Author: Cindy Wilhelm

It’s always interesting to see the biggest, the best…and certainly the largest…but is this really the home of the ‘largest Christmas tree in the world’?

I was invited to a local ‘social’ club. I knew something was going on in this one building but I only heard people in there as I walked by. No windows so I did not know what they were doing. My sweet neighbor, Luigina, invited me to come with her. She speaks no English…so just instinctually I followed her gestures and off we went! This social club is where they play cards, watch tv and talk.

Italy begins Christmas on December 8th and it goes til January 7th this year. December 8th is a national holiday. Every town, village, city is celebrating the beginning of Christmas. And magical it is.

It’s so easy to get to Rome! “The eternal city“. “All roads lead to Rome”. And many more memorable descriptions of this magnificent city. I love coming into Roma Termini! An upscale Mall with so much activity and very nice restaurants abound. Italian advertising is both creative, cool and fun.

Sometimes you just see something that looks so unbelievable, you have to look again. And when you do, you realize this is something special. And so it is with Civitas di Bagnoregio! Yet another mountaintop village, but this one is truly extraordinary as you can see.

It just looked like fun…a walking tour of the village with wine and food at each station! I’ve done some of these in the States, so of course, I had to find out how fun this would be!! And it was so much fun…wow. And did the wine flow? Ooops!

Having a disastrous Thanksgiving in Oltarno last year, I made a promise to not do a supposedly American Thanksgiving in an Italian restaurant! Last year was a bar and…ah, awful! But this year, I miss my family very much. So the next best thing is good friends who are quite special.

One has to wonder what was I thinking? A short train ride to walk to Amelia. A lovely hamlet that makes incredible wines and desserts! Not too far, I should go. So I did. Well, it was a gallant effort! Amelia is miles from the Narni-Amelia train station. And let us not forget, un-touristy areas close on Sundays.