Framing Our Myth

'The most beautiful lane'

Umbria framed through Peppe's eyes.....

Peppe Bambani and Ken Bakkenito



Thursday, May 18th

I got may occations mixed up yesterday. I should have wished my mom and dad happy anniversary, since my mom’s birthday is May 28th. Happy Anniversay Mom and Dad!.....Ken

WARNING: This is long, but again, for my memory, so skip over it if you want to.

I hesitate to write this up, as the day was so magical that by writing it down, it may lessen it, but here I go...At 1pm, we met up with Peppe Bambami for a tour of the area. Claudio recommended Peppe and said we would need to drive our car, as Peppe was “parteecular” and would only ride his vespa. Peppe is about in his mid 50s, and we find out that he is a teacher of electronics at a high school We don't know why he wasn’t in school this day. He doesn’t give tours all of the time because he doesn’t want them to get old. One of the funniest things was Peppe’s reaction to my mother’s maiden name “Fuoco”. It means “fire”. Peppe said when you meet a man with the name Fuoco that you stand back because you don’t know what to expect. A woman? She will be “hot”. He was not surprised that the Fuocos were a crabby, hot bunch. He said “Omen Noman". A name is an omen, they don’t happen by accident. This became the first of what we called “Peppe-isms”. We learned that if a name ended in “O” you were from southern Italy, an “I” meant central Italy. During the day, he would periodically burst into laughter and say “Fuoco!”.

Our 1st stop was at a small hilltown, Montefalco. He wanted us to see the typical Italian Piazza where people gathered after dinner. A piazza has the church and lay sector represented, so will have a church and a city hall on it. We then went to the enoteca, which means wine shelf, to look at some wine. Then of course we had to go sit and have some wine (I had marscapone gelto). It was hard to not want to rush to see the next sight, but we were not only touring, but experiencing the Italian way. Peppe kept saying “carpe diem” and “enjoy the moment”. As we left Montefalco we walked down “the most beautiful narrow lane”. He was right. We stopped to see where the sagrintino grapes were 1st planted. Whenever Peppe stopped to show and ecplain something to us, his voice would get low and very passionate. It was like he was seeeing everything for the 1st time himself. We had brought panini, so sat on what Peppe called a balcony (a bench overlooking Umbria). It was breathtaking! We ate and talked about life. He told us a story about an 85 year old woman of Italian heritage from the US who had a view of Italy in her mind and wanted to experience Italy. She moved to Italy for 6 months to “frame her myth”. Another great “Peppe-ism”.
Next we went to Bevagna, another hill town with a piazza. What was great was that he had Ken drive through areas that we would never go through ourselves and park the car. He said don’t take candy from strangers. He took us into a Romanesque church, and then downstairs to its crypt. Ken and I kept looking at each other in awe; what an experience we were having!

Next stop.... the wine cellar where they make and sell the local wines. Their specialty is Sagrantino di Montefalco, which can only be made if the grapes come from the hill around Montefalco. They had what literally looked like gas punps in the winery where the locals bring in their own bottles to fill.

I wanted to buy some olive oil, so Peppe took us to the place where Malvarina takes their olives to be pressed. October is olive harvest time. It was quiet when we toured the facilities with the owner and his son, but come October the place goes crazy for about six weeks with everone bringing in their olives to be pressed and made into olive oil. People have to get appointments sometimes at 2AM in order to get their olives pressed. I bought some special olive oil for my skin. I will look 20 years yonger within a week! As we walked around Peppe picked lavender, smelled it, or just admired the flower boxes; everything was to be savored.

Our last stop of the day was Spello. We would have never have gone to this town because hill towns don’t usually allow cars, and this one was just too big for me to tackle, but Peppe said, ‘We drive!’ So off we went climbing and winding through Spello.....Pedestrians beware. It was an incredible site; around every corner we gasped, and I wanted to take pictures. But no, ‘we hurry’ as Peppe would say. He told Ken to park next to the church. He jumped out of the car and he said, ‘What luck, wait here.’ Mass was just over. Peppe peeked into the church and shouted to Ken and me, ‘Hurry, hurry!’ We followed his directions, as we have learned that it pays off. We entered the dark chuch that had the twinkles of candles that had been lit. He rushed us to the front of the church, and he said that he needed a Euro. I was wondering if he was paying off a priest. He specifically placed us at the front of the chuch, and then walked to a different part of the church. He said look, as he placed the Euro into a slot. Immediately, the side chaple glowed with a famous mural of the Ascension. As he told us the story of the Ascension . He told it as if it had happened to him yesterday. He had us captivated. As we left the chuch, he showed us the baptismal font. He gently put his hands on it, and his low excited voice said, ‘One piece of marble. Beautiful. Can you believe?’ He then told us about Saint Rita, the saint to pray to for the impossible. Good to know!

We arrived back to Malvarina at 7:30, six and a half hours with our reniassance man....80 Euros, what a bargain! Dinner was at 8:30. We ate, drank, and talked with our friends Jim and Suzanne until 11. Everyone had left but the four of us,so we turned out the lights as we left. We finished the dinner with Grappa because Peppe said, ‘Grappa at night in winter makes you better.’ Well it isn’t winter, but we did feel better. Salute, Peppe! Sally