By Rosemary Fetter
With fresh vegetables available every day, Diana Armstrong cooks up fabulous meals in her ancient stone kitchen.
In a small medieval town nestled deep in the countryside between Tuscany and Umbria, Littleton resident Diana Armstrong may have found the perfect escape from the insanity we call modern living.
After spending vacations in Italy for nine years, Armstrong and her husband decided to purchase an ancient stone house that once served as the entrance to a 16th century monastery. In a beautifully written, laugh-out loud account of life in Lubriano, which Americans would probably label a one-horse town (hence the “four-cat town”), the award-winning food and travel writer captures the spirit of the centuries-old Italian village.
From the four old men who sit on the same bench every day talking politics to the shopkeepers, farmers and housewives who drift in and out of the narrative, the stories are full of life and laughter that echo long after the book goes back on the shelf.
The people of Lubriano might well have come from a different century. In fact, the lives of many neighbors in the close-knit community were shaped by the hardships of World War II. As the author demonstrates, old attitudes die hard – and in some places, they never die at all.
While restoring their home and brushing up on their Italian, the Armstrongs experience a series of calamities and conundrums that keep the reader chuckling, such as the workmen and shopkeepers who only show up on Italian time, i.e. whenever they get around to it, or the Mushroom Festival, which features only poisonous mushrooms. She describes her first sight of a centuries-old fresco on her living room ceiling, a sweet-faced angel in beautiful colors wielding a shield and sword.
In the medieval village of Lubriano, life hasn’t changed all that much over the centuries. Photos courtesy of Diana Armstrong.
“Someone,” she wrote with a mixture of amusement and horror, “has chipped a channel into the fresco to wire a light fixture in the middle of the goddesses belly button.”
As a bonus, the book includes several pages of recipes tested in her wonderful old stone kitchen, where butter, rosemary, olive oil and white wine are the basics.
“As a cookbook author, I am passionate about Italian food,” she said, “and here is nature’s bounty right outside the kitchen door.”
True, there’s little not to love about Italy, with its golden sunlight, olive groves and vineyards and breathtaking scenery. But mostly it’s the people that fascinate, and the simple a way of life where crime is a rarity and money has little to do with happiness.
With loving attention to their strengths and idiosyncrasies, Armstrong paints a picture that inspires the reader to hop on a plane and get a taste of the Italian Brigadoon before it slides into history.
“Life here is very much about people looking after each other,” said Armstrong. “People know that you’re home in Lubriano if your keys are in the door. We’ve found that good neighbors make a jolly good insurance policy.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Armstrong spends part of the year in Italy and the remainder in Denver.
Sounds like the best of all possible worlds.
Somewhere South of Tuscany is available through Tattered Cover or Amazon.com.
Diana Armstrong will be holding a free reading and a cooking demonstration on Nov. 6, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., at the Compleat Gourmet, 7592 University Blvd. She will also be teaching a cooking class with recipes from her book, Nov. 15, 6- 7:30 p.m., for which there is a $25 fee. For more information, call 303-290-9222.
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This is such a fun read. Diana has had so many funny and not so funny experiences with Italian people in buying and fixing up a very old home. Her recipes are easy and delicious.