Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome to all my lovely new and loyal followers

‘I’m back, to let you know I can really shake them down.’  How sad, you are probably thinking,  June is quoting 1960’s lyrics again!  But I have to say, as you get to know me even better, you will come to realise, that knowing all the words to most of the ’60’s rock and pop songs was always my best subject in Pub Quizzes!  But you don’t want to know about that.  However, you may be glad to know that I am now recovered from a nasty little virus, which took me to the brink, and have found my thinking cap again.

The grandson leads Siena under 14’s Rugby to victory in black & white

Firstly, I must mention that the Rugby season has just started in Italy.  The highlight of the last two weeks is that our brilliant grandson has been made captain of Siena under fourteens and he led his team to victory over Florence in their opening match of the season!  We are so proud.

Driving back from coffee in Fiano with the man and his lovely visiting mother yesterday morning, we were horrified to see a river of wine (well stream actually) flowing towards us from Villa Bacio.  The villa has a lot of vineyards and the harvest and crushing continues unabated.  On closer inspection we saw that there were also grape skins in the stream and that it was an overflow of waste, but my god it smelt good!  Within a few weeks it will be olive picking time, and fresh cold pressed extra virgin olive oil will be dribbling from our dipped bread.  We are really looking forward to that, and not to forget that it is also white truffle (Tartufo Bianco) time, glorious……

Back at the Alimentare/Bar in Fiano, poor Laura the owner, has scolded her hand with some hot oil and is all bandaged up.  They do seem to be an accident prone family, what with Benedetta, her daughter, limping around with a broken foot.  Our friend Signore Rotund was very pleased to see my man back from London, as they have this private thing about keeping morning papers back for each other.  My lovely eighty-eight year old mother-in-law was also welcomed back with great enthusiasm by the locals, which makes her feel very special.  She is with us for a week to celebrate her birthday, so it will be a family gathering tomorrow.

My man has expressed great concern over the fact that Italian children and parents do not play conkers!  Huge horse-chestnut trees surround the piazza in Fiano, and the lovely big glossy conkers are left crushed under car wheels and completely ignored.  This is a very sad thing and I agree with him, it’s just like the lack of interest in board games, which as you know we have started playing again with a vengeance.

Cafe La Piazzetta in Fiano, in the main piazza, which is surrounded by horse chestnut trees.

Many of you will know that we have more than our fair share of street sellers in Tuscany and I am very impressed with one local man who is selling used purses.  His sales pitch is ‘New purses are too inflexible and that a second-hand one will bring you good luck, because they already have the smell of money!’  The mind boggles as to where he acquired these purses and looking closely at the clothing items, I swear I can see clothes peg marks.  However, he is a very likeable chap!  There was rather a lot of rubbish around the floor of the Cafe La Piazzetta in Fiano last weekend and my man said that it was probably Albanians.  I was shocked, ‘Why on earth did you say that?’ I asked, ‘It’s what the Italians say not me’ he retorted, ‘because they never drop rubbish!’  Since he has been formally adopted as a ToscanoDoc  (real Tuscan) by the locals he has become very biased!

Meanwhile, on 4th October, Pope Francis visited Assisi where his namesake was based and I think buried.  My man and I went there a few years ago as his middle name is Francis too and he felt a certain affinity with the place.  His family was Roman Catholic and his grandmother and mother got carried away with middle names.  My man’s are Antoni, Dominic, Francis which makes be very jealous because I’m just plain June!

Anyway, we had a very nice lunch at C’era una Volta yesterday after our traditional visit to Montespertoli for an Aperitivo.  My mother-in-law, bless her, was singing opera after a little too much wine and creme di limoncello.  The other diners were very impressed – she does have a lovely voice if a little bit on the shaky side.  She accompanies Andrea Boccelli each evening over supper and her favourite is Ave Maria, which she belts out with gusto!  It’s the only thing that wakes Farty Barty the cat from his malaise at the moment, as It is the time of year for him to get fat and winter furred, and to spend a lot of time on his cushioned kitchen chair.

Silvio gets emotional in Rome.
Photo Reuters, Alessandro Bianchi.

And so to our fallen hero Silvio Berlusconi.  I am pleased to report that he remains high-profile in the news.  After his about-face, due to his five ministers refusing to quit the senate, he threw his support behind the rather lack luster government of Enrico Letta.  Now he has chosen Community Service over House arrest and is being besieged by Social Welfare Services including City Angels and Exodus, which support the homeless and drug addicts.  He has also had invites from Animal Rights, Hospitals, the Genetic Rights Foundation (whatever that is) and a home for the elderly.  The old girlies in the latter would adore having him there, particularly if he was in charge of making the beds.  But my guess is he’ll support a charity for fallen women.  Meanwhile, his ‘fiance’ Francesca Pascale is having a cat fight with glamorous Bulgarian actress/producer Michelle Boney.  Michelle is a friend of SB and claims that FP is a bad person, has been blackmailing him and is actually a Lesbian.  Wow, that takes the biscuit!  A touch of jealousy, methinks.

So, it is Monday morning and I must get this blog off to you subito.

Have a great week and don’t forget to check out http://www.firstchapters.net for your winter reading.  Try the Romantic Thriller ‘My Father, The Assassin’ by J W Finnigan.

Amore June x