Tuck into Umbria’s pasta, ice cream and truffles
When I w as l ittle, t he f irst thing my mum wanted to know on holiday was: ‘Can you drink the w ater?’ A few decades later and we’ve just a rrived at our villa in the Italian hilltop town of San Gemini. We s pot a n ote f rom t he o wner: ‘ Tap w ater is good for cooking and brushing teeth. As for drinking, we’d suggest mineral water in bottles.’ I’m sure this is not because the family fortune that paid for this splendid house ( and t he 1 5-room p alazzo n ext d oor) came from, well, bottled mineral water.
The owner’s great-grandfather began b ottling Sangemini water in the late 19th century. It’s one of the best-known brands in Italy, but is no longer in the family.
But we haven’t come to Umbria for the water. The adults are here for the pretty medieval streets, Roman ruins and a few glasses o f O rvieto. G eorge, n ine, a nd D aisy, six, are big on pasta, ice cream and afternoons in the pool.
This i s a lso t ruffle c ountry. W e’ve p romised to take the children truffle hunting, which they like the sound of.
Our white-stoned villa, Casa del Poggio (‘house on the hill’), originally the stable block o f t he p alazzo, i s c arved i nto t he w alls of t he t own. T hrow o pen t he f ront d oor a nd you’re slap bang in the main square.
San Gemini is not a tourism hub. It’s a p lace w here o ld m en i n b aggy trousers play cards in the cafes, the marketplace is ringed by wild j asmine a nd D aisy m akes such good friends over d inner one night in a 13th c entury restaurant that sheplaysinthestreetwith h er n ew p als w hile we finish off our grilled lamb.
The c ity o f O rvieto, home o f t he f amous wine,isanhour’sdrive away. AGothic c athedral i s caked in gold leaf and b uilt i n h orizontal black and white stripes.
But it’s what’s beneath our feet that we won’t forget. In the S eventies, O rvieto s uffered two landslides and stumbled across a forgotten past.
Underneath the streets was a network of 1,200 man-made caves, the oldest dating back 2,500 years. These caves — lit up f or v isitors o n g uided t ours — have had a succession of uses: q uarries, o live-pressing f actories, wine and cheese storage.
Their most fascinating chapter was in m edieval t imes, w hen t hey h oused a network of pigeon farms. everywhere you look, there are slots drilled into the rock for birds to roost in.
SO Why pigeons? For their meat. They’re the perfect farm animal — every day they’d fly out of the cave, feed themselves for free in the countryside and return home. George and Daisy love scuttling around and hearing strange stories about cheeky birds and ancient etruscan f actory w orkers.
Another g reat p lace t o v isit i s S poleto. Think mini Florence without the crowds. The city is built out of white stone. The duomo (cathedral) dates back t o t he 1 2th c entury a nd i s c rafted out of reclaimed Roman rubble. yet there’s a peace to the place. At 4pm, all you can hear is footsteps, birdsong and t he h ubbub o f c onversation. I magine that in Florence!
We stop for a ricotta-and-fig ice cream. Cheesy ice cream? It’s much better than it sounds.
And t he t ruffle h unting? I n I taly, t hey use d ogs i nstead o f p igs t o s niff o ut t he fungi, s o w e g o h unting i n a f orest u p i n the hills with an excitable mongrel, Pippo, and truffle hunter Paolo.
Pippo unearths lots of truffles. It’s thirsty w ork. n ow, r emind m e: c an y ou drink the local water?
TRAVEL FACTS
TUSCANY Now & More
(tuscanynowandmore.com, 020 7684 8884) offers Casa del Poggio villa, which sleeps six, from £1,344 per week. Monarch (monarch.co.uk, 0333 003 0700) flies from Birmingham and Luton to Rome from £94 return.