So here we are: la dolce vita in Tuscany

I've just got back from the first part of my summer holidays, a few days with my parents and old friends of the family in the latters glorious house in Tuscany. I promised Eileen, the lady of the house, not to give the exact location (to keep the hordes out of paradise!) but it is a done-up 19th century farmhouse in the Tuscan hills, that you get to by driving up the most narrow and twisting road I have ever been on.

A word on the house and land, which are simply spectacular. There are many old farmhouses in the area, some occupied, many abandoned like this one in a nearby deserted village.


Eileen and Alex, friends of my parents for more than thirty years, bought this place and 2 hectares of land a few years ago and trasformed it.


Today, it boasts over 200 hundred olive trees (yielding 160 liters of very fine olive oil annually) and a vineyard, that produces a few hundred liters of white wine that tastes slightly of chalky liver in my opinion, and red, which is fruity and slightly fizzy and quite delicious. There is a huge vegetable patch, fruit trees, and dozens of clumps of lavender which scent the dry Tuscan air and buzz in the heat with the presence of a million bees. All you can hear is the vegetation growing and the cicadas chirping in this incredible garden set halfway up a hill.


As for the house, where to start? There are two terraces. One for the morning and day, in front of the housewhere there is a big wooden table under a giant parasol. It looks down on to the sloped garden and the divine swimming pool on the level below, which is designed to make the water appear to be pouring in to the verdant surroundings. No need to go in to the pool, the description of the flowers, the lemon trees, the olive trees, the sheer beauty of it all, the pictures speak for themselves.



Halfway around the house, past the fragrant rose garden and towards the western face of the hill, is the evening terrace, that gives out on to the kitchen. From here you look down on to the distant town of Arezzo, and watch the sun set, perfectly, between the hills, glass in one hand.



The house itself is stunning: huge, with perfect bathrooms and a kitchen you usually only find in catalogues or TV-chef-in-Provence TV programs. The ground floor is where, jadis, the animals were kept but you wouldn't guess it today, done up in a simple, old stone exposed with white plaster and beams and red tiled floors manner. It is still a country house, cool with thick stone walls and windows shutting the sun out, but done up with all the modern details: the kitchen, themany bathrooms, 4 living rooms and 6 massive double bedrooms, where there are white accessories and old beams. The old pigeon loft at the top of the house is now a study.

But, really it is all about the outside, the lounging about, the gentle swims and the slow pace. The sundowners with dad, mum, Eileen, Alex, Mrs B., Eileen's mum, and later Sally. The food was amazing, Tuscan lasagnas and fennel infused porc, and veal with tuna and anchovies, and garden beans and lettuces with pecorino cheese and pears, and dense sausages and truffle ravioli. You got it: sleeping all day and scoffing and drinking the local wine. Yes, my trousers are a little tight.


In the mornings, mum, dad & I drove to Arezzo, where we visited Piero de la Franscesa's frescoes and ate ice-cream and looked at the beautiful surroundings.



Of course, dad & I also quarrelled a bit as one does on holiday with one's parents for the first time in seven years, but that was not the memorable part (I hope!). We had lunch and ate lots of ceps, and drank lots of red wine.

For the first time in months, I felt my insides unloosen, my muscles melt, my head clear, my senses sharp. I sat in the sun and thought of nothing, and read three books in four days.
Thank you thank you Eileen & Alex for your hospitality!

Now that I am back in Paris, all I can think about is going away agin, which is tomorrow at 5 PM when I board the train for Nantes to see my best friend Olivia.