Tag Archives: italy

Fiesole

Initially I thought that I was going to be staying in Fiesole for the entire trip. The description of the villa and some of the directions mentioned it explicitly so before flying out I made some effort to read up on the place. It turns out that it’s actually older than the now much larger city of Florence (Firenze). As such it has its own respectable church and some fairly extensive Etruscan ruins.

View from Fiesole, Italy

In the end the villa was actually nearer Santa Brigida but the reading was not wasted and I ended up visiting Fiesole on a couple of occasions.

Etruscan ruins, Fiesole, Italy

It’s an attractive town. The main square would likely have been very pretty had it not been under construction, there’s a nice view of Florence (no picture as the only time I was there I didn’t get a picture) and the Etruscan ruins are extensive.

Fiesole, Italy

In the afternoon I was going to head down the hill into Florence itself.

Tuscany, Italy

Rain in Fiesole, ItalyHead to continental Europe too early in the year and you’re likely to get rain. Or go too late and all the locals are on holiday and everywhere is overrun with other tourists. May seemed like a good compromise so we hired a big villa and all flew over to Tuscany.

In the end we got a bit of everything. Some rain, some sun; some areas with more English and German spoken than Italian, some parts where no-one spoke any foreign language; some good food and some really great food; and some fine wines and some fantastic.

Tuscan villa, Italy

As a taster for the sights and tastes we experienced, consider that the place that we stayed made their own wine and olive oil. One of the first things we did on arrival was the tour.

Chianti wine casks

It was fascinating to learn of the different types of wine and the variations in the quality of olive oil.

Wine bottles

As always we packed a lot in, so much that I have split our activities over the following pages:

Enjoy!

In reply to “family holiday in tuscany”

So B “tagged” me on her recent blog of our recent holiday in Tuscany. I have not quite got my act together for the full photographic and textual story of the trip just yet, but I couldn’t let a couple of her comments pass…

Firstly, and least controversially, she suggested that you ask me for my picture of the rain on the car windscreen. I am happy to oblige:

Rain in Fiesole, Italy

You can’t quite make out how high the rain-drops were bouncing off the car bonnet but you get the idea, and it’s not too shabby for a camera phone picture.

The second is me lying upside down on a well in Poppi, on the 22nd with the caption “I’m sure S can explain this.” What can I say other than I suffer for my art?

The result is the following picture:

Poppi castle, Tuscany, Italy

It’s not the best picture that I’ve ever taken, but I’ve certainly done far worse.

Stay tuned for the full blog entry.