What slow-living stands for? Is it a lifestyle choice or does it mean focusing on the quality of your life or desire to lead a more balanced life to pursue well-being as defined by some notable authors? These thoughts spin around my head as if in search of a clear definition for my upcoming getaway to Umbria, where slow living experience stood as the backdrop of a sleek brochure.

The Slow Movement and Slow Food in Italy, funded by Carlo Petrini, advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace, kind of downshift, opposed to the culture of fast food, fast communication and loss of traditions and contacts with the land. It seeks to encourage the enjoyment of regional products, traditional foods, which are often grown organically and to enjoy these natural gifts in company.

Before you get to the end of this post, I will tell you what my impression of slow living vacation was after meeting Alina&Lucia, Marlisa&Roberto, Flavio, Paola&Fabrizio, fishermen in Lake Trasimeno and many others I do not recall the names… Slow living is opening your heart to people and senses, have time to look around, smell the air, taste different flavours and sip a glass of wine in company till you feel your head dizzy and your tongue loose, hug new friends and touch the ground, listen to early morning birds tweeting out of the window and find yourself happy to wake up at dawn to assist to a new day rising…

I stepped out the railway station after a comfortable, unexpectedly timely regional train to Chiusi, where Marlisa, my host, was waiting for me. She is a very charming Neapolitan woman, and landscape designer, who fell in love with Paciano more than 20 years ago. This tiny village has very ancient roots and is preserving nowadays the typical medieval shape, clustered around tough city walls and accessed through two main stone-arched entrance doors, one of which is belonging to the Buitoni pasta family. Marlisa is talkative and very openhearted, therefore I am almost acquainted to all her story about the place in the time of the journey from Chiusi to Campodalto. This is the name of the place she and Roberto, her husband, decided to buy and restore a country cottage. As she tells, ‘It was an ancient watch tower in striking panoramic position, just a shot from the village. We’ve spent memorable vacations with our kids, but as they grew up, the cottage turned to large for a couple, thereof the decision to rent it for holidays’.

I left my luggage in the cozy apartment, made of a large sitting room with fireplace, fully equipped typical Tuscan kitchen, two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms. Entering my room, actually a suite, I felt like at home and willing to undress, take a shower in the uber modern jacuzi and bite one of the foreign books on left on the shelves. Marlisa showed me the garden, filling me with expectations for the night, when the olive grove would be buzzing with hundreds fireflies… We spent the rest of the day chatting with Roberto and drinking some Chardonnay wine, while Marlisa prepared our breakfast cookies, decorating them with lavender, whose smell mixed to melting butter almost inebriated me. We watched the clock again to know that it was late enough to find a seat at Osteria La Loggetta in Paciano, but we slowed down confiding on Stefano, the owner, to accommodate us in the most remote corner with a view on Trasimeno lake.

At our return the fireflies show was all set and I totally left myself merge with nature, slowly falling asleep. The day after, I woke up lazily to be picked up by another amazing member of the ‘Paciano’s slow living team’. Alina, a proud fascinating Umbrian lady, drove her Range Rover up to the cottage grating its wheels against the ground. As we got to Fontanaro, her farm and home, Alina changed her dress to wear an apron and become our olive oil taster, wine sommelier and cook! She is the organic food wonder woman! Our tasting and cooking workshop lasted the whole day, starting from a walk in the garden to watch busy bees at works, a sneak peek to the olive mill, a drop in the garden to pick up veggies and aromatic herbs, wobbling on the comfy chair hanging from the great oak tree with a glass of wine, working hard on pasta to make it thin and delicate to taste and finally eating out our lunch made of tagliatelle with ragù sauce and ravioli with truffles… After all these activities, we were thrilled about what could be next… difficult to abandon ourselves to slow living attitude… but Alina simply handed over another glass of wine and pointed towards the swimming pool and the welcoming easy chairs… Indeed, I had a brand new book in my bag, which have been waiting for long over my night table…

The second day included some trekking on the Trasimeno lake hillside and bird watching, with a stop to a farm on our way and much more… We enjoyed walking off-the-beaten tracks with Paola and Fabrizio by Umbria action and to stop at Oasi La Valle for some bird watching, but the best part of our day had to come… We reached for Fattoria di Flavio Orsini at Passignano sul Trasimeno, where Flavio guided us through a virtual food tour in history, discovering forgot products and slow food presidia. Among these, the black chickpeas (read Ceci neri), that were discharged by landlords’ harvest, but yet sown by farmers and preserved for their families… a so-called ‘poor food’, very energetic and nutritive; or the ‘fagiolina del Trasimeno’ a special small bean, which has no skin and therefore very digestible, which is the only ‘feminine’ gender bean in the Italian language (nb: in Italian bean= fagiolo has a male gender), because it is very strong and persistent like women are… I believe we have to learn from old farmers how to respect women!

That very same afternoon, after drinking a couple (maybe more… ) glasses of 14° alcoholic level Gamay-Sangiovese wine produced by Flavio, we reached for San Feliciano and its small fishermen borough, to get on board of a fishing boat and cross the lake casting nets… I have a blurry vision of it, but I still remember the light blue color of water in contrast with the green coastline and the funny talking of fishermen…

Now that I am back home, I indulge into memories of that slow living vacation twiddling Flavio’s wine around my ballon and my nerves dissolve and I let my feelings flow realizing that Slow Living is not just an attitude you decide to undertake, but a set of exercises you get used to… and need to repeat everyday constantly…

Some info for planning your next trip to Umbria:
Campodalto country cottage: http://www.campodalto.com/
Fontanaro farm and slow living vacations: http://www.slowlivingvacations.com/
Umbria action trekking and tours: http://www.umbriaction.com/