Adjacent to Tuscany, on the other side of the hills from the Maremma, is Umbria. We could have easily driven over to Perugia and surroundings from the Maremma but didn't saving it until our final two weeks. In the number of olive groves and vineyards, it is similar to Tuscany. We drank wine from Montefalco, Umbria's version of Montelcino, and it was excellent. Our agriturismo had information on the traditional products of Umbria and the amount of different, unique foods was amazing. The hotel's information explained the designation DOP, which refers to a unique productive process and IGP, which refers to the origin in terms of a distinct geographical location. These products in Umbria include such unusual things as "shooting-jacket italian salami", coglioni of mule, pate of entrails of chicken, sheep's milk cheese of Norcia seasoned in hole/cave, eel of Trasimeno, broccoletti of lake, onion of Cannara, and saffron of Cascia. Varietals of wine typical of the area include Grechetto, which makes a white wine "already celebrated in ancient times," Trebbiano, Malvasia, Sagrantino and the popular Sangiovese.
We were in Umbria only four days, too little time to really discover this area's unique tastes, but what meals we had were all enjoyable. Is it possible to have a bad meal in Italy?
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