AN ITALIAN BARBECUE

When I lived in Umbria everyone had either Vivian Russell's Edith Wharton's Italian Gardens or Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's Italian Gardens of the Renaissance lying around on coffee tables. Both feature my favorite local villa, Gamberaia, in Settignano.

Where Jellicoe’s designs for the grotto of Neptune included hunting scenes with their horde of hounds and braces of game birds. The thought of those on a spit above smoldering grape vines made me generally light headed. 

And ready to dine.

At an Umbrian hill-town restaurant, the owners showed me the steps down to its wine cellar.

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