Ah yes, life in Tuscany. Beautiful countryside – check! Hills of vineyards, weighted by big clusters of dark blue grapes, ready now for harvesting and fields of olive trees to be harvested in a few months.
Winding roads, make you drive constantly in S formations. Left curve…straight…right curve..straighten, left curve…etc…At any time, I am driving up the hillside or driving down the hill depending on the way we are going, glancing at the views, while keeping the vehicle on the narrow road, and meeting cars and tourist buses driven by polite, and very good italian drivers, who are dreaming of being in a Maserati . Yes – life in Tuscany!
The romantic feeling of hearing the church bells ringing at noon and six, keeping time for this small hamlet of 100 people and sleeping in a house where time has stood still, windows open and lace curtains flitting in the breeze, antique armoires, cast iron bed frames, ceramic and tiles…..and waking with arms covered in zanzara bites!
So, we adapt. We have been in Italy a week – we drive like Italians, we sleep with the windows closed, and we have our siesta, while the shops are closed from 1 to 4pm everyday.
We love it all. We love to sit on the terrace, reading, or playing cards, and hearing the locals having a lively discussion outside our gate. We love making dinner, having collected a few items from the local market for meals for a day or two. It reminds me of the days when we were newlyweds, on camping trips where making our dinner and washing our dishes was an activity – not a chore.
And we love being in awe of the region, and its towns – very much like the stereotypical photographs of Tuscany.
I practice my italian phrases – Coma e stai?! Dove e la banca? Il macchina e bianca. Che hora e? But alas, everyone here speaks inglese.
It is the sweet life, and what rose does not have a few thorns? It’s to better appreciate. I am grateful my friends.
Ciao!
En effet, plaire à notre sens visuel,, notre sens olfactif, notre sens gustatif devient une quête sensuelle en préparant un repas.
Prendre le temps à vivre pleinement. Humer la nature à en avoir les frissons. Chaque son devient mélodie. La vita è bella!
I feel like packing up right now and never coming home. Beautifully described. Thank you.
I am on my way.
Oh Kim, i wish you were! Life has taken on a very slow pace here. Is it Tuscany or retirement or both? Pierre and I are enjoying our days, and our explorations. Learning italian is proving to be quite an undertaking, and i have a new appreciation for those of you who successfully attained French levels as an adult! QUITE the task indeed.
All of your updates/posts beautifully describe what it would be like to be there with you! Thank you! Nice to hear that the trip is living up to your expectations.
Live the dream Sylvie. I am living it through you words. Thank you 🙂
Hi Diane, yes it is. We are in Italy doing exactly what we wanted to do..the weather has been so hot, we are doing a lot of pool days, and we will do more exploring when it comes down a bit. Hope all is well with you. I think of you all often.