Junefinnigan's Weblog

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

January is a funny old month, here in our little bit of Tuscany on the edge of Chianti.  Whilst a lot is going on, it remains a difficult period to organise restaurant lunches and visits to galleries.  January is considered a time for closing down for a bit, until the return of the tourist season in March.  Hey ho!

But otherwise, it being the season of fashion, last week was the mens’ time for strutting their stuff, this week has had the newspapers full of Bimbi Pitti (children’s) fashion.  Now I am a little out of touch with children’s fashion outside of Italy, but here the kids are very fashion conscious and from an early age.  Black is very vogue and apparently styles are currently being influenced by the Rock Music scene!  Well, at least the Bimbi will be growing up with a taste for good rock music; I hope.  Addio to the pastel shades we kids were adorned in, and that’s not a bad thing methinks.  What do you think?

So what else is going on? I hear you ask.  Well a great news magazine to follow, particularly for Florence and surroundings is The Florentine.  I’ve mentioned this publication before and I follow it regularly, it’s also in English and can be subscribed to online if preferred.  Events include HOPS/Brewer of the year, (there is and increasing number of micro-breweries popping up in Italy) A shop Vintage event and International Ice skating Awards. Busy, busy.  The Florentine

And there’s a lot more stuff going on here locally.  If you are interested in our local village of Fiano, go their Facebook page at Alfiano Fiano.

OK, what next?  Oh yes.  The children returned to school last week and much is being talked about regarding the state of the buildings.  Some students went out on strike as the temperature in the classrooms were as low as 10 degrees centigrade!  Of course, we are now formerly in recession here (again) so spending on the essentials is not always happening.  In today’s paper was an article about a survey of the under 18’s. The new young people (Giovani) mostly love school and their teachers. They have had enough of disputes and want to get on with preparing for the future.  My man and I arrived here nearly fifteen years ago and so a whole new generation has grown up during that time.  Fifteen years ago, society seemed thirty years behind us Brits, but the new Giovani seem to have caught up and cut the time difference down by at least half.

And moving to the much older generation, which includes the Peter Pan of politics Silvio Berlusconi.  Yes, Silvio is back!  At the age of 82, and as leader of Forza Italia, he is campaigning for the March elections for the European parliament.  This assumes it hasn’t fallen apart by then, the parliament that is!  Anyway, Silvio has a way of putting a bit of colour back into the world of politics.  You either love him or hate him, either way, it makes for an interesting time.

Meanwhile, I am cracking on with my latest novel, Assassin’s List, which is taking my heroine to Italy and Cuba.  If you have any experience of visiting or living in Havana in the mid 1990’s, I would love to hear from you.  Exciting isn’t it!

OK, have a great week and do drop me a line.  Oh and visit my author site at My Site

Salute June x