Mindfully Stylish 🌷

It is an interesting thing travelling to Tuscany for the first time in the midst of the most cripplingly black depression you have ever experienced. One of the writers who got me through, Marian Keyes, recalls realising hers would end whilst the song ‘Dancing in September’ was playing on the radio. I had no such luck yet, and boarded the plane from London on a hot September’s day with battered butterflies in my stomach.

We woke late and wandered out into the garden, surrounded by birdsong and the sound of insects calling to one another. It was a beautiful day, the air hot but sharp and clear with a slight cooling breeze making the climate perfect. Breakfast was a fresh pot of Italian roast coffee and pastries brought with us from town, retreating to a shady bower with a view of the Tuscan hills until lunch.

Venturing down to the nearest station for trains to Florence, once our sandals hit the city’s cobblestone streets we let our instincts guide us, first to its famous landmark, Florence Cathedral, where the bright sunlight glancing off its pink, white and green marble against an azure blue sky made it dazzle and glint most magnificently to the naked eye.

But I had an almost unquenchable thirst for a view and a need to get above the city. We crossed the river and climbed the steep, winding roads towards Boboli Gardens. The last few hours had passed in a humid haze and the light here was softly fractious, it illuminated to the point of blinding brightness and yet envelops you with delicate arms, silky and serene.

It was its warmth on my back and a kind of cemented grounding that inspired my steps forward, left, right, exploring, as though the history I had studied in school and then at university had seeped into my bones and somehow, amongst the ancient, sun-beaten statues and stones, I was home. 

We returned to be amongst the cooler, shadowy heart of the city, taking back alleyways and turning down side streets, capturing the striking yellow and gold light that poured down on the open shutters faintly swaying as the smell of cooking wafted down from the open windows overhead. 

Back in Regello, we chose a truffle pizza from Stagnino’s for dinner and meandered our way to the bar at the top of the village, Bar di Foffa, to watch the shadows grow long over the church opposite as we enjoyed an ice cold negroni and a glass of white wine… 

This trip reminded me to embrace both the darkness and the light. Of course, what better time to remember this than on a balmy, warm Italian Summer night… 

Sending you many blessings for this new season.

In Love&Light, FS XOX