Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely Followers around the World,
Wednesday 12 February. I would never have guessed that a beautiful fallen bloom, from an early flowering shrub, could have given me such a lift. It wasn’t just the beauty of the thing but how I received it that made all the difference. I have had three weeks of feeling pretty run-down after a minor operation, due to my pathetic immune system. I went to Fiano this morning for my usual espresso, newpapers and chat; then Roberto our local sculpture walked in and presented me with the bloom! Bless his lovely kind heart, the site of it in the palm of my hand sent a wave of sheer joy through my still fragile system! I knew there and then that my head was sufficiantly clear to start writing again! Thank you dear Roberto. (someone, please let me know what the flower is; thank you x)
So off I went, with the bloom on my dashboard, down to Certaldo and an overdue visit to Sandra to have my hair coloured. Although tired, I felt even more invigorated as I was now looking more like my old self. Also, Sandra has a batch of the usual glossies and I indulged in some trivia reading and fashion drooling. A bit of pampering and time wasting, can do one the world of good. I left Sandra’s and walked into bright warm sunshine and the temperature guage registered 17 degrees on the dashboard! Great! Back home in our lovely monastery farmhouse, I see that the forecast for Friday and Saturday is for sun and a high of 19 degrees, then good weather right up to the end of February; hurrah! So things go from good to even better! What a great day.
Thursday 13 February. Well, its the next day and I’m still feeling in a good mood. I decided that I would scour the papers for some good news to post and, yes you guessed it, nothing. But then I saw a big red heart and an advertisement for San Valentino in Florence. Yes! ‘All you need is love, da da da da da’ Just when you think things could not get more depressing, up pops San Valentino! Hurrah.
The Florentine on-line magazine has come to the rescue with some lovely locations for 
celebrating with your amore. But what’s this? Somewhere called the Bristol Winter Gardens (yes Bristol) in Florence! Sounds like a great place to eat, you only have to look at the dish in the foto. Mmmmm. The Florentine
Well, going to finish here as I am still not one hundred percent, but by next week you can rest assured that I will be rocking. Have a great weekend. Oh and Happy Valentines Day!
Salute June x
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Fotos my own or uploaded from The Fiorentine on-line mag.
Well, thank God for that, spring is really here at last and the forecast is sunshine for the next couple of weeks. But hang on a minute, if you are thinking of rushing out to Tuscany with your cossies, the swimming pools do not open up until the beginning of May and anyway the air temperature can still be quite chilly this time of year. On the other hand, there are no mossies around in April, so if you pack layers and don’t want to swim outside, come anyway! Foto J Finnigan
Now for me, spring brings a big lift to the spirits and I feel much more like going out and about. I noticed an advert for an exhibition over on the coast in Pietrasanta, which is in the Comune di Lucca. It’s called ‘Il dolce Rumore della Vita,’ which translates to ‘The Sweet Noise of Life’. It is all about paintings and sculpture by very talented people including the Irish sculptor Paddy Campbell and Tuscan artist Simona Dolci. I really fancy going over, and to breathe in some sea air before the bulk of the tourists arrive. It’s easy to get a train there too, so no need to slog along the fipili dual carriageway. Now I just need to persuade my man to join me. Foto La Nazione. Have a look for yourselves, the exhibition is open until 10th June. Perhaps we’ll see you there. visit the 
Meanwhile, yesterday saw Florence full of fun runners and their supporters, all there for good causes. Yes, it was the annual Half Marathon. What I love about Italians is that they always remember to include families and particularly children. So, not only did you have the competitive race, but also a non-competitive race of 8km, a walking race over 5km and a kids race called ‘The Tommasino Run’ over 1.5km. The events were spread around the beautiful city and included Piazza della Signoria and Piazza Duomo. Foto La Nazione.
What else? Oh yes, we cannot ignore that beautiful Italian creation the actress Claudia Cardianale who is celebrating her 80th birthday! Can you believe it? Now, some of you younger readers may not have seen her films that included starring roles in the sixties opposite leading men like Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson and Paul Newman. Most of her films are now classics, so look them up! Just like Sophia Loren, Claudia still scrubs up very well indeed. Buon Compleanno to her. Foto La Repubblica 
Meanwhile, back in our local village of Fiano, relaxing over coffee and reading the newspapers, I found an article about Sulla Orma Citta Millenaria, that is ‘On the Millennium City Footprint.’ I know, it doesn’t really make sense, so one should not always try to translate literally. What it actually said was, it is a thousand (mille is a thousand in Italian) years ago when the foundations were laid for San Miniato al Monte and other churches in Florence and the surrounding province. A thousand years! Think about it, that’s the year 1,018 AD or the 9th century. These incredibly beautiful buildings were built all that time ago with no electronic or mechanical assistance. Of course Florence is a most stunning atmospheric ancient city, and that’s not just the places of worship. Florence was also the birthplace of Leonardo di Vinci and other illustrious designers and inventors. So, If you have not visited yet, you really should! 
Back here in our lovely bit of Chianti countryside, we had an invasion of bees in my study! A queen had flown in the open window, yes it’s warm enough, and refused to leave. After she eventually left, the worker bees found her scent and thought she was still here. So my man being a gung-ho ex-marine, goes in and tries to encourage them to leave by waving a cobweb brush around. The buzzing got angrier and louder. “Get out of there!” I screamed from outside the door, which opened a crack and he squeezed out. After much discussion, we decided to shut all connecting doors and wait. Over four hours later, all went quiet, they had finally given up and flown out into the dusk! What a relief. I hope they found their Queen. At least my daft hero man did not get stung! Foto Queen Bee – pixhark.com
When we first moved into our lovely new home in April 2015, one of the first things we did was to plant three young Mimosa trees. All are doing really well and already in full blossom. Once again this is a little too early in the year, as the blossoms are normally presented to the women in one’s life, on La Festa Delle Donne in March, that are deserving for reasons of kindness, love or simply being a nice person who might have made a difference over the previous year. So let’s hope that there will still be a few flowering trees around on the day. A couple of days ago, my man also spotted the first daffodils as we whizzed back from a trip to Certaldo; lovely.
Meanwhile it is the season for that delicious dark green cabbage, Cavolo Nero, full of iron and vitamins. Cooked in various ways, however, I just like to steam the leaves then toss in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sea salt. For some really great recipes visit the website of my friend and neighbour, the Celebrity Cook Judy Witts Francini. 
Also in season are the lovely Italian New Potatoes. Now I’m a great fan of potatoes and we Brits cook them in so many different ways. Whilst I love them just boiled and tossed in butter (lessato), the Italians mainly cook them chopped into small pieces and roasted with oil, Rosemary and garlic (Potate Arrosto). You will also find a recipe for this in Judy’s book.
And how about our local town of Certaldo and other nearby towns? Well, I’m going to have to research this as, whilst all the locals seem to know whats going on, probably by word of mouth or they are actively involved anyway. So I’ll be back shortly! Ok, I’m back and the very best site to go to is Discover Tuscany, where you will find all the exciting events including wine tastings, galleries, exhibitions, dance festivals, food festas; the list is endless. So if you are going to be in Tuscany in February you will be kept very busy! You can start your tour at Certaldo Station, the rail and bus links are brilliant! Foto P Finnigan. Go to Discover Tuscany 
The next day I thought, hurrah, we can get back to normal, ditch or plant the Christmas trees that many of us are allergic to, the shops will all be open and the post office will be functioning. How, after nearly fourteen years living in this beautiful bit of the world, could I forget that Befana also heralds the start of a week’s holiday for thousands of Italians, when many shoot off to ski destinations! Last Monday I found a note in my post box, telling me that a long overdue Christmas parcel was waiting for me at Certaldo Post Office. So I waited in the usual queue and arrived at the counter feeling pretty relaxed. “Sorry Signora” the male counter assistant said, in Italian of course, “The sorting office is still on holiday, you will have to come back tomorrow!” Take note, the date was 8th January….. I took a deep breath and walked back out into a hail storm and did not have a brolly with me! OK, grumble over, I went back the next day and got my parcel. Foto La Repubblica
And on the subject of skiing, you would love the Dolomites in Northern Italy this time of year. Very crowded mind, although from next week onwards most of the Italian tourists may have finally returned to work. Meanwhile, a little further north in Austria, our brilliant female ski team have just won the World Championship and good for them I say! Are you a keen skier? I have always wanted to ski, but never got round to it. Too many other priorities I guess. My man skied in Norway with the military; when you next see him, ask him about his experiences, he loves to talk about his wooden skis!
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