Author Archives: Doug Cumming

The Urbino Project of 2019 è finito. Closing up shop, boxing equipment in the basement classrooms of the beautiful old Corboli building, I feel a sadness more stinging than the loss of the car keys or wallet (not mine, for … Continue reading →

The Italian verb sentire means not only “to feel/sense” but also to smell, to taste, and even to hear. It covers the full sensorium of eating good food in Italy.  Add vedere, to see, for the art of presentation on … Continue reading →

Friends and other characters who are making this time in the Marche especially memorable. A monkish fellow and harpist atop one of the four towers of il Rocco at Senigallia. He’s reading from Dante’s Commedia, part of the time-trippy visions … Continue reading →

Urbino is a thick exhibition of hills shared by walkers, Italian-talkers and residential Fiats. Surrounding the two grand piazzas is a hive of narrow cobblestone paths steeped in the shade of ancient buildings. This is my fourth four-week residence, and … Continue reading →

Six of us drove the winding road out of Urbino toward the Adriatic, halfway to Pesaro, for a memorable dinner in the sun-splashed dusk. Locanda Montelippo is a country inn that features its locally sourced dishes and regional wines. A … Continue reading →

The American students in this four-week multimedia class are taught to look for their “story” within their assigned “leads.” Lurking underneath their reporting, there’s a compelling story to tell in words, in photos and in video. But how do they … Continue reading →

We’ve all seen ruins that look ruined – the wobbly low lines of old stone that a Park Service guide or historical sign tells us are the original foundations of a 17th century church or fort. Picture broken low walls … Continue reading →

Urbino Jazz Club, Urbino, Italy. May 28, 2019. “Bravi! Bravi!” someone from the Japanese opera company added over the applause. The 11-piece improv ensemble had finished about 40 minutes of playing a mostly unstructured experiment in free jazz after quick … Continue reading →

There are other names for Lexington, Virginia, and environs, names fashioned in the minds of creative folk who lived here. A French exchange student who somehow landed at Washington and Lee University in the mid-1950s, Philippe Labro, called it Genoa, … Continue reading →

George Pryde, a retired ad man who lives in Lexington, introduced my March 10 talk on Tom Wolfe to the local branch of the English Speaking Union. I told him to leave in the flattering error of saying Wolfe and … Continue reading →