Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome to all my new and loyal followers,

Would you believe it, my creative thinking cap was not on straight last saturday, when I was writing the first draft of this post!  I asked my man to read it, as one does, and he responded ‘Very nice June for a travel log!’  Arrrgh, this was not what I wanted to send you, how boring is that?  So I have read it again, deleted most of it and here is the fun version!

Benedetta and her lovely mama Laura at the Bar/Alimentari in Fiano

You might think that there is a limit to how much one can say about this beautiful area of Tuscany and it’s lovely people.    Well, I can tell you, you would be absolutely wrong on that score.  One morning at the Bar/Alimentari in Fiano, Laura’s lovely daughter Benedetta brought her iPad over to  our table, so that we could listen to her favourite music.  She and her man came to my recent Rock Concert, so there is often talk about musica in the bar!  She recently saw Pink Floyd in concert and has downloaded their album.  So, it was espresso and rock music for breakfast!  The majority of Italians love English and American musica.  It’s played constantly in most bars and sometimes restaurants (ristorante) too.  It can be amusing to hear very risqué lyrics and the oblivious Italians don’t have a clue what they are listening to!  Likewise, T-shirts are worn blazoned with English text and I cannot resist asking the wearer whether he or she knows what it says.   Last week a little stooped Signora, probably in her eighties, was announcing on her black T-shirt, ‘I love you, kiss me quick!’  My man had to restrain me from rushing over to talk to her, the spoil sport!

Carlo in his hugely popular Geletaria Fiorentino in Montespertoli

Regular followers will remember that we like to go to Montespertoli on a sunday, for an aperitivo before lunch.  We were really delighted to read in Il Terreno that the owner or our favourite geletaria, Carlo Armalani, was in the news.   He has invented an icecream that is milk and sugar-free and ideal for diabetics!  What a clever man and part of such a lovely Italian family.

Simone the wicked cocktail maker and artist.

The geletaria is in the main piazza in Montespertoli and just around the corner is Bar Fiorentino, run by his wife la mama Caterina and Simone the son.  Simone makes a wicked cocktail and is also a very talented modern artist and builder of quirky outside installations!  He gave me a huge original painting for my birthday a couple of years ago and it has pride of place on my kitchen wall.  This area is full of talented artists and musicians which I just love.

A couple of evenings ago, whilst enjoying a chilled prosecco on our upper terrace, we were visited by a very inquisitive hedgehog.  It did not see us sitting there and ambled around, eventually heading for Farty Barty’s water bowl.  Soon we will be honoured by the evening visits of  the very confident Pine Martens that love figs, as the fruits are now almost mature enough to harvest.  These cocky creatures, arrive at dusk,  ignore us completely and head straight for the fig tree at the edge of our upper terrace.  One sits on the lowest branch whilst his companion gorges higher up.  Then they change places.  Fascinating.

Lovely wild things have popped up in the garden this year.  There are several names for this wild berry plant.  As children in England we called them ‘Lords & Ladies’ and were warned not to pick them.  However, the splash of colour on the slope down to the orchard is really beautiful.

Last week I talked about Cicadas and I am now going back to this subject because my man has taken some amazing pictures.  Early one morning I was hauled out of bed to witness the birth of this amazing insect and to watch it gradually develop it’s wings and fly off in just over an hour!  This is such a unique happening and a real privilege.

The Cicada emerges from its crysalis, slowly unfolds its wings and flies away.

There are so many amazing things happening in our garden and the surrounding vineyards & olive groves.  It is also quite a noisy time of year what with the cicadas, the squeaky ancient tractors trundling along in between the vines and the tourists (turisti) hiking past our villa following the waymarked route.  We are very entertained by these happy walkers chatting in German, Dutch, American, Polish and a number of other European languages.  It is interesting that visitors from northern Europe all seem to speak English, however, many expect the Italians to do the same.  This is a little unfair in my view, because its only the young generation that have learnt English in School.  Our second language in England was French and until recently it was the same in Italy.

Silvio- feel my muscle!

I have not forgotten the gorgeous Silvio Berlusconi and have just checked out the latest scuttlebutt.  A muck raking report was printed in the Sunday Independent  and is far too lengthy to include here.  However, the following extract is quite thought-provoking.

‘‘Mr Berlusconi’s relationship with Russia’s leader was underlined at a press conference in Sardinia in April 2008, when a Russian journalist confronted Mr Putin with rumours of an affair. “Not one word of truth,” said Putin – while Berlusconi, shaping his hand into a pistol, pretended to take aim at the reporter.  Mr Putin returned the favour in 2011 declaring that “however much they nag Signor Berlusconi for his special attitude to the beautiful sex … he has shown himself as a responsible statesman”.  It sounds to me like Russian dolls, you keep peeling off the top layer and there’s another pretty one waiting inside!

Thank you for reading, I wish you all a fantastic week and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Alla Prossima Weekend,  June x

PS  To read or leave a review of my novel ‘My Father, The Assassin’ click top right of this page.