A Month In The Life Of An English Writer In Tuscany - October

The continuing adventures of June Finnigan, her Man, and Farty Barty the cat.

The highlights of October, here in our little bit of Chianti, included the grape harvest and a visit from my lovely mother-in-law to celebrate her eighty-eighth birthday!

Gi-Gi, my mother-in-law, was welcomed back by the village locals, which made her feel very important. Over birthday lunch at Ristorante ‘C’era Una Volta’ in Lucardo, she enjoyed her favourite ‘lambs chops’ and later burst into song over her digestivo di limoncello. She has a lovely operatic voice, which though now a little shaky, had the whole restaurant clapping and singing with her. Later there were four generations of Finnigans at our villa for afternoon tea.

Our favourite bar in our local village of Fiano is Laura’s bar/Alimentari where we go for coffee, bread and a few groceries. Laura and her family have been a little unlucky of late, what with her daughter Benedetta’s broken foot and Laura’s scolded hand, they seem a little accident-prone. We are very fond of them and the rest of the villagers, who consider us true Tuscans now, or ToscanoDoc. One of the regulars, whom we have nicknamed Sig Rotund, always keeps the local newspaper back for my man to read. They have a certain ‘man’ thing and like to chat about sport. When a few more local men join in and the subject turns to calcio, (football) the conversation can get very heated! Driving back from Fiano one morning, we were all horrified to see a river of wine flowing down the track towards us from Villa Bacio. On closer inspection, we could see grape skins in the wine and realised that it was an overflow of waste, but by golly, it smelt good...

http://www.expatfocus.com/c/aid=1366/columnists/june-finnigan/a-month-in-the-life-of-an-english-writer-in-tuscany---october/