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



161. Vino e piacere - wine is pleasure 2 - Impruneta

And so on to Impruneta as our weekend wine festival double header continues. Although we actually come on the Friday evening to get started and with over 600 wines on offer, you can see the dilema! So we spread ourselves over two days. As well as red wine, there's also white wine, spumante, dessert wine and grappa and of course cheeses, salami olive oil, biscuits and cakes. All for a 10 euro or £6 entry fee.



The setting is wonderful, amongst the cloisters of the Basilica of Santa Maria in the main square. We start off with the dry Spumantes of northern Italy and move onto the cool crisp white wines. There are some very expensive wines here to taste, the most expensive being the 249 euro 'Il Caberlot' from Podere il Carnasciale. There are a dozen or so Brunellos and a dozen Barolos and Barbarescos to try before finishing off with the very sweet dessert wines. I have to try a few grappas. I haven't really taken a shine to these very strong digestive spirits as they are usually tasteless, a bit like vodka, however my mind is changed by a 10 year old golden grappa riserva from Udine in the Veneto which is quite sublime and I buy a bottle!




 Battle of the Bands

On the Sunday we pop into Florence and there is a marching band competition in Piazza Signoria. It is a somewhat 'noisy' experience as different bands try to outdo each other... we have our ears blasted for a truly bizarre evening.
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