Medieval hilltop villages with baroque churches, their chimes echoing across piazze doused in evening sunlight, olive groves and vineyards rolling towards the Adriatic, the chirp of cicadas and distant laughter
Have Tuscany’s €1 homes saved Italy’s rural dream?
Not much Adriatic around Tuscany.
Maybe Polly finally achieved something useful.
To be fair, I live on the Channel coast and if I look south east, I am pointing ‘towards’ the Adriatic.
Also India.
The distant laughter must be coming from another country. It is too bloody hot here to be amused.
I wish I could sleep until September…
Baroque churches in medieval villages? Baroque C17th to early C18th. Tuscany’s actually famous for it’s renaissance architecture. The heavily ornamented baroque style did originate in Italy. But village churches? They knocked down the old ones & rebuilt?
Journalists expertise in geography and history pretty well matches their expertise in maths.
Have Tuscany’s €1 homes saved Italy’s rural dream?
Oh, at that price I’ll take half a dozen.
£1 homes in Tuscany?! That’s the south & Sicily. I actually considered the idea at one time. Until I found out how far off the beaten track these places were. And some of the conditions of purchase. Don’t remember any in Tuscany. Bloody expensive place to buy peasants’ hovels.
Tuscany is tremendous – in May and September, at least.
Anecdote: we were walking in hills above Florence and I noticed an old stone incorporated into a wall. Hello, thinks I, that’s not Latin carved on it. And those aren’t Greek letters either. Bloody Hell, that must be an Etruscan inscription!
Etruscan for ‘Tourists go home!’ ?
Rowdy:
Maybe Polly finally achieved something useful.
She died?
(Ooh, I see the site is finally saving my name for the next time I comment.)
Only a matter of time before the villages of Tuscany are full of mediaevals, just not the type to frequent the baroque churches.
John said:
“Only a matter of time before the villages of Tuscany are full of mediaevals, just not the type to frequent the baroque churches.”
Oh, that’s rude, you can’t compare illegal immigrants to medieval Europeans.
Medieval Europe had a well-developed market economy, civil society and some idea of rule of law.
RichardT
But they both use similar pointy weapons.
Its like a joke I make about where I live – its all beach front property, 200 miles of sand before you get to the Pacific.
Tuscany has 100 miles of vineyards ‘rolling towards the Adriatic’;)
Yeah, but no, but yeah. Tuscany’s on the other side of Italy from the Adriatic. The coastline is the Tuscan Sea, not the Adriatic at all – which is over by Venice and the Veneto.
Tuscany has 100 miles of vineyards ‘rolling towards the Adriatic’;)
I think San Marino might dispute that.
I have actually been to San Marino. The only reason I went there was to be able to say I’d been there. I don’t think there is another reason. Another country in Europe knocked off the list Must get around to Vatican City one day. Anyone think Lieberland should count as twofer with Serbia?
When arguing with communists, sorry those who prefer ever increasing centralisation of power, I use San Marino as one of the 10 non-EU never post war communist territories that has higher GDP per head than its nearest EU neighbour.
I once got a decent rebuttal that it’s a tax haven, but the wine had been passed, relatives were in the room, my brain thinks slower, so I couldn’t point out the obvious, that EU membership permits being a tax haven too and several EU members are.
I have actually been to San Marino.
Me too. We went there looking for somewhere to stay when we were driving to Cyprus. It was a miserable mizzley December day and as we drove up the hill we went through the cloud in to glorious sunshine. It was quite extraordinary looking down on cotton wool with occasional peaks of land sticking through.
We couldn’t find anywhere and ended up in Rimini, what a dump (‘85)