I have been writing Bagni di Lucca and Beyond since 2009. I started writing it to help friends staying at our Italian apartment with their travels in the area and Italy in general.
Nobody was more surprised than I was that it gathered a following. The busy years were 2012 – 2017 when each blog post attracted thousands of views. That has dwindled over the years as people have become less interested in blogs. I rarely look at statistics these days, which is just as well. I looked recently to discover that each post gets a few hundred views at most and each time a write a post I lose a follower.
It would be disheartening, but I really only write for myself these days to record the places I have been, a diary where I can remind myself of interesting visits. I write about places I like and might like to return to, so I can find where I stayed and a good restaurant to revisit. It has also been interesting to document the growth of the garden at Casa Debbio. It is nice that there a still a few people following.
I am now back in lovely Italy for a few months. I have returned to rain and cool weather and I love it. The river is roaring past our apartment in Ponte a Serraglio and we have had heavy rain overnight. I love to stand at the window and watch the river and the mists rolling through the mountains.
I went up to our mountain house to find the garden full of daffodils, rosemary bushes covered in flowers and my peonies starting to appear. The signs of spring are very early this year. Everyone has been telling me how warm this winter has been.
Helibores are looking great.
Bees are buzzing around the rosemary flowers.
Some allysum is still flowering.
A few other things are still flowering.
The weeping cherry will soon be in bloom.
The red camellia bush is covered in flowers.
Daphne has the most beautiful fragrance.
Acanthus s thriving.
Artichokes are well on the way.
Most of my peonies have started to grow. Some are still little pink points poking out of the ground, some have leaves and one bush has small buds…much too early.
It is going to be fun to watch the garden come to life in the next few weeks and months. It is a great time to be in Italy.
Thank you to those who continue to follow my blog and a special thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!
Update…I have dropped 6 followers since I wrote this post…a record….interesting.