I spent several months in Italy this year. There was lots of work to do in the garden at Casa Debbio and the renovation of our little balcony at the apartment in Ponte a Serraglio.
This took up quite a lot of my time and we didn’t do as much travelling in Italy as we would have liked, but we did manage a few trips.
There were a few stand out destinations.
The Chianti area of Tuscany always calls us and we love to drive through the beautiful hills. We went in spring and drove along our favourite road near Siena.
Spello was a delightful discovery. It is a beautiful pink hilltop town in Umbria. It is quite small, but has an excellent collection of lovely buildings, sophisticated shops and restaurants.
I returned to Spello again for the Infioriata when the streets are decorated with gorgeous floral murals which only last one day.
Massa Marittima was a delightful surprise. It is not really on the tourist trail, but was recommended by a friend. It is southern Tuscany in the Maremma region and is a very interesting ancient town with magnificent buildings, a lovely park and some great views over the surrounding countryside. We will definitely return one day soon.
We stayed in a stunning hotel at Punta Ala on the Maremma coast. It really is one of the loveliest places I have visited. The garden inspired me to rush back to Casa Debbio to do more work.
I was very lucky to be invited to Rome to stay at the amazing Baglioni Hotel in the Via Veneto. I joined a group of bloggers and we were taken on the Great Beauty tour of Rome, following in the footsteps of the main character of the movie.
A trip to Venice is always wonderful. We had 5 glorious days there discovering and rediscovering the delights of this watery city.
Later in the year I visited Sant’Anna di Stazzema, the site of a horrific massacre in WWII. There is a tragic, but excellent museum that should be visited to remind us of the dreadful things that happen in war.
2015 is not far away and I will return to Italy soon to continue with the garden. There will be a bit more time next year to seek out new adventures.