Amber in Tuscany
If you want to feel that you are inside an impressionist painting, go to Tuscany.
To really experience and savor the landscape, you’ll need to go for long drives. There are countless tiny towns scattered across the Tuscan countryside, each one serving as a destination, or an excuse, to drive through the rolling hills. All of these quaint little towns inevitably have a small central piazza to stroll through, a church, a gelato shop, a café and then something unique- perhaps whimsical sculptures decorating the piazza, or a shop selling black squid ink pasta or pottery painted with colorful roosters, or a bakery with fluffy focaccia studded with olives and soaked in their oil.
As you drive through different parts of Tuscany, the landscape ranges from yellow sun scorched fields, dotted with tightly rolled bales of hay, to cool green forests with fragrant pine trees and wild deer, to rocky beaches and secret coves lined with fuchsia bougainvillea and palm trees, to my absolute favorite; the landscape of the Chianti valley.
I’ve never seen such soft, dreamy scenery in my life. Every rose bush and grape vine, every cypress tree and olive tree looks like it’s been hand painted by Monet or Renoir using slightly blurry pastel colors; gentle greens and lilac blues with dashes of golden and pink. Everything is washed in a sun-kissed haze, creating scenes of captivating beauty and tranquility.
A camera wasn’t enough- everywhere I looked, I felt like I needed a gold picture frame to hold up and capture what I was seeing, into a painting worthy of hanging on the walls of a museum.
All through Tuscany we drove…from Fiesole to Florence to Figline Valdarno, to Montalcino to Montapulciano to Montefollonico, to Pienza to Porto Ercole to Volpaia, to Greve to Lucca to Radda in Chianti. We drank in the scenery, and I ate gluttonous amounts of pasta with fresh truffles, and wandered the streets of Florence buying gothic jewelry and gazing at The Birth of Venus and Doni Tondo. And we drove some more through the rolling Tuscan hills stopping to indulge in coffee flavored gelato, or to buy local honey from a farmhouse, or to photograph the fields of sunflowers. Life feels slow and languid, and beauty is everywhere you look.
While I find the landscape of the Chianti valley the most beautiful, my favorite hotel is in the Siena region. Lupaia is a countryside estate, originally built in 1622 and hidden deep amongst the hills of Siena. It is a haven of peace and tranquility, very tastefully decorated, the staff wonderfully discreet and professional.
Every detail at Lupaia has been thought of and you can see the love that’s been put into it by the Austrian owners. In unexpected nooks and crannies you’ll find fresh roses in tiny jars, or a sprig of lavender on your pillow, or the minibar secreted behind a muslin curtain. What struck me most was the abundance of flowers everywhere; never ending roses in yellow, white, pink, and red. The roses climb up the old stone walls of the houses, they wind around wooden lattices, they spray up out of the earth, their petals like silk and their scent like perfume. Velvety bees hum and buzz around lazily, and the occasional butterfly flutters across your line of vision. Small lizards slither and dart amongst the pebbles, a brilliant stripe of green emblazoned on their backs. The smell of freshly cut grass creates the heavenly feeling of summer.
There is a spectacular view of Montepulciano, high atop the highest hill in sight, an old medieval town, its turrets and rooftops rising above its walls. From here to there lie layers of green hills, frosted in yellow flowers, and the few houses that dot the landscape are all surrounded by the signature cypress trees...
So, I’ll repeat…if you want to feel that you are inside an impressionist painting, please, go to Tuscany…
Amber's Recommendations
AMBER STAYED AT:
Lupaia in Siena – a romantic and luxurious country estate secluded among the hills of Siena
Villa La Palagina in Figline Valdarno - 18th century restored farmhouse with magnificent views and basic rooms
The Four Seasons in Florence - historic, palatial hotel with the largest and most beautiful private garden in Florence
AMBER ATE AT:
La Bottega di Volpaia - rustic Tuscan restaurant on the edge of a picturesque village surrounded by gorgeous hills and views
La Loggia Restaurant at Belmond Villa San Michel in Fiesole - elegant former monastery with a romantic restaurant overlooking Florence and a dreamy garden for sunset drinks
La Bussola in Florence - casual spot with excellent pizza, sit at the bar and order the goose salami pizza
La Locanda di Pietracupa - a touch more modern and elegant than the typical Tuscan restaurants, with a terrace and back garden
Venchi – gelato and chocolate, yes it’s a chain, but it’s honestly the best gelato experience to be found
AMBER PLAYED AT:
The Ufizzi Gallery – art museum packed with some of the world’s greatest masterpieces
AMBER SHOPPED AT:
Alessandro Dari Gioielli - an eccentric goldsmith with a workshop that looks like a gothic art gallery, filled with fantastic one of a kind jewelry and sculptures
Alcozer & J – Italian-made artisan costume jewelry: think burnished brass, pearls, crowns and jeweled frogs
AMBER READ:
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
AMBER LOVED:
The soft, dreamy scenery with its green and golden glow, the truffle pasta.
Reading in Tuscany:
While in Italy, I read Call Me By Your Name by an author whose work I greatly admire: Andre Aciman. I’ve read all of his novels and absolutely love his writing style. When I fall in love with an author’s work I become desperate to meet them, to see how these people with these beautiful minds move around in the real world, what they look like, how they talk. I had the opportunity to attend one of his book readings at one of my favorite bookstores on Prince Street in Soho, NYC. I was surprised at how much I did not warm up to Aciman in person; he came across as self-obsessed, affected and oozing disdain for the world around him. It’s ironic how we can expect someone we don’t know to be a certain way, and then be disappointed and feel betrayed when they’re not.
I am still a huge fan of Aciman’s writing. His precision with language is impeccable, meticulous, spot on. His own mixed identity informs much of his writing – born in Egypt to a Jewish Turkish family, speaker of Italian and French and raised partly in Italy, current American citizen, Aciman speaks frequently about his identity. Linked to this, other common themes in his work are belonging or not belonging, searching for a home that may or may not exist, nostalgia for a time and place we can’t define, longing to be understood for who we truly are whether we are even able to articulate it or not. Perhaps due to my own mixed background, these themes resonate strongly with me.
Call Me by Your Name is a novel that takes place in an old family home in the Italian countryside, where the parents of the main character Elio host a different academic every summer to allow them a space to work on their research. They inevitably become part of the family, spending long, lazy summer hours discussing history, philosophy, linguistics, literature and manuscripts. Young Elio immediately develops an infatuation for the charming and carefree summer guest Oliver, and what unfolds is a story of desire, anticipation, longing, and the aching and urgent need to be seen, understood, and recognized. The Italian setting is part of the story, with the two young men biking through the picturesque countryside and drinking at bars in the piazzas, walking to the beach or lounging by the pool under the Mediterranean sun, plucking apricots from trees in the orchard, debating the etymology of ‘apricot’ and allowing their imagination and lust to infuse the fruit with a symbolic sexuality. The whole book simmers with sensuality, angst and infatuation. When, in a moment of intimacy, you can call someone else by your own name, you have discovered within them something of yourself that goes deeper than what any physical union can express… Aciman’s writing is simply stunning.