Yes, I’m back after three months of recovery from a nasty fall, which broke my right wrist (yes I’m right-handed) and shattered my left knee. Thank heavens for living in a beautiful place with the man I love and the promise of an imminent return to going out into the glorious Tuscan countryside and back to C’era Una Volta Ristorante in Luccardo.
From my window I have watched the changing colours of the countryside and I know you will forgive me for including friends’ fotos that I have borrowed to share with you. This gorgeous foto was taken not far from here at Villa il Pozzo http://www.villailpozzo.it The different stripes of colour indicate the mix of grapes growing in the vineyards.
Meanwhile, today will be busy with All Saint’s Day, or Day of the Dead. Here in Tuscany you will see a huge number of cars parked outside the cemeteries (cimiteri) as whole families go to visit their forbears. On a lighter note there were also lots of parties, remembrance parades and festivals over the weekend. A great place to take the family this year was San Gimignano, which has a very popular Halloween festival.
The other thing about glorious Tuscany at this time of year is the olive harvest and the new extra virgin olive oil. My mouth waters at the thought of drizzling this wonderful nectar over just about everything. And, the menus in the local restaurants, Porcini, Tartufo and seasonal vegetables. Picture from Ristorante Quinoa, a personal favourite venue in Florence. http://ristorantequinoa.it It’s a great time to be here.
I’m also intending to ready my books for the Christmas On-line rush. You can buy them now of course and being an early bird might be in your interest. Visit my website at http://www.junefinnigan.website
Have a great week and do drop me a line, I love to hear from my readers, you are all very important to me!
Salute June x
Before I start, I must apologise. I have spent most of the weekend watching the Rugby World Cup, instead of writing to you. So I trust you can forgive me for making this blog a little shorter than usual as it is already lunchtime on Sunday! What a great match yesterday, England played incredibly well, the poor All Blacks couldn’t even get a look in. So today’s match between Wales and South Africa was rather an anti-climax. Anyway, now we know that the final next weekend will be England vs South Africa. Make sure you diary date to watch it! Foto UK Telegraph
I must also mention that the local farmers
Well, must dash off to lunch, but will add a little more to this blog when I return. OK, I’m back and ready to tidy this blog and get it off to you. But before I go I thought you might like to enjoy this bottle of Sticciano’s Cantastorie Rosso with me, which my man and I had with lunch at C’era una Volta Ristorante. Ooops sorry, we finished it off. Oh well, perhaps next time!
Instead, we drove up to the lower regions the spectacular Apennine Mountains and found Pietrasanta, a lovely historic and arty town, which my artist friend Anne Shingleton 
And on the subject of the latter, we took the trouble to walk as far as possible from the main piazza to the very last awning in the Via P.E.Barsanti, which beckoned above an osteria called Barsanta54. This was a little haven of nice arty furniture, but with a little class and not pretentious. Lovely waitress, the perfect ambience and delicious food. I can highly recommend this place to you. Foto J Finnigan 
And so, back to our little neck of the woods on the edge of Chianti; morning coffee and newspapers at La Dispensa in Fiano. I noticed in the paper that U2 is here on tour and Bono, bless his little cotton socks, has quoted “Thank you Italians for your love that you show for the refugees, others would be ashamed…” Mmmm, not sure if he has the whole picture here, but that is what he obviously believes. Foto La Repubblica.
In the same newspaper, I was really pleased to find some Rock Chick Fashion in Florence, with models that are happy and smiley, and I love the handbags. Go to The Bridge’s 
Anyway, In the countryside the grape harvest is all but done and the olive groves will shortly be full of imported workers and enthusiasts to pick the lovely healthy looking olives. So it is anticipated to be a good year for Extra Virgin Olive Oil this year, unlike 2017. Whoopee! Foto La Republica.
Anyway, enough of that, lets look back at the week, after all, that’s why you are here. Well, like most other countries in the world, Italy celebrated Halloween. In fact, the Italians go crazy for it, young and old dress up in the most outrageous costumes and parade around the streets wearing death masks! The next day is All Soul’s Day, or Day of the Dead, when everyone remembers their dear departed family and friends. The graveyards here are quite spectacular, always lit by red candles or lights, and masses of flowers both fresh & false, so the effect is a glittering welcoming place. There is a mix of concrete buildings where the dead are laid one on top of another, family tombs and graves in the ground, all attended regularly and kept bright and cheerful. I think some of the larger cemeteries should be included in Cultural Tours; I’m not sure if that would be allowed, but you can nip in and walk around anyway. Foto La Repubblica.
In the run up to Halloween, all the shopkeepers enter into the ‘spirit’ of things, including my man’s favourite Panetteria in Certaldo. In the picture, you will see the staff behind the counter wearing little hats and the counter loaded up with cakes and goodies for the festivities. On Saturday mornings, whilst I do the fruit, veg and cheese shopping in the mercato, my man pops down Via Giugno to get bread and sometimes Pizza for supper. He says, it is the best bakers in the whole area! Foto P Finnigan.
Meanwhile, back in our little bit of the Chianti countryside, the last two weeks has been busy with olive picking. Foreign faces are everywhere; some come for the much-needed work, whilst others treat picking olives as a fun holiday. Brightly coloured nets are spread out under the trees and not one little olive will be overlooked. Sadly, the harvest has been rather small this year, following the terrible summer drought. However, the resulting oil is absolutely delicious. Foto J Finnigan.
There has also been lots of tree felling. Mostly small-leaved oak trees, that are now in a big pile a few yards from our front gate. It’s a sad sight, I always feel a little bereft at the thought of any tree being chopped down, but I guess the woodland does need managing to some degree. My man bought a new chainsaw last year and he has yet to use it. The temptation to go out there with his boy’s toy, is eating away at him! He reckons we could pretend that we thought it was our own log delivery! O Dio! Anyway, behind the pile of logs the vineyard is looking very beautiful and it won’t be long before all the vines are bare. So we should relax and enjoy it, not think about pinching other people’s logs! Well,on the other hand….. Foto P Finnigan
Gosh, it’s nearly lunchtime and I should go and get changed. It’s currently thundering and raining, so we need to go over to C’era una Volta’ in Lucardo and enjoy the hot food, wine, the company of good friends and forget the weather. On arrival my man orders some fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil and toast, because he wants to taste the new stuff. The oil is Paolo’s own and the colour alone tells you how recently it has been cold pressed. Yummy! Foto J Finnigan
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