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



88. The Merchant of Prato

The original Merchant of Prato, Marco Datini, was born in 1335 and travelled all over Europe setting up contacts . The result was a flourishing textile industry in Florence’s neighbour, Prato and continues to this day...





Today we are hosting Tiziano, who has his own textile company in Prato and his partner, ‘Welsh’ Gemma, one of Annette’s friends.Saturday is spent shopping in Greve market and a nice drive up to villa San Andrea for another case of their very fine and reasonably priced Chianti Classico riserva wine. They arrive at 1 pm and we enjoy lunch together in our woods, complete with giant hare and butterflies! Afterwards we hit the pool for some swimming and sunbathing and finish off a very pleasant day with a ‘passegiata’ and aperitivo in Greve.
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