Lee's Tuscan Odyssey: December 2014

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

176. 36! Palazzo Vecchio and Villa Borromeo

Happy Birthday to me!

Annette makes sure I have a great day with some cool presents and the usual smoked salmon dinner!

After a great birthday and quiet Christmas the world is reeling from the devastating Tsunami that hits South East Asia...

Villa Borromeo

So to cheer ourselves up we have booked a table at the very elegant Villa Borromeo in San Casciano, where Liz Taylor and Richard Burton apparently came in the 60's... We enjoy a slap up meal in very plush surroundings.

Palazzo Vecchio

We also finally get to check out Florence's town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio. For three years we've been admiring the outside and it's only taken us this long for a cloudy day to force us inside!

It was definitely worth the wait... The monumental first courtyard, designed by Michelozzo is covered in frescoes by Giorgio vasari and depicts scenes from the Austrian Hapsburg estates. In the centre is an bronze angel and dolphin cast by Verocchio, originally this was in the Medici villa in Careggi.

The main room, Salone dei Cinquecento or hall of the five hundred was originally the grand council where the 500 members met and later Duke Cosimo held court. It was in this room also that Leoardo's battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo's battle of Cascina frescoes were carried out but unfortunately were ruined and lost forever. Giorgio Vasari frescoed over them with scenes of victory for Florence over Pisa, but there is a tiny chance that some traces of the original frescoes are hidden underneath... one of those unsolved mysteries that might one day see the light of day, literally!

There are also six statues along the hall that represent the labours of Hercules and the piece de resistance Michelangelo's marble group, the genius of Victory, which is quite sublime...

We have a look around some of the smaller rooms, but nothing quite compares to this! All in all a very nice birthday treat!

(Original journal entry 24-29/12/04)

175. Pre-Christmas Crackers & Gemma and Tiz 2

Nov. 23rd

After 120,000 miles the clutch on our trusty Nissan Sunny has finally packed up... three days later and 392 euro poorer, but we have a new clutch and are once again mobile!

Dec 1st

On a wet Wednesday evening in rush hour traffic I crash into a lorry and the car conks out again! Diagnosis; a new fuel pump - which will take two weeks to order from Japan... so two weeks of busses and trains then!

Dec 16th

And our landlady wants to put the rent up from 550 euro to 700 euro! An increase of 30% from January 1st... now all that just cracks me up!

Gemma and Tiz 2

Our good friends Gemma and Tiziano have invited us over tom their lovely home in Prato for the day to help us forget our woes...

Gemma is cooking and we are eating! Outside it's a cold, rainy day, but inside there is lots of warmth, laughs and good cheer to warm the heart! We can forget our housing situation, fortunately we have the new fuel pump, so are mobile again.

We enjoy a very pleasant day in good company and even fit in a game of chess and a few rounds of bridge! A nice appetizer to our Christmas holidays which start on Tuesday...

(Original journal entry 19/12/04)

174. Fiorentina vs Bologna /Scotish market

A cold and miserable end to November and the same for the first week of December, but there is always Fiorentina! Piero has a couple of English friends who are coming over for the Bologna game, so I join them for what should be an easy win...

The rain doesn't ease up for the match and we scrape a 1-0 win - thank god! I would have been rather angry to have stood in the rain for two hours and seen Fiorentina lose!

At the moment there is a Scottish market on in Santa Maria Novella and I indulge in some Whisky tasting to warm myself up.. just the job on a cold and wet Saturday afternoon!

Viola - Braveheart!

(Original journal entry 5/12/04)