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FREEZING IN CHIANTI

Sunday, 05 September 2010 12:19
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After Roma we headed up to the beautiful Villa Marcella in Chianti. A magnificent large Tuscan homestead which was once part of a large Chianti wine estate but now is in the village of Cavriglia being built in the last 2 centuries. It was really now very cold in Tuscany and the villa was very hard to heat with central heating as it was so large.

Luckily the village in that same week was holding an olive oil festival and they had a massive 24 hr fire going in the middle of the piazza so at night we would head down there to sample the wonderful Tuscan cheeses and salamis and a fantastic sangria - hot red wine wine. There is no doubt that the Italian food has so much more taste than my country. I am sure it is because they do not allow genetic hybrids to be used for their fruit and vegetable. They were smart enough to know that if you interfere with nature there is always a consequence.

The children were keen to meet some other young teenagers and the village seemed devoid of young people. Where are they we asked!! We decided to go to the village café and I swung open the door and saw it was filled with teenagers playing cards. "Here they all are!", I shouted without thinking and suddenly the whole café looked up and my children were mortified at the attention as only teenagers can be."Mum we are going to kill you!" they mumbled through their teeth and I could not stop laughing at my gaff!! We had a quick drink as they could not wait to get out of there as they were subjected to stares that only Italian teenage boys can do.

We spent the week hunting for decent firewood and buying wonderful food to cook as well as trying once again to get the internet pen to work but I could only find pine that smoked and burnt up quickly in one night. We were freezing to death. We had our coats and beanies on inside the villa and I thought we have to head to the sun. The thick stone walls of the villa proved too solid for internet waves to get through and working outside in 5 degrees on my laptop was becoming ridiculous so I decided to pack up after a week and head to Liguria and Rapallo to find the sun if that was possible in the Italian winter.