La Dolce Vita

Tuscany is turning me into a blonde...a chubby blonde. It's hot and dry and most mornings we spend in a semi comatose state out by the pool recovering from last night's dinner alla Marcella.

Yesterday I woke early and took a long walk up the hill and then across the ridge to La Foce, passing fields of fava beans and wheat and olive trees. It was Sunday and there was no one on the road. Even the sheep dogs were sleeping, thank goodness. Usually they bark and bark as I approach and sometimes come out of the fence and follow me, gnarling fiercely all the way, until I am deemed sufficiently distant from their precious sheep.

It's amazing how different the landscape looks every day. When we came, the wheat was barely inches tall and now it's three feet high and swaying in the wind like waves in the ocean. Each day another field is plowed making a patchwork of green and gold stripes. The bushes of bright yellow broom with its passionate and powerful aroma are almost gone but red poppies and wild roses are everywhere along the road along with tiny pick and purple flowers. It's been almost four weeks but I am still completely enraptured by my surroundings.

Most of our excursions take place at the end of the day when the sun is cooled off and the light is golden. One day we drove to Pienza and another to Radicofane, coming back to Casselocche just in time for sunset and prosecco.