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



66. Fab Feb, Piazza and Cintoia

Fab Feb!

February is usually the worst month in England, but here in Italy, although it has been cold, almost every day has been sunny with clear blue skies...




Also there has been plenty of things going on to keep us busy.  We've made use of the Odeon, a historic theatre/cinema on the ground floor of the school we work at (and we get a discount!) and at our libray, another historic building called palazzo Lanfredini we continue to make wednesday night film night as they show a Henry James season and then a Josef Conrad season.






We've also found a nice little cozy reataurant called Santo Bevitore, to catch a quick plate of pasta and glass of house wine, which turns out to be a real gem... and the wine is fab!




Feb 14 is San Valentino and as you can imagine a very popular day in Italy... however we go to an 'anti-Valentine' party at single friend, Jane's house, for some chocolate, booze and boogying!




We take a drive out to a small village called Fiano near San Casciano to search for that wonderful wine we had at Santo Bevitore. After searching around for a bit, with our never-give-up atitude, we end up in a cellar and bump into the owner, a certain Mr Ugo Bing... he turns out to be very accomodating, giving us a tate of his loose, sfuso wine, of which we fill up our 5 litre fiasco and then takes us into his kitchen and gives us a taste of his Chianti Colli Fiorentini and riserva, of which we buy a bottle... 9 euro for the 5L and 7 for the 1 bottle of riserva!


Piazza


Sunday afternoon and after a hard week at work a well-earned drive in the countryside is in order. We pay a visit to the tiny hamlet of Piazza. I discovered it on a drive back from a lesson I did with a guy from the Carapelli olive oil producers in Sambuca. It's set on the side of a beautiful hill with gorgeous views. There's an interesting looking restaurant that overlooks the valley, but it's closed up for the winter. We will definitely have to return and check it out. For now we make do with some relaxation on our rug at the foot of an olive field. 

Cintoia
  

Lucia's personal estate agent friend has set us up with another viewing  here in Cintoia, just round the corner from Greve. Cintoia is a town famous for its spring water and very pretty it is too. The flat, which is an ex barn, is very tastefully decorated, although there are no windows and no garden! We decide against...







(Original journal entry 21/2/03)
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)