The Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta on the road from Pienza to San Quirico d'Orcia

In 2001 I came to live in Italy. I had some fun, wrote a journal and this is the blog of my story...

"Tuscany is a state of grace. The countryside is so lovingly designed that the eye sweeps the mountains and valleys without stumbling over a single stone. The lilt of the rolling green hills, the upsurging cypresses, the terraces sculptured by generations that have handled the rocks with skillful tenderness, the fields geometrically juxtaposed as though drawn by a draughtsman for beauty as well as productivity; the battlements of castles on the hills, their tall towers standing grey-blue and golden tan among the forest of trees, the air of such clarity that every sod of earth stands out in such dazzling detail. The fields ripening with barley and oats, beans and beets. The grape-heavy vines espaliered between the horizontal branches of silver-green olive trees, composing orchards of webbed design, rich in intimation of wine, olive oil and lacy-leaf poetry. Tuscany untied the knots in a man's intestines, wiped out the ills of the world. Italy is the garden of Europe, Tuscany is the garden of Italy, Florence is the flower of Tuscany." Irving Stone from my favourite book " The Agony and the Ecstacy" A fictional biography of Michelangelo



47. Certaldo


We're back home in Chianti and after one of the worst summers here in living memory, the vines are not so full of grapes and the olive trees have barely produced any fruit. Such is the harsh reality of farming life.

I'm trying to set up some work for September. The academic year doesn't start in earnest until October, only dribs and drabs at the moment. So we have some time to enjoy the local countryside...





Today's destination is Certaldo, a medium sized town in the Val d'Elsa to the south west of Florence. Certaldo is the home town of Giovanni Boccaccio, one of Italy's most famous poets of the Renaissance. After visiting here I bought a copy of his most famous work, The Decameron. It's a collection of 100 short stories about a group of Florentine men and women who flee to the countryside because of the plague. The stories are quite saucy... a predecessor for today's gossip columns?

Here's a Wikipedia link to Boccaccio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio






The new part of Certaldo is nothing to write home about, literally! But in order to get to the old town, Certaldo Alto, you have to take the funicular, cable car, very exciting! There are some great views on the way up and the small narrow cobbled streets are quite pretty. There is an interesting town hall and also Boccaccio's house, containing some of his old furniture. They have a couple of festivals here, Boccaccesca, which is a food festival and Mercantia a street festival with musicians and performers. Today though we get a nice flavour for the city, but no gossip to report back!




(Original journal entry 5/9/02)
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