That I nearly didn’t have! Such a long time has passed since my last post and I feel that I have let my readers down. Christmas!  Such a wonderful and important date on our calendar and I have not written one word on my Christmas here in Florence! Snow is to blame!  Or should I […]

Not the Chocolate variety……. Mostra Mercato del Tartufo Bianco a San Miniato According to Wikipedia a truffle is a fungi fruiting body that develops underground and are usually found in close association with certain trees.  Growing harmoniously with oak, hazel, poplar and beech, they fruit in Autumn. These ugly blobs of fungi are highly prized […]

With a lot of emphasis on STYLE! Or maybe I should say Vanity! After my visit to the gym this morning, I couldn’t help but want to share my observations and amusement with you all! The gym that I go to is incredibly beautiful and does not lack for anything.  Here you can lift weights, […]

In Italy ……and to be honest, I love shopping anywhere! Is an Intervention in order? Enough about food!  For today’s post anyway!  Time to talk about my other great love or addiction as some may describe it.  The guilty pleasure many of us are obsessed with.  True converts follow the seasons religiously and scour the […]

As the winter chill approaches………. It is difficult to not write about food at the moment even though it was not my intention for this blog to be just about food.  Autumn is such a beautiful month in Tuscany and apart from the beauty of the changing colours on the trees and vinyards, everyone is […]

Baked Sardines Yesterday we spent another beautiful and entertaining morning at the Central Market.  Entertaining because we witnessed some rude tourists being told to ‘vaffanculo’ by the store holder after they had requested to buy some cheese.  The store owner cut the cheese they had selected so that the tourists could taste it and then […]

A Tuscan Island getaway……. As the last rays of late rays of sunshine stretch out to warm me and I begin to see the beautiful autumn colours emerging on the trees, I think of the places in Italy still offering Summer temperatures and beautiful beaches.  For those that don’t enjoy the oppressive heat of August, […]

Chianti – Wine, Olive Oil and Chianina Last weekend on our way home from Consuma, we made a spontaneous detour and took the road leading to the Castello Nipozzano.  The castle was built in year 1000 as a defensive fortress and became the centre for communal life for the village of Nipozzano.  Today the castle […]

A lovely Saturday afternoon drive in the Tuscan mountains. As today was such a gorgeous day and it seems that Summer is coming to an end, we took a drive into the mountains along the Consuma Pass which joins the provinces of Florence and Arezzo.   Consuma is only 26km from Florence and the drive […]