Lunch at Locanda Manfredi & the comic opera Il Signor Bruschino

Our last lunch outing was a return visit t o Locanda Manfredi in Paciano. The day was mild and sunny so the view from the terrace was perfect. Massimo and Luigi made us feel welcome and the food was as good as we remembered from our last visit. We chose things that we had not experienced before and it was a very good move. My Italian cooking at home will have changed quite a lot as a result of the wide variety of meals we have eaten in the past three months.

A prosecco was the perfect start to a final lunch in Umbria. 'Doing lunch' is not something we do at home so these occasions are special.

Kel started with grilled red radicchio with goat's cheese and pear.

I started with crostini Manfredi, a gooey delicious cheese topping with artichokes.

Kel's primo course was a semolina gnocchi gratin with artichokes.

My primo was tagliatelle pasta with wild fennel and anchovies.

Look right and you see olive trees and terra cotta roofs, look left and you see ancient rock walls. We are well satisfied!

The third of the operas in the Pan Opera Festival at Teatro Caporali in Panicale is this week-end. Il Signor Bruschino is a one act operatic comedic farce by Gioachino Rossini with libretto by Guiseppe Maria Foppa. This opera was first performed in 1813.

Tonight's performance began at 9 pm and was excellent entertainment. The cast was well rehearsed and very talented so the performance was a real joy. I love these old shows that have such comic humour. More and more we are finding that the gap in our language skills is quite small now and that gives us pleasure too.

I wasn't in a position to get any photos, and was hoping some-one would post on Facebook, but no luck so far.

Later addition: photos by Priscilla Worsley