Civita di Bagnoregio

I decided to leave the big cities for a while and focus on great hill towns and beautiful countryside. Among the myriad choices that I had available to me, I chose Civita di Bagnoregio, one of my favorite extraordinary places in Italy. It is just stunning, and also houses the restaurant of one of my friends, Franco Sala. I met Franco back in 2003, when I was in Italy alone hanging out with my friend, Lidia, who owns Gioia Chiara, a leather store in Florence. Franco was very kind and friendly to Lidia and me, while serving fabulous food amid the charming backstreets of Civita. His restaurant, Antica Forno, was in a different location back then. I have a photo of him with his hand on my shoulder, while I was listening to him relate the story of when Rick Steves visited his place not long before we arrived. I vowed to return someday. Then in 2009, I took Laura there to meet this extraordinary man, when we were staying in the neighboring town of Bagnoregio, and visiting Civita for the day. As usually happens when I drive in Italy (before GPS) I got lost on the way and we arrived at his restaurant too late to have lunch. I told Franco the story of 2003 and that I just wanted Laura to meet him, and for me to have the pleasure of his wonderful stories once more. He gave us lunch anyway which consisted of two of the best plates of pasta I ever ate in Italy, along with some local wine, which was also great. I took a video, a few photos, thanked him very much, and vowed to return. Then a year later with our friends Randy and her son, David, we did return, had fabulous food and wine once again, and took the longest video we ever recorded. When I decided to do the TV show, I included the two videos of Franco and also some incredible photos of this 2500 year old town, perched high above the valley below. Civita is just 20 minutes south of Orvieto, which is a two hour train ride from Florence. I gave the tour of Civita on the show exactly as I had for Randy and David, and used most of the photos we took on that trip. I did some research on the town, and obtained some valuable information from my dear friend, Ric, who will appear with me on my first joint show on Show # 5 which focuses on his town of Roccalvecce and the  surrounding area. Laura and I have already made plans to return to the area in May 2012, staying in Orvieto, visiting with Ric and his wonderful wife, Sharon, at their home in Roccalvecce, and, of course, seeing Franco. This time we insisted on taking him out to dinner in Orvieto at a great restaurant I have heard, but never actually eaten at, La Palomba. On that trip I hope to take some fine photos and videos to be shown on a future show.