Deceglie Rachele 1 BL My Summer Break by RACHELE DECEGLIE

The places of "Don Matteo"

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-30 13:18:47 UTC

In Italy we have a very famous serie that is called "Don Matteo". It is the story of a priest who is also a sort of investigator. One of his best friend is a member of the Italian army "Carabinieri" and they try to solve the problems of the city together. This serie is set in 2 of the most beautiful cities in Umbria: the first part of the serie is set in Gubbio, a little medieval town in the north of Umbria. Here we visited all the locations of the movie and we ate "truffle" that is a typical product of this part of Italy. The second town is Spoleto. It has a wonderful stair and a beautiful Church. The new serie is set here at the moment. We walked on a very high bridge that connects 2 towers also walked, by Saint Francis in the Middle Age. This impressed me a lot, because it is very high and old, but also because the protagonist Don Matteo always goes on it by his bike, riding so fast!

First part of my Vacations: Umbria

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-30 13:18:47 UTC

The 1st August I left my home to go to Umbria with my dad, my mum and my dog!

Before arriving there, we stopped in Florence for one night. Florence was amazing, there were a lot of people, in particular Japanese, American and German people.

The places we visited were a lot and I loved them all: Santa Maria Novella, The Dome, Della Signoria Square....everything was the expression of our great Italian culture!

The city of the Saints: Assisi

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-30 13:33:40 UTC

During my visit in Umbria I also visited one of the most important town for the spiritual meaning it has: Assisi. This is the town of two great Italian Saints: Saint Francis and Saint Clare (in Italian San Francesco and Santa Chiara). These two guys were part of two rich families, in particular Francis, who also took part to the battle in Tuscany and Umbria between Guelfi and Ghibellini (two parties that governed this side of Italy in the Middle Age). When he was captured and sent to prison he found the faith in the Lord and promised to leave everything to follow Him. That was his mission for the rest of his life; he also loved animals and nature above everything and he wrote a poem, a pray, about that. Saint Clare was a friend of Francis and she also left everything to follow him helping ill and poor people. The stories of these two guys impressed me a lot, because they were rich but they decided to abandon everything for the others.

What to eat in Umbria: Truffle and "cicerchia"

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-31 09:17:23 UTC

Eating in Italy is always easy because we have so many different tipycal dishes! As I have already said, Umbria is the place of truffle that is a kind of mushroom but with a round shape. But here in the northern Umbria one of the tipycal dish is a soup made with "cicerchia". I can't find a translation for the name of this vegetable, but it is similar to cheeckpeas (ceci). In this picture we can see the soup that my father (who is a great cooker!) made for us during a dinner. It was very hot but so tasty and deliciuous. This kind of vegetable has got a lot of proteins and it was eaten when meat was not available in the past. Everyone who worked in the countryside used to eat it for supper to have enery and restoration after a long day of work.

Lentils....not only to be eaten!

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-31 09:26:53 UTC

When we visited Perugia (that is one of the most beautiful places in Umbria) we stopped in a little but nice village called "Bevagna". Here you can find wonderful old buildings (as for ex. the original medieval Church, the old "lavatoio", that is a place along the river where women went to wash their clothes in the past, the old rock square and so on), but also an old tradition linked to lentils. Lentils are a kind of vegetable, a legume, that grows in the place of Norcia. Here there are big fields of lentils that in June make coloured flowers and it is famous all over the world. This legume is eaten (off course!) but it is also used by these people to relax!! You only need to put your hand inside a bowl full of lentils and stress goes away! I tried it and it was real!

A step in the past: Middle Age is here!

racheledeceglie — 2025-08-31 09:37:58 UTC

During the month of August all these places are engaged with important events: the battles between the different districts (in Ialian "contrade"). Every district "fight" against the others in different mediaval ways: archery, rope game, sack race... to obtain the highest number of points and be declared as the winner. Everyone wears the mediaval clothes (they are original and really very cool!) and someone plays a different historical figure as Ludovico Il Moro, Leonardo Da Vinci, Beatrice D'Este, which were important people of our mediaval history. I spent 10 days in the past, because every city, town or village I visited was engaged with this moment. It was very funny, but I also learnt a lot of things about the story of my own Country!

The best television series has an English title!

racheledeceglie — 2025-09-06 09:03:45 UTC

During my summer holiday I used to watch old television series that I have never watched before. One of them has an English title: Gossip Girl. The Italian version mantains the English title because maybe it appears more misterious. It is the story of a group of teenagers who attend a prestigious high school in the Upper East Side of New York. Their stories are told by a misterious voice of an unknown blogger who tells the spectators everything about the protagonists of the series. I really like this series beacuse it is interesting and tells the story of adolecent friends like me and my friends, but defenitely richer and more famous than me and my friends! During the summer I also watched another american tv series whose English title is "The Summer I turned pretty". This is also the story of a group of american teenagers and in particular the story of a girl (of chinese-american origins) and two brothers. The girl falls in love with both the brothers creating a lot of difficult but engaging moments. This series is translated in the Italian title "l'estate nei tuoi occhi" that in English is "The summer in your eyes". The translation doesn't maintain the same meaning as the original one, but it fits ok for the story!

.......the end of my summer holiday

racheledeceglie — 2025-09-06 09:09:10 UTC

This were my summer holiday, my favourite period of the year. During summer I can do a lot of new things, I can taste new dishes, visit new cities and towns, say with my famiy, watch TV and in particular I can hang out with my friends. I'm always a little bit sad when everything finishes and I know that I have to start a new school time, but I can take all these wonderful moments I lived in my mind and think about them when I feel sad. Summer time is really the best time ever!!