Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome and Benvenuto to all my Lovely Followers around the World,

I just love Christmas and I feel sad for those that do not.  For me it is much more than a religious festival, it is a time when families get together again and to take some quiet time chilling in front of a log fire, without feeling guilty for a few days.  Our kitchen is now all festive, ready for gatherings of friends or family who happen to pass by.

Here in our little bit of Chianti, we will move the TV from my man’s study to the sitting room and watch really silly DVD’s of UK sitcoms and some good films, in front of the fire.  Italian TV is terrible, just don’t go there!  We will get the old board games out and thoroughly enjoy ourselves.  What will you be up to?

As you know I am a keen follower of Italian fashion labels and it’s been great to see models walking down the catwalk in Christmas Sweaters!  It seems lots celebrities have been spotted wearing them!  This is very good news in my view, the brighter the better.  Try not to smile when you are chatting to someone wearing one, you can’t do it can you?  Chuckle.  The more reasons we have to put smiles on our faces the better.  If you girlies want something festive yet sophisticated, I spotted this lovely cashmere one from Somers, always one of my favourite Italian sweater designers.  Somers

Now you know how much I love Italian food, I harp on enough about it, but at Christmas time there are somethings I really miss.  These include mince pies, sage & onion stuffing mix, parsnips, Birds Custard and Branston Pickle.  But all is not lost.  My man will be popping over to London for a visit before Christmas and will bring some of these things home with him.  Otherwise we have Richmond’s British Food Shop, which delivers to your home in Tuscany!  Richmonds

Meanwhile, back at our regular local ristorante, C’era una Volta, Paolo has done it again.  He has secured a good fresh supply of Tartufo Bianco, white truffles to you and me, and we had lots grated over our pasta yesterday for lunch.  Heaven!  Here in the picture is his hoard, which won’t last long even at the high price these dishes demand!  So whilst I miss some of the English foods at Christmas, pasta and white truffles more than makes up for that!  C’era Una Volta

On the way home our car was once again splattered in slimy mud, which has just been laid supposedly as a new surface for the minor road, or should I say dirt track, which goes past our house.  If you think that the modern-day Italians have any hint of Roman road building about them, you would be sadly mistaken!  True, our area is one made up of shifting soil and grit, regular landslides etc but one keeps hoping that the local commune will eventually find a better way of dealing with the state of the roads.  Oh Dio, was that a moan?  So sorry, I was just dreaming about those beautiful solid stone roads built by the illustrious Romans; hey ho!

But we don’t care about that!  Here’s a really funny foto my man saw in the paper.  Silvio was obviously blowing out such a blast of hot air again that poor Dudù is having to hang on for dear life!  Ha ha!

Well enough already.  Must get this edited and off to you.

Have a great week and do drop me a line, I love to hear from you!  Oh and do visit my official author site at My site

Salute June x

PS Send me your Christmas pics!  Visit me and my books on Facebook, Twitter and Linked in.  Oh, and buy real books for Christmas, you can’t unwrap an e-book!