Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely Followers around the World

OK, lets get the Virus subject out of the way and then we can get back to enjoying ourselves again.  In our lovely area on the edge of the Chianti Hills everyone is carrying on as normal.  OK, kissing and shaking hands are avoided, which is a little strange for Italians, and washing one’s hands regularly is the only difference.  And yes, travelling and going to crowded venues maybe unwise until we have more news.  Most of the cases are in the north, down here in central Tuscany we have next to nothing.  Most restaurants remain open as do the shops.  And, La Dispensa, our local shop and caffe bar in Fiano, remains a welcoming haven for our morning coffee.

Meanwhile, the Italian Government are up to their usual wittering about leadership, the original coalition fell apart and the current arrangement is not working either.  Reading the newspaper, I came across this brilliant photo taken in 1953.  It is the mayor of Florence giving a speech and just look at the faces on the guys surrounding him!  You could say ‘nothing has changed’, everyone is seriously bored listening to all the moaning and groaning.

But enough of that.  It’s the 1st March, hurrah, and the month for celebrating Tartufu (truffles).  There will be Festas all over the place including our local town of Certaldo, Volterra and Florence.  If you have not been to Volterra, you really should.  It’s about an hour from us and is a beautiful ancient city with a great history.  You could combine the visit with the Tartufo celebrations.  Yesterday, we went to our local restaurant C’era una Volta where my man enjoyed a delicious pasta dish with Tartufo Marzolo (March Truffles) grated over the top.  Yummy.   Sometime this week we will probably head over to Tavernelle and Osteria La Gramola, where they do wonderful creative dishes with seasonal produce, like the Tartufo.  I’ll let you know.

Back in our lovely winter garden the daffodils are coming out.  I took this foto this morning as it looked a little lonely on it’s own.  We will not be uncovering the rest of the plants until 1st April; we look forward to that.  The other day, we were visited by a big male fox and he may have gone off with one of our resident wild pheasant hens, as Phil the Cock Pheasant has been making a lot of noise of late.  I saw the naughty fox with a large bird in his mouth being chased by Phil, it may have been a pigeon but probably not.  Whats happening in your garden?

And so, here we are we carrying on as usual.  Enjoying good food, wine and friendships. My next urgent task is to get my repertoire sorted for the concert on June 19th.  So far I’ve decided on six songs so another dozen to go.  I’ll be sending out initial invites soon.  If you are not on my invite email list, send yours to june.finnigan@virgin.net  Exciting isn’t it!

OK, it’s now Monday so must get this blog off to you.  Remember to enjoy every day!

Have a great week.

Salute June x

Visit my website at my site