While I was waiting for the dog to finish sniffing around and checking every single blade of grass that hasn’t already turned yellow under the sun of this warm spring, I smelled it: the smell of the end of the school year, the smell of the beginning of the summer holidays. Well, technically schools won’t close for another month, but the air already has “that smell” of grass and wild flowers and hay… of summer. And that means that the warm evenings are here, the long days have arrived, when you have plenty of time to finish your homework and still go out with your friends before dinner.

It’s funny how, for some people, memories and smells are interwoven. And the most fascinating thing is how they hit you all of a sudden, when you least expect it, and they bring back “things” you hadn’t thought of in a long time. Sometimes they bring about the awareness of things that you had never noticed before.

Today it was a bit like that: I had never realized that the smell of the wildflowers and the overgrown grass in the fields meant “almost the holidays” to me. It was a great feeling! I had the instinct to sit down on the grass and lay in the sun… of course I didn’t because my dog had already taken care of most of those patches of tall grass! LOL

BUT, now I am left with the desire to take my book and go read under an oak tree at my parents’ place in the countryside or to go have a picnic somewhere on Monte Amiata, on some lawn where I can walk on the grass with bare feet! Better start planning!

It’s finally here: the sun, the cool breeze, the birds, the flowers, the grass, the buds on the trees. I always think it’s my favourite season, then when November arrives and the countryside is so beautiful, I think that the fall is…! The first warm evenings are so beautiful and quiet…

Since my last post, we have spend some time in Civitella, my village, getting ready for the new tourist season and enjoying the countryside. We had the pleasure of having Giulia, owner of the amazing holiday farm La Locanda della Valle Nuova near Urbino, and Letizia and her husband from the beautiful Alla Madonna del Piatto near Assisi over for lunch last Sunday. We “met” on the Slow Travel Forum several years ago and after a first “Slow Travel Inn Keepers GTG” we have made a habit of meeting at least once a year. Who says that you can’t meet real friends online?!

We missed a few “pieces” this year: Diana from Baur B&B, Megan of Bella Vita Italia and Rebecca of Brigolante Guest Apartments. They had last minute “impediments”, but we hope that next year we will manage to get together!

We had a great time with our friend Francesca, and with Giulia, Letizia and Ruurd. We always have so much to catch up on! And we always eat way too much!

Casina di Rosa, our vacation rental south of Siena, is almost ready for the new season! The first guests will arrive on Saturday! This week we had to be in Pisa, so I asked my friend Lorella, the amazing florist of Fiori e Dintorni, to go and fix up our loggia with flowers! A bit of landscaping!

In March, we didn’t rent our holiday apartment in Pisa, Behind the Tower, because we wanted to do some structural work. We have finally installed an air-conditioning system, because the city gets very hot in the summer and we have wanted to do this for a long time.  Of course being so close to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we were not allowed to install the dual split machines, so we installed the large machines with no external unit. They are huge, but hopefully they will make our guests’ stay more pleasant.

The weather in Pisa has been amazing lately. Today it was 22°C (72°F)! I went to the park with the dog and it was full of people reading on the grass, laying in the sun, or exercising! Last weekend the city celebrated the Pisan New Year’s Day (March 25), and this weekend the city center will be turned into a large garden for Pisa in Fiore, the flower festival!

But the image which best describes how great it feels to be out in the sun these days is no doubt this photo of Nina, one of my dad’s puppies, lying in the sun!

No doubt she was enjoying it!!!

So here you go: if you are considering whether to spend some time in Pisa in March or April, this will hopefully help you make up your mind (and book your flight!).

Pisa and the celebrations for the Unification of Italy

This year, on March 17th to be exact, we will celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy and it will actually be a national holiday. Celebrations will happen in most cities I’d imagine. Pisa celebrates the Unification of the country with an exhibition at Palazzo Blu called Donne d’Italia. La metà dell’unità. The exhibit, open from March 16th to June 26th, will be free of charge, and a fabulous idea I would like to add, because the role of women who made the country is not very well known (the link is to a post I wrote last year about the topic).

Two more exhibitions celebrate the Unification of Italy: one about the role of Pisa in the Unification process at the University Library - Palazzo della Sapienza in Piazza Dante – (“1859-1861 – Il contributo di Pisa all’unità d’Italia”) and one at the Museo della Grafica at Palazzo Lanfranchi on the Lungarno (“Luigi Torelli, Prefetto di Pisa dal 1862 al 1865″).

And last but not least, the Notte Bianca, Rossa e Verde (the white, red and green night), a “street party” by Ponte di Mezzo on March 16, from 9:30 pm to 3 am, with a midnight toast to our 150 year old country!

The Truffle Season!

On March 19 and 20, the ancient village of Cigoli, which we happened to discover only few weeks ago, celebrates its Tartufo Marzolino, a local variety of truffle with Mostra Mercato del Tartufo Marzolino di Cigoli. The Marzolino Truffle is also the protagonist of Voterra Gusto on the weekend of March 25-27.

Happy New Year!

That’s right! Few people know of the Capodanno Pisano, the Pisan New Year, but it’s a great event. From the 12th century until 1749, Pisa had its own calendar, different from the Gregorian calendar. March 25th, the day of the Annunciation – the Catholic celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus – was New Year’s Day.

The new year officially begins when a sunbeam strikes a marble egg placed in the Cathedral, above the beautiful pulpit sculpted by Giovanni Pisano. The sunbeam enters the beautiful church from a small round window located in the chapel of San Ranieri: a very ingenious solar clock!

This year the city has planned lots of events around the Capodanno Pisano. Many restaurants and bars will organize dinners to wait for the arrival of the “new year” (yes, on March 25th, it will be 2012 in Pisa!), music, celebrations and parties. On the 25th, there will be the usual parade in period costumes to the Cathedral. We went last year and it was fabulous!

March 25 will also be the official beginning of tourist season. Pisa and its province celebrate with a weekend rich in events: guided tours of Pisa, Volterra and Castelnuovo Val di Cecina; special offers at spas and wellness centers in Casciana and San Giuliano Terme; extended opening hours of churches in Pisa, Calci and Cascina and of museums (Fauglia, Peccioli, Montecatini Val di Cecina) and monuments (Brunelleschi’s “Rocca” in Vicopisano and Rocca Sillana in Pomarance); wine tasting in Pisa and Peccioli; urban trekking in Pontedera; the Chocolate Festival in San Miniato and Tirrenia; sport events at the hippodrome of San Rossore and Marina di Pisa; days dedicated to traditional recipes in restaurants; shopping tours in the leather district in Santa Croce; art exhibitions in Calcinaia; plays in Lari; fireworks on the Lungarni in Pisa and good music in the streets!

So, if you are thinking of visiting Pisa in March, that weekend is no doubt the best time of the month to do it. More on the Pisa Unica Terra website.

A weekend at the spas

During the Capodanno Pisano Weekend (March 25-27), the spas of the Pisa province will celebrate with “Terme Aperte” (literally “open spas”). Casciana Terme, Terme Villa Borri and Bagni di Pisa in San Giuliano Terme open the doors of their spas: free entry to their gardens, parks and hotel facilities. Moreover, reduced prices are offered to access the thermal pools and spa treatments, as well as on accommodation and on their beauty products. A unique opportunity to treat yourself to a special weekend of relaxation, art and culture.

Celebrating the blooms of the spring

From April 1st to the 3rd, lovers of flowers will find several interesting events in Pisa and its province. Pisa will become a garden in bloom with its festival Pisa in Fiore (Pisa in Bloom). And on April 2nd and 3rd the Convent of Nicosia in Calci opens the doors of its garden for the annual event dedicated to this beautiful flower Il Chiostro delle Camelie. Here is a related article on April flower-related events in Tuscany.

We also woke up to find the plum trees in the back of our house covered in a cascade of delicate white flowers! So beautiful! The trees are quite tall and I literally had to walk under an arch of flowers to take our dog out!

Too bad the saying “una rondine non fa primavera” (“one swallow does not make a summer”) is true. Dark clouds are gathering quickly. We had planned an Easter BBQ at my parents’ place in the countryside but it looks like this year Easter will come with rain… we’ll see. In the meanwhile, I have decided to bring spring into our home with some beautiful light pink and yellow tulips!

In many churches throughout the world, palm leaves are blessed and offered to the people at the mass. Not in Tuscany, though: here we get “l’olivo benedetto“, a blessed branch from an olive tree.

The choice of the olive tree over palm leaves is obvious: palm trees are not really common in Tuscany, whereas olive trees are and they are pruned at this time of the year, so it is very easy for churches to get some branches to bless and give away.

We keep them as a blessing to our homes (well, to the homes of those who believe at least). People who don’t go to the mass, though, in small communities like ours, are probably getting a branch anyway: kids go door to door delivering bags filled with the blessed leaves and in return they get a few euros for the church. Everybody gives something, even those who don’t believe or who do, but never go to church (lots of those in Italy).

The olive tree pruning season is a big deal and has a ritual of  its own. Every farmer has his own secret tricks for pruning: it’s a very important operation, which can determine the success or the failure of the harvest.

My dad loves pruning olive trees. He waits for the perfect time, prepares his tools, and finally spends hours in his olive groves every day. Complicated years like this are an interesting challenge for him: first it gets cold, then it gets warm, then it snows, then it gets really warm again! He’s always proud of himself when he gets the timing right!

He took a course once. And he spent the whole time mocking the instructor, because he believed that the techniques being taught were not suitable for our area. Apparently he was right, because he always gets fabulous harvests even if he does his own thing. And he loves poking fun at the other people he met in the course (most of them were new to olive growing) and who follow the “rules” and get poorer results!

After pruning the trees, the branches need to be moved away from the trunk of the tree. Most people burn them or give them away to some company who uses them to make compost. My dad uses them to make his own fertilizer. And that’s what awaits us over the Easter holidays, I guess…!

I don’t think I totally realized it until I arrived in Piazza dei Miracoli. In Pisa, the unmistakable sign that the spring has finally arrived are the students having lunch and relaxing on the lawn by the Baptistery. Today there was even a group of school kids playing football in a corner of the square, by the city walls.

As usual these days, I felt a bit jealous of all the people on holiday, so I started looking at things around me trying to focus on things I might take for granted and leave unnoticed.

I loved the contrast of the white marble of the monuments of the Piazza and the blue sky.

I also loved the distinctive  medieval features of the back of the buildings on Via Santa Maria. Their façades are less interesting in my opinion. They have been renovated, polished and often covered in signs, shop windows, gadgets on display and restaurant tables and menus.

Seen from behind though, they are “more real”, and I like to guess what sort of people live or used to live in there.

My favourite building looks really old. You can see the bricks under the crumbling plaster. It has a small backyard hidden behind a high wall. From the street, I can see a very tall pine tree, and through a small, rusty gate, a semi-abandoned garden, with some junk and an old swing. I guess a family with children once lived there, and that a long, long time ago they planted a Christmas tree in their garden, next to the swing. Now the swing is covered in rust and weeds and the tree is at least 5 meters tall.

I loved coming out of the office after dark and walking in semi-deserted Piazza dei Cavalieri and Piazza dei Miracoli. I have always loved the square after dark: so peaceful, so quiet.

What I didn’t like though, is the fact that it was much darker than usual. I think they are trying to save a few euros by reducing the lights.

But yesterday, I took my dog out and all of a sudden I realized something: while we stress out with the many unnecessary drama we put ourselves through everyday, time passes and nature takes its course, and after the bad days, even the apparently insignificant things around us that often go unnoticed can bear the promise of better days to come.

I found myself standing in the warm springlike sun, looking down where my dog was sniffing the ground. I noticed that the first thin, tender, shaky, bright green blades of grass have started peeping out  from under the layer of mud left behind by weeks of incessant rain. I raised my eyes, and I saw that  the branches of one of the trees in the next garden are already covered in small lumps that will soon become buds and then leaves or flowers. In a corner, by a pile of old broken tiles and other abandoned building materials, a cloud of minuscule bugs were flying frantically in a sparkling cloud.

And then I saw it: a bold wild daisy, fully in bloom, bending under my dog’s curious nose! A real taste of spring in the heart of winter. These last few sunny days have made us forget the boring days of heavy rain in Tuscany, and even if the “real” spring is still far away, it’s nice to see that the coldest time of the year is almost over!