Why would you visit or stay in Torgiano - to see the wine museum and the olives and olive oil museum. Where is it? About ten kilometers south east of Perugia, where you can fly for a weekend, long weekend or longer on Ryanair.
Assuming you have taken the once a day flight out of season (more flights in season), you have dumped your case at your hotel and it's time for lunch.
Which Hotel? You could stay where I did, at the wonderful countryside castle hotel Castello di Monterone (Castle of Monterone) which I described in a previous post. Or stay at one of the hotels in Torgiano which you will find reviewed on TripAdvisor.
Let's start with lunch. I had lunch at L'U Winebar, La Vecchia Fornace (in the old furnace
or pottery kiln. A supposedly light lunch, what with starters and pasta before the main course, wine, main course, and dessert, plus coffee, took us into early afternoon.
Luckily, the village is very small and we nipped around the corner doing a dog leg to the Wine Museum (which was almost opposite the Olive and Olive Oil Museum.
The Wine Museum
What a treat. You would not think there could be so much to say and see about wine jars and jugs from pre-biblical times to modern times.
We saw old clay wine pots, Roman wine jars. Most impressive was the huge wine press which filled an entire room and the massive heavy beam stretched above our heads.
I liked the jugs which are tricks like the modern ones I saw and bought on holiday in Tunisia. You spill wine all over yourself, or can't get it out at all, unless you cover a hole.
Later galleries contained glass jars and jugs and bottles and plates with faces. Gods. Monsters. Maidens. Jugs in bright colours.
In the middle of the museum was the most amazing exhibition of what looked like miniature wine jars in the shape of characters. They turned out to be whistles made for an annual wine festival. This exhibition is only on until January but I'm sure there will be another.
The excellent guide who spoke perfect English kept us enthralled for well over an hour. Hardly time to peep into the shop which sold books in English on wine, tee-shirts with amusing sayings and mysterious items such as a wooden tray for wine corks.
Plus wine theme jewellery. I was tempted to buy ear-rings and a pendant and a ring. But our group was impatient to be off to the next stop which was the olive oil museum.
The oil museum is designed to appeal to both adults and children, tourists and local school children.
I was amused by the old photos of people including ladies in long skirts climbing ladders. Contrast that with modern machines like large tractors.
It's amazing how much oil affects everybody's lives through the centuries. In biblical times you had oil lamps and announced people with oil. Back home in a kitchen in London I find my lunch time tin of sardines contains olive oil.
Oil is very important in this region. They don't cook in butter. You don't see a cow. The land of Perugia is steep sided slopes with olive trees down in the flat area and vines on the flat and up the hillsides.
I was quite worried that it was dark by late afternoon when we visited in November. It looked like midnight by 4 or 5 pm, just like in London (which is one hour behind). I thought our third stop, the winery, might be closing, and I was right.
Our guide phoned ahead to the winery to say we were running late. Only later did I learn that the people who own the winery also own the wine museum and olive oil museum. They started the wine museum and opened the olive tree and olive oil museum to attract tourists to the area, provide interest and employment, keep the area alive and develop it. How very clever. I must say I've been to wineries all over the world and never seen a comprehensive wine museum like this. Nor an olive oil museum. Having the two close together is a bonus.
Torgiano At Night
As we walked back to our minibus we passed the floodlit fountain, the main street with the clock tower at the end. The place was deserted. We were in our own fairyland.
The Winery
The winery was in darkness. The workers had mostly gone home. They kindly opened up for us. A bit of a hoo-ha hunting for the keys.
Autumn Weather
During the day I had been very happy with the cooler weather. I hate tramping around in the heat, feeling thirsty, sticky, exhausted. Much better to puff uphill over the cobblestones, climb stairs, and walk around all day breathing in the fresh countryside air.
But by now, gone 5 pm, it was getting chilly. The tourist board of Umbria who arranged and co-ordinated our trip had warned us that it got cool at nights. So I was glad to have warm socks and a hat and scarf and gloves, despite the nuisance of carrying them around all day in the sunshine.
It was too dark for an outside tour of the vineyard. We were rewarded with a glimpse of the moon. A bonus was that it was the day of the special moon, which I was afraid I'd missed. Those with long lenses and high powered cameras were able to take the best photos.
Winery Tour
Finally we reached the inside of the winery for a tour. Unless you are in the wine business, or like learning about new processes, visiting a winery is just what you have to endure before the fun part of the wine tasting.
Strangely we didn't get the wine tasting. Too late in the day. Besides, we were now all ready to go back to our hotel for dinner. Nonetheless an extraordinary day. I recommend you watch the time if you want to do the winery the same day as the two museums. You may have to book and pay for the wine tasting, in which case you'll either be determined to do it in one day, or you'll arrange it the next day.
Later I realised we'd had local Lungarotti wine at lunch anyway. And we had more with our dinner. Being in a group, I was always stuck with drinking white or red, when what I like is sparkling and rose. This winery does do rose wine and you may want to make time to browse and buy a bottle.
We were rushed because we had to get back to our hotel, the Costello di Monterone. If you are staying in Torgiano, you can spread your visits over a whole day, two days or three, interspersed with trips to see historic Perugia with its massive cliff-like city walls and high arched entrance, and Assisi with the birthplace and burial place of St Francis.
Whether you start at the two food and drink museums in a tour of four days, which I had, or end up here, make sure to include it in your itinerary of the Perugia and Umbria area.
Olive Oil Museum
L'U wine bar
Lungarotti Wintery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torgiano
http://lungarotti.it
More information on Umbria in Italy from:
www.umbriatourism.it
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Like my posts and follow me on blogger and Facebook, linkedIn, Youtube. Read about me and my books and buy them from Lulu.com and Amazon.
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com.
