a little bit of tuscany

Seeing as it is Friday and all I can think about at the moment is not being at work, I thought I might share a bit about my recent trip to Italy.  It's nice to think about being somewhere beautiful and relaxing on a Friday afternoon, I think.

So Tuscany is amazing.  A-MA-ZING!  We spent 6 days in Radda in Chianti and totally fell in love with the place.  How could you not though?  Everywhere we turned was stunning view after stunning view.  It's such a cute little place with a small group of shops and a few lovely restaurants and eateries too.

And then there's the Chianti!  I'm telling you now that if you have had Chianti before and thought, "hmmm, that's a bit ordinary" it is because you are drinking cheap Chianti made only to import to us daft foreigners that don't know any better.  I was one of those people too!  Keep your eye out for Chianti Classico because we can get it here in Australia (and I'm presuming in other countries too - it will have a small sticker with a black rooster on it) and it is delicious.  We spent one day driving around to different places and tasting wine - mostly Chianti Classico and Chianti Classio Riserva given the region.  It was fantastic! One thing we had learnt pretty early on about Italy is that they don't particularly like signage.  Including road signs, signs to direct you to the toilets, or signs to let you know that an establishment is in fact a winery and does welcome people in for wine tasting.  If not for the help of some very lovely locals we would never have found any of the wineries that offered tastings.  Lucky for us we did because it was such a memorable experience.

I could talk about Tuscany forever but I won't.  Except I have to tell you that Tuscany was also the place that I had the best pasta dish of my life - spinach ravioli with a white truffle sauce.  It was so so so good!  Washed down with a bottle of Chianti Classico, of course!

Now I would like to buy a farmhouse in Radda in Chianti, set up my sewing machine near a giant window and do nothing but sew, listen to music, and look out at the magnificant views forever.  Oh, and maybe eat some pasta and drink some wine too.  You're all welcome to come and visit of course!

Enjoy your weekend!

friday-itis

Originally uploaded by ricsen via Flickr

If you're one of those office-bound types like me, you might need a lovely picture of Tuscany to brighten your Friday afternoon. Doesn't it just look divine?

Can you imagine me there?  I totally can!  Maybe living up in that house on the hill.  I am very much looking forward to visiting this insanely beautiful area soon.

Hope you have something lovely and inspiring to look forward to as well.

Happy (almost) weekend!

guess what?

I am going here!  To Venice!  Can you believe it?!


By MorBCN via Flickr

In October this year I shall be heading over to London and Europe for a yet-to-be-decided time (probably a few weeks).  My lovely husband has a training course in London, and we'll be tacking on some extra time for a trip to Italy.

Hooray!  Yay!  Woohoo!

If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited.  Expect lots of Italian references popping up around here for the next few months.

Note:  I have just decided that we will be going to Italy, and informed my husband of this decision.  My husband has graciously accepted this.  He is lovely like that.