that means it s the green heart of italy. not a jealous heart but a fertile one. arriving in early fall, i chart a course through umbria s ancient forests and misty mountains. this is italy before the romans. a place where families live close to the land. a land of saintly legends, impossibly perched hilltop towns and rustic cuisine. wow. stop filming and just eat it. cheers. i m stanley tucci. i m italian on both sides and i m traveling across italy to discover how the food in each of this country s 20 regions is as unique as the people and their past. umbrian food isn t about expensive restaurants or tricky techniques, it s all about the skill and hard work that goes into producing its precious raw ingredients. from innovative farmers to noble hunters. and let s not forget the chefs and the butchers, preserving the traditional ways to cook these treasures of the land. and a note for any vegetarians watching, umbrians eat a lot of meat, particularly pork, like a lot of it. h
perched-up hill towns and rustic cuisine. stop filming and just eat it. i m stanley tucci. italian on both sides and i m travel across italy to discover how the food in each of this country s 20 regions are as unique as the people and their past. [ speaking foreign language ] ummian food isn t about expensive restaurants or tricky techniques. it s all about the skill and hard twhoork goes into producing its precious raw ingredients. for instance owe r from innovative farmers and chefs preserving traditional ways of cooking this food from the lands and a note for vegetarians watching, umbrians eat a lot of meat, like a lot of it, huge amounts of it. i surrender. so the pork umbria is named after the umry, one of italy s most ancient people. their landlocked homeland is right in the middle of the country. bordered on the rest by its more glamorous neighbor tuscany, it s often overlooked and while the landscape here is similar, the culture is very different. less fancy,
[ speaking foreign language ] umbrian food isn t about expensive restaurants or tricky techniques. it s all about the skill and hard work that goes into producing its precious raw ingredients. from innovative farmers to noble hunters. and let s not forget the chefs and butchers preserving the traditional ways of cooking. and a note for any vegetarians watching. umbrians eat a lot of meat, like particularly pork. like a lot of it. huge amounts of it. i surrender. to the pork. umbria is named after the umry, one of italy s most ancient peoples. their landlocked homeland is right in the middle of the country. bordered on the west by its more glamorous neighbor tuscany, it s often overlooked. but while the landscape here is similar, the culture is very different. less fancy, if you will. and i hear the locals like it that way. they re like flames, aren t they? i m heading deep into the heart of sagrantino territory, umbria s luscious wrld-renowned red wine, to meet a man
this is the house of pigeon, my favorite pigeon, you know. your favorite pigeon. after you know why. yes, yes. we re going to taste it, yeah. yeah. yeah. what we re looking at here are, in fact, dovecotes, carved into the walls by the etruscans who founded orvieto over 2,000 years ago. wow. encouraging pigeons to nest here gave the early towns folk a source of nutritious meat, without having to stray outside the city walls. they could just come and go, but this is where they would roost. yes. when would they eat the pigeon? what stage in the pigeon s life? oh, usually when they are ready to fly, when they was when they re babies. yeah, babies, the babies are for food. for food, right. today, pigeon is still an orvietan staple. braised, it s one of the town s signature dishes and any
my favorite pigeon. after you will know why. we re going to taste it. yeah. what we re looking for here are in fact dovecotes, carved into the wall by the etruscans that found or vietto thousand of years ago. the nesting here gave the townspeople a source of meat without having to stray outside the city walls. they would come here and roost and at what stage who they eat the pigeons? usually when they were ready to fly. yeah, when they were babies. yeah. the babies are for food. for food, right. today pigeon is still an orvietan stable. it s one of the town s significant dishes and anyone exciting locals can run the