Buona Festa della Donna !

Donne ! 

Today is International Women’s Day and the event, which dates from 1909, is being celebrated Italy-wide with imagination and gusto. Mimosa (Australian acacia) — its distinctive, yellow snow-ball flowers and harbinger-of-spring scent — is the symbol of the Festa, and is for sale at nearly every florist and also decks restaurant tables and market stalls all across the country.  From the Alps to Sicily, all national museums, archaeological sites, villas and monuments are free for women today.

Aperitifs are offered in gardens that are not normally open; there are guided tours on themes relating to women in antiquity and modernity; celebrations in piazze (often with bands); and special, more intimate concerts, as well as conferences on subjects ranging from labor laws to feminism to maternity leave.

Today is however principally a day of levity, and is one of my favorite days to be traveling in Italy. Friends tonight in Trento participate in a Happy Snow Ladies Night, with women skiing free down magnificent downhill runs while wearing mimosa garlands and crowns. Pastry stores have filled their windows with mimosa-inspired desserts. Day-long film festivals celebrate Italian luminaries like Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Gina Lolobrigida.

What sort of trips do our clients who are women want ?  We planned a 50th birthday party three years ago for 12 dear friends who took over a 12 bedroom Tuscan villa and over the course of a week celebrated their friend and their friendship. Highlights were day trips to neighboring hill towns and to Siena, yoga classes, wine tastings, swimming and spa services, picnics, massages and long walks, as well as open air cooking classes in an outdoor kitchen located directly in the villa’s organic vegetable garden.

Last June we planned a week long cooking class for three sisters, alternating pizza making classes, pasta making instruction and hands-on teaching of myriad regional dishes. We’ve also planned indulgences : personalized shopping trips and visits to high-end, artisinal stores that are owner operated (leathers, jewelry especially).

After researching and tracking down the relations of a writer for the New York Times, we fully planned her trip into the Abruzzi region, as she visited for the first time her grandparents’ remote ancestral village (where she had never been) with the intent, among other things, to discover how the much loved family meatballs were made.  Our legendary Gustavo, driver/translator par excellence, was at her side throughout, translating each Italian word for her so that she could write it all down, and then publish a well received travel and food article about the trip.

We planned a special graduation trip last April for a Los Angeles mother, her daughter Melanie and Melanie’s best friend. Fresco-making workshops were one of the highlights, as were private tours to see the art and architecture that the girls had studied in high school.

We have worked with brides to organize weddings, pre-nuptial evenings and wedding lunches and dinners, and especially enjoy planning relaxing and wonderfully happy honeymoons.

This evening four women, friends for years, are sitting down to dinner in Umbria, at a lovely inn and restaurant where La Festa della Donna is celebrated with particularly pretty table settings and a lovely menu.

Calice di Benvenuto (Aperitif)

Sformatino di patate e carote con zabaione al parmigiano (Flan of potatoes and carrots with a Parmesan zabaglione)

Risotto ai carciofi e perini (Risotto with artichokes and tiny tomatoes)

Filettino di maiale al sagrantino con pinoli e sultanina e patate croccanti (Pork fillet with a sauce of sagrantino wine, pine nuts and sultanas, served with crispy potatoes)

Mimosa

Il tutto accompagnato dai ns vini selezionati in abbinamento (with appropriate wines for each course)

Caffè con cioccolatino (Espresso and chocolates)

All for the excellent price of 35 Euro per person, around $45.