Panicale in the Times
THE WORLD THROUGH A LENS
Quiet Reflections on the Enchanting Italian Village of Panicale
Pensive after the loss of a friend, a photographer finds solace—and instruction—on a trip to the central Italian region of Umbria.
Photographs and Text by Barry L. Schwartz
In 2017, a few months after we got married, my wife, Maggie, and I took a six-week trip — part honeymoon, part yearslong delayed vacation. Leaving California, our first stop was in Brooklyn to see Maggie’s oldest friend, who we all knew was not going to survive a cancer that had returned after many years. It was a good visit.
Next, we flew to Barcelona and drove to a small coastal town, Sitges. While there, I learned that one of my oldest friends had just died, also from cancer, also at the end of a series of treatments.
A few days later we flew to Florence, driving a few hours south to Panicale, a small hilltop town in Umbria. A friend — Steve Siegelman, a food writer in California — had lent us his renovated brick-and-stone rowhouse in what he jokingly refers to as the “new neighborhood,” because it was built in the 1500s, while the town’s main center, the piazza, dates back to the 10th century. Read full article