STEFANO IN MILANO

• I caught up with my friend Stefano after 8 years. We’ve both aged (and enjoyed pointing this fact out to each other) … a few harsh winters! We enjoyed chatting over a café – he laughing at my Italian and me at his English. He used the term absof%ckinglutely – I nearly fell off my chair roaring with laughter. Hopefully Stefano will come down to the Villa;
• Left Milano around noon and drove to the villa in Tuscany (3.5 hour drive). More speeding, tolls costing €18 and narrow, winding roads leading to my new little town in the hills of Tuscnay (Barberino Val D’Esa) … words cannot describe the beautiful landscape here, nor can a Canon EOS for that matter;
• The owners of the Villa (whom I expected speak no English and was correct) live 3 Citroens away (that is my car and my new measurement) and they are a lovely couple who asked (no demanded) that I join them at their family-run restaurant for dinner (which is 125 Citroens away). They specalise in truffles and Chianti that they grow … ok … arm twisted and the food was sensational not to mention the Chianti and it’s set looking over the beautiful Chianti hills.