What I did Last Summer: Poggio ai Riadi

When I was a kid, as with all kids, September meant back to school and inevitably the first assignment in English class was an essay on what I did last summer. Now mind you, I never did anything. We were not well off, so summer meant long lazy days or playing with all of my friends on the hot streets, riding bikes down 'red house hill'  and going to Bobbie's pool....everyone we knew was at that pool......shoehorned in as best we could...fun, but not exotic or interesting in any way. The good thing about school, in retrospect, is that it prepared me to get out of Elizabeth, NJ as soon as I turned 18 and happily, now that I am much older, I get to go to all of the places that I never did when I was a kid. So this last summer my BF Ric and I went to our friend Melissa's house in Tuscany,  in a little town called Poggio ai Riadi. It's a 500+ year old farmhouse just outside the town. We only walked around town for a few minutes as there's only a church [always closed] and one restaurant that's open once a week, but there are many other hill towns.....and they have a pool....which came in handy as that Tuscan sun can be hot hot hot.

Looking at the house which sits on a berm with lavender hedges.

There's a nice olive grove 

Looking at the pool...Maddy and Ric are hiding in the shade.

Every room has an amazing view

We would sit back here in the evenings and look at the stars, which are very bright....living in NYC, you don't really see stars outside of Broadway.

There's a really nice bird house built into the side of the house.....I'm thinking back in the 13th c this was city chicken.

The house is decorated in a really simple, pleasant way. Nothing is fancy or done up, you're meant to relax and I must say that after about 15 minutes I was very happy.

Lavender....I have such fond memories of lavender as when I was little in Cuba my grandmother would make lavender water perfume and tac the flowers in closets and drawers.

The view from the kitchen and fresh eggs with tomatoes and herbs from the garden. The food was amazing and Melissa being a chef made us some perfect pasta......

Poggio is a tiny Medieval town  with a few stone houses, a church with a bell tower and a lot of charm.

Getting to town. You could walk from the house, but we, being Americans drove.....and then went off to Siena.

Our charming hostess Senora Brannon channelling Esther Williams

Our happy little group on a day trip to Florence. Magic Mirror, who do I see? I see:

Scott and Tim and Maddy and Melissa and Ric and me....

Had we stayed any longer there wouldn't be a bottle of wine in all of Italy......and that's what I did last summer....