Well, it was just the thing to drive out the chill of a misty morning and our visit to subterranean Narni – a polenta with a rich sausage based sauce, together with a glass of unusual red wine.

By the way the recipe book is now available in eBook formats for Amazon Kindles and Adobe digital editions – go to http://www.adacooksitaly.com/Buy.html

Narni is a typical Umbrian hill town halfway between Rome and Assisi, where in 1979 six members of the local speleological team discovered a small hole in the historical centre, covered by bushes and thick grass, which led to an old church built from 12^th or 13^th century, with frescos covered by a thin layer of limestone. A door was reopened which lead to the most secret part of the monastic complex, a large room, once occupied by the Holy Inquisition, with a small doorway leading to a prison cell, containing a number of arcane graffiti made by the prisoners, some in a symbolic language, still not completely understood.

A few centuries later, published in the 1950’s, The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy stories written by C.S. Lewis, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, are linked to Narni. Walter Hooper (who, with Roger Lancelyn Green, wrote C. S. Lewis: A Biography) asked the author where he found the name ‘Narnia’, and Lewis showed him Murray’s Small Classical Atlas, containing a map of ancient Italy. Lewis had underscored the name of a little town called Narnia, simply because he liked the sound of it.

Narnia - or ‘Narni’ in modern Italian – is where we find ourselves today, after 2 hours underground following an early start to meet our guide for the subterranean tour. To find out more about Narni underground, go to http://www.narnisotterranea.it/INGLESE/index2.htm

As we climbed back to street level, with a light rain falling, chilled to the marrow, were we ready for something warming? Indeed, we were! And what we got at La Bottega del Giullare, Via Garibaldi, 12 certainly worked a miracle: a rich sauce of sausage meat, tomatoes and onions, together with a polenta, with a slightly runny consistency. We have re-interpreted this recipe wonderful dish, and you will find the recipe at www.adacooksitaly.com/DisplayOne?id=199

And another discovery arrived with the wine – OBVIUS Rosso di Montepulciano D.O.C. 2012.  The interesting thing with this wine is the lack of any added sulphites. This was made possible by the selection of high quality grapes with perfect skins, quick and delicate transportation to cellar and into vats, CO2 based fermenters developed at the winery (100% based on their own production of gas/energy, being an ‘Off-Grid’ and organic producer) and ageing and bottling in total absence of oxygen. Take a look at the Salcheto web site at http://www.salcheto.it/en/ We were so impressed we went to the producer at Montepulciano in Tuscany to buy a couple of bottles and visit the winery.