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



238. You're Bootiful!

The holidays are over and we're back at work. However just to make things better, the king of smooch, singer and ex soldier, James Blunt has chosen to do a concert in Florence and we have two tickets for his 'Back to Bedlam' tour. His song, 'You're Beautiful' was chosen for a Vodafone telephone commercial and he's become quite big in Italy.


We ease our way into a packed Saschall (now called Obihall) amongst all the teenage girls and have a ball! He puts on a 1 1/2 hour show and we have a good ole' bop.The Italians sing along to some of his famous songs, like 'Goodbye my Lover' and High, but can't quite get the pronunciation right... and so 'You're Beautiful' comes out as 'Youre Bootiful' !!!


(Original Journal entry 15/1/06)

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