Benvenuti and Welcome to all my Lovely Followers
“My head’s got bigger!” My man has a pained look on his face. “I don’t think so, you’ve always had a big head!” I snort and giggle. “No, no, I mean physically bigger!” He groans. “It’s my green beret, it’s too tight, I can’t get it on!” Ah, my man has been unloading his ancient Royal Marine kit bag to check for damp, as there was a whiff of it coming from his studio. So now he has been reminiscing and complaining that he may not be able to get into his uniform anymore. So I brought up a picture of him in uniform, from many years ago, on the computer screen and actually, his head did look a little bit smaller then. But his uniform belt could nearly do up, only about three inches too small, so not too bad.
The aging Italian Military. Foto La Nazione
Which reminds me, in La Nazione newspaper, which I was reading over coffee, there was an article about the Italian Armed Forces. I was rather shocked to read that the average age of the Italian soldier is 38! There are too many old soldiers still in the forces and not enough youngsters joining up. So a big campaign is being started to try to reverse the situation.
Helmets and leather articles for sale in Alessandro’s shop. Foto P Finnigan
Back down in Certaldo, my man popped into his favourite shoe repair shop for some polish. He likes to chat to Alessandro, the owner, who is a very interesting man indeed. Not only does he work in leather, but also metals. He is one of those Military re-enactment people who stage mock battles, wearing all the old costumes. He actually makes suits of armour, helmets and even had a Samurai Outfit displayed in his shop last year. He now has a full beard and long hair to match his role-play. So if you need a new helmet or shield, or a shoe repair, of course, do drop in. You will find him at La Rapida, Via Borgo Garibaldi, 6.
The Made in Italy Tour begins on San Valentino. La Republica
Meanwhile, Italy is celebrating all things Made in Italy and launched ‘The Made in Italy Tour’ on San Valentino with the popular songster, Ligabue. All his fans were there with L’Amore banners. As you will know, everything stops on a Saints day, other than the celebrations of course.
One of three new Mimosa Trees in our beautiful garden. Foto J Finnigan
Ah, another thing you will remember from last year is the gifting of Mimosa flowers on La Festa Della Donna. Now it’s not that time yet, but we decided that we should plant some Mimosa Trees in the garden and bought three from our lovely plant lady in Certaldo’s Mercato on Saturday morning. I also got loads more Primula to brighten up the winter garden. So my man was occupied for much of the day planting and a wonderful job he did too.
Fantastic success worldwide for Chianti Classico Wine. La Repubblica.
And last but not least, I read a fascinating article about how incredibly well the exporting of Chianti Classico Wine is doing around the world. The Chinese absolutely love it and the market remains huge. Even our own supplier across the valley exports more to China than anywhere else. So this bodes well for Chianti producers in our area and this is fortunate considering that Italy, since 2008, has just been declared the worst performing country in Europe, yes even worse than Greece!
But that’s enough of that; life eeez good, life eeez now.
Have a great week and do get in touch.
Salute June x
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Coming soon, my new book ‘The Italian Connection’ the third volume in the series ‘The Continuing Adventures of Joanna Wilde’ – watch this space!
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Foto J Finnigan
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