EVENING IN AREZZO

wandering the streets of Arezzo,

the suprise of Dolce & Gabbana 

in one of the rooms at a local museum,

the chatter from the open windows of a tiny restaurant packed with locals

 streaming down a tiny alleyway,

always a good sign when trying to decide where to eat.  

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ITALY STORIES II, TUSCANY

for the first week,

we stayed bang smack in the countryside,

a handsome row of cypresses leading to our home away from home.

Asciano was the closest town,

Siena a short drive away,

so that's where we began our explorations.

something inviting about the simplicity of the church in Asciano, I thought.

we'd seen Siena already before.

it's where many years ago,

my husband blurted out

'if we ever have a daughter,

we should call her Sienna.' 

now we got to show our daughter Sienna

her namesake city for the first time.

Siena basking in an evening glow.

our base was pretty lovely with its antique beds

& cool white sheets.

Patti Smith's Devotion and a glass of chilled white wine

was the perfect riposo recipe.

more to come...

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ITALY STORIES, A BEGINNING

not quite knowing where to begin,

I'll begin at the beginning.

a simple, one-night stopover just outside Rome

after flying in in the afternoon

with the plan to carry on to Tuscany the next day. 

Bracciano was the name of the town 

we ignorantly knew nothing about.

we found ourselves in the middle of textures,

a balmy evening slowly transforming itself into a velvety night,

little dark-haired girls in floaty dresses

& tiny boys with their deep brown eyes twirling with their bikes on the piazza. 

nearly three heat-drenched weeks

stretching ahead of us...

and the first of our changing nests to curl into at night.

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