Why a Booktrail?
2000s: What could be nicer than tucking in to some tasty Italian food on the mountains of Orvieto and putting the world to rights?
The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club
What you need to know before your trail
Thursday night is supper club night for five women who meet up in a derelict stone house in the hills above Italy’s Orvieto. Marlena de Blasi writes a fascinating and mouth watering account of their time together. A real meeting of minds to swap stories of love, loss and everything in between.
And they do this over some of the most sumptuous dishes you have ever had the misfortune of reading about without being able to taste the food as you read.
So, take a seat beside Miranda, Ninnucia, Paolina, and Gilda and allow your host Marlena to pour you a glass of wine. Now comes the food, oh yes the food… As the wine flows and the food is eaten, stories and emotions are served up and everyone has more than a plateful to share.
Travel Guide
Linked by culture, tradition, compassion, empathy and love, four rural women compose the Thursday Night Supper Club
Five women (including Marlena) who have lived in rural Umbria all of their lives have a wealth of stories and hearty food to share. Each women serves up a slice of life in her own inimitable style. There are recipes to try at the end of the book if it all gets a little too much.
Like the best dish being prepared and put together, sitting and observing these women is enjoying a four course meal with each woman serving up her own observations and stories of life. Paolina lost both her parents when young and she now has children of her own but is unmarried – in religious Italy, this has caused her problems she explains. Ninnucia however has rather a different background -she’s the guest you might listen to in shock and awe, particularly when she reveals a Mafia connection.
As the food and stories mix, there is a real sense of being in the bosom of these friendships – you can smell the red wine coming from the pasta, witness the harvesting of the grapes and even get involved with the olive harvest during the Raccolta. You might want to pass on the pigs testicles though but bet the pig didn’t want to.
Well if this is life in Italy, let’s go to the airport right now. Orvieto is a small and traditional place. Its history has been one of farming and the food of the land was what they depended on. Food for the poor was almost a currency of sorts and the four women bring the best to the table and so bring a little slice of Italian history and heritage to the table too. History lessons via food are so much more edible!
And at the end of the day, you can mosey on up the hills and lick your lips in preparation for your next Supper Club. Buon Appetito!
Where Next?
