Ah Tuscany!

Morning view

Sunday and once again I found myself on a freccia heading back to Treviso.  I didn’t expect to be on one of Italy’s rather efficient (yes I did just use the words Italy and efficient in the same sentence) trains this weekend.  Little did I think on Friday as I was making the weekly trip to the armpit of the Veneto that I would be spending the evening having dinner with Melbourne friends in a restaurant garden in the Tuscan countryside. 

My friend R and her husband B have been in Italy since May, they come to Italy every year for the warmer months – escaping the Melbourne winter and call the town of Lucignano home for this period.  Between lessons at the mineral powder company R called and suggested that I come down to their little town in Tuscany for the weekend and I couldn’t think of any reason not to.  After lessons T rushed us back to Treviso (J couldn’t face any more trips to Werhnam Hogg so Fridays are now on the road with T and Raj.)  I ran home threw a few things in a bag and jumped on a train.  By early evening I’d made it to Arezzo where there was a grand reunion with R and B before a drive to their small piece of Tuscay. 

Contrada colours

Driving through the Tuscan landscape I felt a world away from the Veneto.  Seemingly endless hills filled with olive groves or vinyards.  Tall, feather like cypress trees that act as absurdly picturesque exclamation marks to the beauty of the place.  Lucignano sits on top of a hill overlooking a valley; the town is tiny (perhaps 200 inhabitants) and like every other medieval Italian town utterly charming.  Being so small the place takes about 10 minutes to walk around, physically that is.  R has been coming here for many years now and is a quasi local which means any walk around the town involves stopping and chatting with everyone you meet.  Lucignano like all of the towns I visited over the weekend was festooned with flags in the contrada colours.  The town is divided into different quarters called contradas.  In times gone (not too sure what the situation is now) the contradas would have their own church, take care of the young and sick in their quarter etc.  This period sees many festivities culminating in a contrada dinner where each quarter hosts a street party.  Wandering around the towns of Tuscany covered in a multitude of flags I began to think about the loyalty people must have not just for their region, country or town but for their neighbourhood.  With this fierce loyalty is it really a surprise that national unity is so often questioned in such a young country? 

The first evening and I was introduced to the small yet established expat community of the town – Americans and Brits who have somehow found this little town and either make annual visits or live here permanently.  It seems to me that there are two kinds of expat: those like R and B who engage with the locals and become part of the community and those who don’t learn the language and live in a sort of bubble only socialising with other English speakers.  R is certain that the bar where they drink makes its entire year’s profit in those three months when the expats are in town!      

Saturday morning and after coffee overlooking the valley we headed out to visit some of the other gorgeous towns in the area.  Cortona, our first stop, sits prettily atop another high promontory over looking yet more rolling hills.  Cortona itself is a beautifully preserved medieval town with winding streets and steep gradients.  It was this town that an American woman bought a rundown old villa, restored it and wrote a book called “Under the Tuscan sun.”  Evidence of the book’s success can be seen in the number of tour buses pulling up, the real estate prices and the new American University in the town.  Next on our little tour was Montepulciano – another picture postcard hill top medieval town.  Walking its steep streets I couldn’t help but think of the feet of engineering and labour it must have taken to build these towns.  Although of the same era Tuscan medieval architecture is a world away from the Venetian.  With its large windows and half Middle Eastern half Romanesque arches Venetian buildings feel light and delicate as opposed to the solidity of the Tuscan buildings.  The fact that almost every town had its own imposing tower and heavy walls is an indication to the uncertain times that people were living in. 

Tower and Cypress trees, where else but Tuscany?

That evening after yet more glorious food with B watching 22 grown men kick a ball around a field R and I sat on the terrazzo drinking beautiful Tuscan wine and watching the light over the valley fade into night we both talked of our Italian adventures and ruminated on just how ridiculously enjoyable our Italian experiences are.  Often while going about my day to day activities I have a moment when I think to myself how nice life is and it’s good to know I’m not the only one who finds it so.  Sunday came around all too soon and after a lazy morning coffee with the expats, a couple more ridiculously scenic towns and lunch it was time to say our goodbyes and for me to head back up north.  Getting back to Treviso I felt like I’d been away for days.