’s cellar. Tucked away in a cave-like structure that I would have passed by many times and not have known existed. House wine has the strong taste of grapes. It is sweet and misleading because one can think it is grape juice. Too much too fast and you can become drunk quite quickly. This mistake I made on one of my first trips to Italy. Jodi loved it. We thought it would be perfect to marinate dried fruits to make our Jamaican Christmas cake.

As the evening went on with loud chatter, everyone talking at once, and laughter. It felt so good to once again be able to just hang out with friends. My Italian friends are natural actors and comedians so the entire evening was spent in well-needed laughter.  Later Luigi took control of my guitar which I had lying around. It seems common to me now that there is always someone in the group who knows how to play a musical instrument. The guitar is a popular accompaniment to encourage the breakout of singing.  Check out La Societa Dei Magnaccioni by Lando Fiorini. It is a popular Roman song that began the rounds of singing.

By midnight rapidly spoken Italian, the glowing fireplace and the house wine begin to slow down my brain.  At this point, I am reveling in the company and good feeling flow of chatting, singing, and laughter. I had a flashback. This was how it was growing up in Jamaica. I look back, how did we survive those dire days of life in Jamaica? Jamaica is not an easy place to grow up.  It is beautiful as it is harsh and complicated. Our friendships. We may not have had a lot materially but we had good friends.  Like Italians, my friendships in Jamaica have lasted since high school and University days oh so many years ago.

In high school, during lunch period and after school, at my catholic high school in Kingston, although dressed in a white uniform we sat on the floor cross-legged in a circle to eat our lunch outside under the shaded trees. At the University of the West Indies, we lymed (Caribbean slang for hanging out) on the steps of the library in between classes. Always with much laughter and jokes. There was at least one comedian amongst us. I have missed this so much.

At 1 am we said goodnight, with not one but two kisses on each cheek and good squeezable hugs. What we all needed as adults that have stressful busy lives – a moment to forget our responsibilities and be young and light again. Friendships here are never superficial. There is much involvement and the sheer pleasure of being together encompassed, joy, disagreement, physical closeness, and a whole range of emotions. There is nothing like the simple delight of the company of a friend or friends.

In Raeleen D Agostino Mautner’s book Living La Dolce Vita, she talks about the art of friendship, amicizia. Friendship is one of the constants of Italian culture and many Italians describe friendship as the most important aspect of their life, equivalent to that of family. Intimate friends often become family especially when blood relatives are out of reach and that is what my friends in the Tolfa Mountains have become to me.

Although it should be a happy time, Christmas can be a dark time for many. The number one can be loneliness. One should not be alone during the holidays. The difference I feel here in Italy is that Christmas is not commercialized. I do not feel the bombardment of advertisements to shop for things. The Christmas tree and presents on the Christmas tree are not the center and focus of this season. It does help that as Christians we do live in a country where the majority of people practice the same religion so there is no thought or worry about offending another culture. The focus of Christmas is the advent season. Lighting the candles on Sunday to represents hope, love, joy, and the last one this Sunday was peace. So many of these things we need to share.

After mass the Sunday the sun came out. Just before Jodi had to head back to Florence we went for a walk around old Tolfa where I have been taking my guitar lessons. It is a must to walk back in time to the medieval castle when you come for a visit to the Tolfa Mountains. While Allumiere is considered Renaissance, Tolfa goes back to the 1100s and is considered a medieval town.

See my blog post I wrote on a quick tour of Tolfa

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I wish you much hope, love, joy and peace, and good friendships this Christmas.

Ciao for now

J

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Today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception which commemorates the conception of the virgin Mary and is a national holiday here in Italy. While the family sleeps in, I finally get to send my news to you. December 8th signals the beginning of the Christmas season and starting at sunset there are festivities in the piazza including a bonfire in the piazza. The Christmas lights usually go up around this period and not in November as in America. I am enjoying the lack of commercialism of Christmas. I am a practicing Christian so it is nice to see the meaning of hope, peace joy, and love as the focus and not gift-giving. Alex and Riccardo participated in the first advent Sunday in La Bianca, a small hamlet 1km from Allumiere, where Alex lit the first advent candle representing hope and read a passage out loud for the congregation. What progress! 2 years ago, Alex did not know how to read or write Italian. Now I would say he is about 80% fluent in Italian. That number is because there are way too many slang words and dialects to ever understand all things.

I took a walk down to the piazza to get items for lunch but the supermarkets were closed. Luckily a family bodega was opened that sold their own products from their farm as well as products from other local producers. In my shopping bag were pancetta, sausages and pork chops. I also got their olive oil freshly pressed from the Octobers harvest and local honey from the region. The pork chops did not need much, salt, pepper, and garlic powder browned in olive oil, and added the juice of an orange with a little honey. Honestly, I am really enjoying not going to enormous supermarkets. I know where my food comes from and I get to practice my Italian with the owners.

This is our 3rd Christmas in Italy. Each one different from the others all surrounded by the circumstances of COVID. Our first in 2020 we were under lockdown. The entire Christmas season until after New Year. It was a strange one but a special one that I won’t forget as all my neighbours were thankfully so wonderful. Instead of being alone, we would pop out on our doorstep to have an occasional chat with someone either beside us, or in front of us. Or even through the bedroom window.

 My neighbors across the road Paola and Davide left us veggies, and fruit, from their farm on our doorstep when we first arrived in August 2020 as a welcome and had to stay in quarantine. During the Christmas season and after we had gotten to know them better, late at night around 10 pm we hopped over to their house in our fleece pajamas, overcoat and booties to huddle by the fire to roast chestnuts and taste Davide’s homemade fruit liquor which seems to be made with raw alcohol that burned deep into the esophagus and We stayed in our makeshift bar well until 1 am. I loved this. No makeup, no dressing up, and no driving. A stress-free night with adult company.

There were so many things to learn, one of the most important is how to light the fireplace. It gets quite cold in the mountains and as electricity and gas are quite expensive we rely on wood to keep us warm throughout the winter as they have been doing here for centuries. I don’t know how it is kept sustainable but I am thankful that we have enough to keep us through winter. We started collecting wood in July so that the wood could cure and dry in order to burn well. We rented a cantina which is a small storage unit near the woods to store our firewood. We roast chestnuts as Paola showed me in October, make bruschetta and cook sausages and meat just like in medieval times. Many days it has felt just like that, back in medieval times.

When I come home, I bring inside wood (luckily, I don’t have to chop it like many of my friends do) and start the fire which takes about an hour to warm up the house. So if I don’t start it before sunset, we are walking around in 2 layers until the house warms up. It took me maybe 2 months to learn how to start the fire never owning a fireplace before. I was quite afraid and intimidated in fact and so it took me a month before I would go near it. Once again friends and neighbours stepped in. My friend Daniela who runs a trattoria in La Bianca, would take time out from running the restaurant to pop in to see if we were ok.  She brought with her a tin bucket to collect the ashes from before, newspaper and firestarter.  Before I knew it, she came in and meticulously arranged the wood, newspaper and kindle to get the fire going.  This fireplace was the bane of my existence and I was determined when for the last time I had to call my other neighbour two doors down who happened to be working in his shed to show me once again how to get the thing going. It was a lesson in perseverance and one more new thing since arriving in Italy you are never too old to learn new things.

 Being in lockdown in Italy versus lockdown in New Jersey during the pandemic 2020, brought a new experience. In New Jersey, I felt nothing but fear.  Here in this village on a hill surrounded by woods, I felt a sense of security and safety that I had not felt in years. The sense of community is profound.  Life is quite simple but it is filled with the more important things. Most homes in Allumiere are small and the rooms are small and not filled with a lot of things.  The first floor is the Sala dominated by the dining table. There is no living room and an additional dining room. As their ancestors have been doing for centuries, the long dining table of polished wood usually holds 6 to 10 people but can be folded to hold 4 for everyday use. Usually, there is a small sofa but that’s not where you sit. It’s at the table and you can sit there for hours chatting while drinking coffee, herbal tea, or some kind of strong homemade liqueur that can preserve your organs for years is served along with some potato chips to snack on.  For me, it has felt as if I have been living in a university dormitory. Like I did way back when on campus at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. This reminds me I did an interview in the summer with a local radio station in Jamaica that called in my friends from my undergraduate days. It was so much fun and I will post that interview in another letter.

There is so much to write about and in fact, I hope that you will hop over to my blog to check out some of the stories that I wrote last year. See the link for "a Jamaican in Italy” here. 

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You can check out some of the interviews that I did when I first arrived and track some of the journey in the last 2 years.

I hope you enjoy the last full moon of the year and what a beautiful full moon it is.

Until next time

Ciao from Juli-Anne

August 19, 2022

Only three days to the highlight of the summer in Allumiere and the excitement heightens. The boys are practicing every day flag throwing sbandetori and drumming tomborine. In each neighborhood in a designated practice area teenage boys and young men get together under a director to learn this very Renaissance tradition. they have been practicing at least 3 hours per day for the last 3 weeks. Before dinner and after dinner around 9pm when the temperature is at its coolest in the mountains. it is a wonderful bonding experience leading to friendships that last a life time.

Leading this Renaissance procession, the performance of the flag-wavers is one of the evocative moments of the Palio delle Contrade. For young boys and men it is an honor to dress as standard bearers with the colors of their own district and compete to win the coveted prize for the best flag throwing.

Breif History of the Palio in Allumiere

The Palio was brought to Allumiere by Agostino Chigi once the wealthiest man in Rome and money lender to the Pope. He wanted to have a race that was similar to the famous Palio that was in his hometown of Siena. Instead of horses, the Allumieraschi raced donkeys that were so important to the alum production.

The Sunday after Ferragosto was determined to be the day of the Palio. (see my previous post on The Night of the Cencio) https://ajamaicaninitaly.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/the-night-of-the-cencio-allumiere/

Check out these very emotional trailers promoting the Palio

https://fb.watch/eYNvgJ3oA6/

https://fb.watch/eYOjb_iI4U/

In the months preceding the day of the Palio, the presidents, the committees and the jockeys of the six districts meet in the council chamber of the municipal building, where the local authorities proceed to the draw in which each district is assigned, for each battery, its own starting point. from one of the six cages.

The week before the day of Palio, each square of the districts is transformed into an open-air tailor’s shop, where everything is handcrafted. The historical procession in sixteenth-century costumes is quite a show for the tourists who flock to Allumiere on the day of the Palio.

These traditions are carried out with meticulous precision, every year takes on a new meaning compared to the past. This year I think it will have an even more special meaning after not being able to celebrate for 2 years.

In the days leading up to the Palio, each district has a special dinner for those that will be in the Palio and live in that district. I am sure it is a leftover from when only families lived in districts. So essentially it’s one big family dinner

At 5.00 pm the historical walk in sixteenth-century costumes begins, opened by the last district that won the previous Palio (the others parade in the order of the previous year) and closed by the “carroccio” pulled by oxen, which carries the ‘Cencio’ area every year dedicated to an anniversary, a character, an important local or national event.e

Each district paraded with “pages, footmen, drummers, standard bearers, sign bearers, grooms and jockeys”, but today the various districts have added many other figures to their procession, all carefully dressed in traditional clothes. The period clothes, the various accessories, the bearing of the extras, are so well cared for that the special prize established becomes the subject of a particular dispute between the six districts, so much so that it is assigned by a jury, different every year, made up of university professors. , professors of art history, costume designers and set designers. All participation or commitment is absolutely not remunerated, it is voluntary work encouraged only by belonging to the ward and attachment to one’s traditions.

History, culture, traditions, passion. This is the Palio and after two years it will return to amaze us and make our hearts beat faster. 20 and 21 August we are waiting for you in Allumiere.

See more on Facebook at the link below

https://www.facebook.com/Palio-delle-Contrade-di-Allumiere-161415210568827/

https://www.lextra.news/allumiere-torna-il-palio-delle-contrade-dopo-due-anni-di-stop-il-21-agosto-la-nuova-edizione/

https://www.civonline.it/2022/08/17/palio-delle-contrade-di-allumiere-ledizione-della-rinascita/

After two years of a hiatus due to the pandemic, the Palio delle Contrade returns to Allumiere (RM), the fifty-sixth edition of which is scheduled for Sunday 21 August 2022. It is the most important historical-folkloristic event in the town on the Tolfa mountains, a donkey race with jockey and without saddle, each of which represents one of the six districts of Allumieras: Burò, Ghetto, La Bianca, Nona, Polveriera and Sant’Antonio. The reigning champion district, winner of the last four editions, is the Polveriera.

Organized by the Municipality of Allumiere and the Agostino Chigi Contrade Association, with the collaboration and support of the Lazio Region, Pro Loco, Eureka Association, Acea and other realities, as well as beneficiary of a grant from the Ministry of Culture, the Palio of this year is dedicated to Riccardo Rinaldi, who recently passed away, who in 1965 founded the event in its current format and for many years was the fervent organizer. The historical origins of the Palio date back to the early 1500s, when Agostino Chigi di Siena, contractor of the alum mines from which the town takes its name, wanted to recall here the famous race of his hometown, but with donkeys, animals at the fundamental times for the transport of the extracted mineral, instead of horses.

The Palio delle Contrade is the highlight of a party that began on the evening of August with the Notte del Cencio, on the occasion of which the drape that constitutes the prize for the winning district of the race, made by Simona Sestili, was unveiled.

 Then, on Saturday 20 August, the eve of the Palio, at 7 pm the traditional “Provaccia”, that is the test of the donkeys that will compete on the following day.

From 9.30 pm the Night of the Contrade with musical and food and wine festivals in the squares.

 Finally, on Sunday 21 August at 5 pm the historical procession with the cart carrying the “Cencio” and the flag-wavers. Following the dispute of the Palio and in the evening party at the winning district, which also wins the right to open the procession of the following year. 

The Palio consists of three points heats. The starter is Renzo Corvi,

“Finally, after so many difficulties, the Allumiere community returns to live its most heartfelt celebration – comments the mayor Luigi Landi – and this will be the Palio of rebirth. For me, moreover, it will be a deep emotion as it is the first time as mayor. A great effort was put in place to allow the organization of the event and I thank the administration, the districts and their association chaired by Tiziana Franceschini, the Pro Loco, the seamstresses, the flag wavers, the managers of public order and of security and all citizens who in various ways are working for the success of an event that also wants to be an important opportunity for the tourist-cultural relaunch of the country. The Palio delle Contrade represents a moment of great joy, sharing and belonging,

August 15, 2022

“Visit Allumiere take your time and travel to discover this magnificent land.  Let yourself be fascinated by the art and beauties that the city can offer you.  Explore a still unspoiled nature, treat yourself to a different August, immersed in the history of our palio delle contrade. The art of welcoming and feeling good will give you a unique journey.“

opening video credit: Antonio Pasquini

Sunday night at 9:30pm

There is one thing, the summer of 2022 has come alive in the Tolfa Mountains. Last night all Allumiere came together to celebrate the return of their most historic tradition The Palio of Allumiere. After 2 years of our lives being uprooted and traditions put on hold, the committee that organized the festivities leading up to the Palio on August 21, in true Italian fanfare put the P in performance to make this a spectacular event for all.

It was strangely windy and the temperature dropped significantly to 70F compared to the scorching 90s of just the week before. So of course, while we waited for the show to begin at 9:30 pm, either you had on a light jacket and you were comfortable or you were letting everyone know how vento or fresco it was.

The Beginning of The Palio

The Cencio

The banner or Palio, called the “cencio” by the Alumieraschi (what the people of Allumiere are known as), represents the trophy to be delivered to the Contrada that wins the race on Sunday 21 August.

In 2022, the Cenio or flag which will be given to the winner of the Palio was presented to the town. Hand made it is dedicated to Riccardo Rinaldo who tirelessly worked to have the Palio reignited in 1965 after years of decline.

The depictions of the Cencio are hand-painted by local painters and can recall the most varied themes such as world hunger or the journey to the moon, they can be the celebration of an anniversary, or be dedicated to a historical figure or figure religious; every year “the painting” is the result of a specific competition.

It consists of an original painting on fabric and has a particular dimension: that of an elongated rectangle. Its value is unique. This year’s (2022) theme is the late Riccardo Rinaldi, the brilliant mayor who passed away last May who in 1966 was instrumental in igniting the passion and pride of the Palio after years of decline.

Each Palio bears the symbols of the districts, the coat of arms of the Municipality of Allumiere and must contain the image of the Madonna delle Grazie. This year’s Cencio is a real work of art, created by the talented artist Simona Sestili.

I loved every moment of the energy of the drums in sync with their loud booms that reverberated around the town. I can see how during wars drums had a significant impact on the enemy who may have thought the army much bigger than it really was. But the drumming also gives out an energy that is motivating and exciting.

See video clips in the links below for you to capture this energy that words cannot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChUZ2A5DjuY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChUc9YRDgmL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The chants coming from each neighborhood waiting in corners for their turn to present seemed like we were at a football match between rivals. It reminds me of sports day at my high school in Kingston, Jamaica Immaculate Conception High. We were placed in ‘houses’ like in Harry Potter which we competed against on sports day. The camaraderie, the chants the competition, the excitement; I love it all. I love the positive energy that we so need at this moment.

I certainly learned a bit more about the village of which there are only 3500 inhabitants. At the beginning of the night, each of the six districts known as Contrada ; Burò, Ghetto, La Bianca, Nona, Polveriera and S. Antoni (see my post on the flags and their meanings) presented themselves with their sbandietori or flag throwers and the tamburi the young drummers. All being narrated and the colors of the flag projected onto the church for all to see. Next, the princess and then the village representatives and members of the procession gathered together in front of the commune and the spectators. It’s an opportunity for the kids and teens to get involved in keeping alive the tradition year after year.

I have included a link so that you can read more about this tradition of the sbandietori that can be found in Arrezo.

https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/italian-institutions-flag-throwers

The flag was then revealed in quite a fanfare of speeches, emotions, and poetry dedicated to this amazing man who contributed so much to the town.

And just before the fireworks began to end the ceremony and the beginning of palio week, A princess from each Contrada filled the timers with sand signaling to let the festivities begin

Alex was inducted in an equally elaborate ceremony as an Honorary Biancorolo when we visited the summer he was nine. This year he was given the honor to join the family to be a drummer. I have watched the camaraderie between the guys grow which is only typical of Italian friendships. After tonight, we are all pretty excited for the day of the Palio in only 6 days. If you are in Italy, check out this wonderful tradition Sunday, August 21.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Gabriele Volpi for his wealth of knowledge and resources

Night of the cencio 2023

I am updating this blog post with the photo gallery for 2023

Maybe we were invested more because Alex was a part of it last year or perhaps last year was so thrilling because we were getting together for the first time after the pandemic. Or even so maybe this isour 4th summer in Allumiere but the crowd was a little less this year. Nevertheless, I enjoy and feel the thrill when the neighborhoods get together to celebrate each other and the town. Isnt it wonderfull that in this moment in time when the world is constantly at odds its a beautiful thing when a village can get together to celebrate motivate and encourage the joy of living.

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