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



111. Living in the City

After only five months in the house from hell we're on the move again! We've been offered the choice of two flats in the centre of Florence. On Friday we went to look at both of them. One was in the suburbs to the west of the city near viale Talenti, a nice cosy flat courtesy of work colleague, Jane. The other one we find through one of my private students, the Verdinis. It's in Corso Italia, behind the American Embassy, next to the Teatro Communale. It's dead posh and right in the historic centre of Florence! Too hard to pass up...

Moving date is February 1st. So we need to get packing! All the travelling has been killing us and while we've enjoyed Montefiridolfi, the village and the friendly people, Miriam's house was too big, cold, old and too full of her junk.
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