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



155. MTV/Coca Cola Live

Book 7

'This century being a truly golden age, has brought back to light the liberal arts, which had almost been destroyed: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, singing to the orphic lyre - and all in Florence'

Marsilio Ficino


Well the holidays are over and it's back to work, but to erase the pain of the 'October blues' we have that little epilogue that is September! 

Our first week is fairly quiet workwise and so some opportunity for some last visits to the outdoor pool in Greve and some evenings in Impruneta for our big glass of Brunello. 



The week culminates with this free concert in the Cascine park. One of my favourite Italian bands, Le Vibrazione are performing, as is American soulstress, Kelis. We have a very enjoyable evening boogying away in the park with around 30,00 local Florentine youth!



(Original journal entry 4/9/04)


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