Il Pero - Holiday Accommodation in Tuscany

January 2008

We have solar panels on the roof and son, oh so very soon we will have hot water coming out ofour taps! It won't be long now until our part of the house is just as compfortable as our rental accommodation!

BATS.

The other evening, one of the colder ones, William was finishing off for the day in his playroom (No insult to what he does down there in what he calls his work shop, but it is no full of big boys toys!) when he noticed some brick dust falling from the ceiling, he looked up and found that the brick dust was followed by something bit larger which drop heavily to the floor. This dropping thing was not a brick, thankfully, as those ceilings are vaulted and it would be a nightmare to have to start rebuilding, it was in fact a bat. A very bewildered and sleepy bat. Not just any bat either, when he picked it up in his hands it picked up is weary head, pricking it’s ears up to hear about his surroundings, William saw that it had extremely long and large ears. A long eared bat. I am told these are fairly rare theses days, so we are honoured that it chooses to live in our house.

Not knowing exactly what to do with said long eared bat he brought up stairs to show the family. We all looked on in amazement, well it’s not that often that you get to see a bat close up like that and he was very cute, in a long eared sleepy kind of way.

The heat of the room and the 10 minutes in William’s large hands seemed to have woken the bat from his relatively dormant and supposed to be hibernating state and suddenly he took off again into the rafters above our heads, hiding again in the corner where the main beam of the typical Tuscan farmhouse type ceiling meets the wall. Here he stayed for a while regaining his equilibrium, this is where we thought he might stay cosily for the rest of his ‘letargo’.

He remained in the house, or at anyway visible for a further four days, each day, however, in a different location, attached to different joist or beam. Obviously not content with his present loggings he has moved, not house I hope, but room, a colder one, which in this house in not so hard.

I dare say in the spring when things warm up a bit we will be seeing him again, but if will be difficult to know which bat he is as we have so many!

December 2007

I forgot to mention, some time back, that William got himself a project in the summer - two crumbling, rusty, non functional, ancient Lambrettas (scooters to the rest of the world) and has been restoring them in his rare but spare time down in his play room under the house. Five months later and he has completed one of them. well nearly, it is missing the pull start mechanism so he has to start it with a drill bit, but it goes! If any of you out there are Lambretta fans and know where where we can find a series E pull start housing and mechanism - please let us know ASAP!

November 2007

It's delicious! The oil I mean. William, Claudio (friend and colleague), Vittorio(not sure where he comes in but he came anyway) and gentle giant Dave, have been harvesting the olives for a few weeks now and having taken all the olives to the press in the village we are swimming in oil, lovely bright green, fresh, aromatic and quiet honestly delicious oil! The girls and I only managed one tree - it was big one, but still just the one. i have contented myself with feeding the troops and picking leaves out of the mountains of boxes of olives that took up camp in my, one day will be, new kitchen space.

This olive harvest business is very hard work on everybody - seriously labour intensive - the product itself is worth the hard work!

October 2007

We have bought another house! No we are not moving but investing in the area instead. We are now the proud owners of another ruin(luckily a much smaller one) and 430 olive trees and will be harvesting this year for the first time ever. So future guests will be able to taste the luminous green nectar from our own olive trees! I will of course let you know how it goes.

September 2007

Show jumping again and placed first in the BP60, more rosettes and happiness!

Back to school for the girls after their three month holiday only this time with a few changes!

Isabella has changed schools and now attends weekly boarding school in Florence. So far so good. She looks so cute in her uniform!

Annie has returned to the village school and is doing really very well - luckily for her and for us, her class is the best in the school and so she has no problems with learning and studying and is going full steam ahead.

August 2007

More family and friends came to stay. One friends David, flew down all the way from England and landed on a small grass airfield about 4km form here in his own little plane - now that's what I call dedication.

Lots of hot sunny days and gatherings by the pool.

July 2007

Isabella had pony club camp with Topsy and has finally got the better of Topsy. she and her friends did an exhibition afternoon for all of us parents with a little showjumping and then a dressage test - we are duly impressed. A week later Isabella and her beloved pony competed for the first time in a show jumping competition and did very well too. Rosettes and smiley faces at the end of the day!

New guests and new friends, old friends and lots of family came to see us this month.

Great fun had by all and we look forward to seeing them all again soon.

June 2007

On the 10th June Isabella and her friends from catechism celebrate their first communion in the village church.

Friends and family came back to our house for lunch.
A relaxed day in the sunshine and a very happy little girl.

the Nonni (William's parents) took the girls on holiday to Puglia - 5 star hotel and all the treat little girls would love - visits to the caves in the area which, gong by the photos are quite something and well worth a visit, next time i feel like a 9 hour drive I know where to go!

May 2007

QUEEN’S ROYAL LANCERS BATTLEFIELD TOUR

In May we thoroughly enjoyed playing hosts to the first battle field tour since the end of the Second World War by the last remaining Queen’s Royal Lancer who served here in1943, and was one of the first to enter the city of Arezzo liberating it from German occupation.
An official reception in the town hall with the mayor, Il Sindaco Fanfani, and many heads of authority from the Carabinieri, the Partisans, the Guarda di Finazia to name but a few.
We listened with emotion as many tales were told of war time days personally experienced by these individuals.

Our Hero, Colonel Henry Brooke took it all in his stride as everywhere we went he was given a hero’s welcome.

We learnt a great deal about the suffering of the people in this area during the II WW as the research for this tour revealed all kinds of atrocities and hardship

WEDDING CLELBRATIONS

May 26th brought the celebration of marriage of two dear friends Phil Ansell and Myriam Kavanagh.

With them came 60 of their closest friends from around the world, but mostly from Ireland.

The marriage itself was celebrated in the Town hall of Arezzo, with Saracens at the door.

Isabella and Annie really enjoyed being bridesmaids.

Celebrations back at Il Pero with drinks and canapes in the garden until rain stopped play for an hour, but once clear skies returned we were all outside until the sunset and dinner was served in the banqueting hall.

Cake cutting outside, with more deserts than anyone could manage to devour! With fireworks to finish

April 2007

We are back in to our house, walls all re rendered and painted Isabella chose blue again for here room and now it looks like the sky. Annie, pink, well what do you expect from a real girly girl! We are green again in our room and we now have a bathroom wall! No bathroom as such but a wall dividing our room from it.

Thanks to Clair and Dan who came as guests and left as firm friends and very competent house movers! they said they could bare to watch so they had to get involved! For this i am eternally grateful! Oh and in their short holiday they also found, found in love with and put a down payment on... a house!

Preparations are going well for the wedding we are organising here in May, along with a visit from The Queen's Royal Lancers at the beginning of may which i am really enjoying researching for for. You have no idea how much history this area is turning up and just how many people want to get involved.

March 2007

This month started out well as we were very happy to welcome back some of our Irish friends for what we thought would be month. Happy smiles and hugs with guests who now feel more like family members when they arrived.

Sadly due to problems with their work they had to leave early and we were sad. I think they were too, we can only look forward to their next visit.

But we had new guests too - a horse masseur who came to treat his Norwegian team of horses (and their riders) for the Toscana tour. (see below)

I spent the whole month working with Dodson and Horrell Animal Feed Specialists on the stand at the Toscana Tour; an International Horse Show with some of the best riders in the world. If you are into horses this would be a show not to miss, next year it is going to be even longer 6 weeks in two parts of three weeks each. With Easter right in the middle. I hope the weather is better next year - it has been rather wet this year, so lots of mud!

Structural works on our apartment are nearly finished now and so we will be back in our house very soon - a new roof and new windows, the girls bathroom is taking shape and so is Annie's bedroom.

Can't wait to be back in our house again - though I have to admit having been in Il Pastore for the whole winter, with heating and constant hot water, and a real kitchen, has been great!

February 2007

Where ever did the rest of 2006 go? Busy, busy, busy! Hence no updates since May 2006 – sorry!

The summer went past in a flash with almost a full house all summer. Lots of family and friends came by and all our guests are now friends too and some of them are coming again this year.

Lots of sunshine and poolside frolics, along with pleasant evenings relaxing by the pool with guests enjoying a moment to get to know each other better.

This year’s pizza party was a great success with about 50 guests all making their own pizza’s and William being ‘fornaio extraordinaire’ getting hot in the bread oven for the occasion! It went on until 3 in the morning – these barmy summer nights!

September, and the girls went back to school (rather reluctantly). Isabella’s class improving dramatically with the introduction of a ‘sostegno’, or extra teacher, to help out with the slightly more distracted children. We are the moment looking into the next stage of schooling for her, which is proving interesting to say the least. Annie continues to flourish in her class despite her own difficulties with dyslexia and keeping up with the other. It’s a hot box of bright sparks in there and they are fast catching up with the year above them – Isabella, being in the class above, is not awfully pleased about that but a bit of in-house competition never does any harm!

We had two very successful Photography Workshops at the end of September run by my father, Michael Dunne (professional photographer) where the two groups were rushed off their feet, sipping about in their minibus going everywhere from Siena to Florence, Montepulciano to Cortona, and every small hill top village in between – between them they have taken enough photos to make and exhibition of Tuscan beauty. He will be organising another course or two this year so if you are interested do let me know or you can contact him directly by email at m.dunnephoto@btinternet.com for further information.

I have recently set up a photo page on Yahoo photo for all of those who have been asking for photos – soon you will be able to see what we have been up to! And when I have worked out how to let you view the photos I will be the first to let you know! I am a self-confessed technological waste of cyberspace! I know nothing!

Thanks to our fantastic year we have FINALLY been able to start the restoration work on our end of the house. We moved into Il Pastore (the larger of our two cottages) at the end of October and whilst enjoying the central heating and the hot water, we set about the restoration of ‘the west wing’!

The roof has been stripped, each and every tile painstakingly cleaned, the wooden structure removed and replaced with new beams and joists, and now all is back in place and we are earthquake, rain and heat proof. William has made and fitted the new windows that now even have glass in them. The last of the new floor structures have been finished and all the walls have been stripped back to the stonework, re-rendered and the ‘velo’ applied. Now remains the fiddly stuff and the painting and oh yes the finishing of our bathroom wall!

The restoration has been slowed down considerably by the fact that William took and unplanned free fall from the roof of the tower and, landing on the main roof, managed to break his back – now sporting a full body brace, he is on light duties only. Thus revealing a well-kept secret of mine that actually I can carry a 35 kg sack of cement up stairs. Luckily the roof came off worse with about 15 tiles being broken – but easily replaced, which is more than can be said for William’s back! With accident that brought his 2006 list of injuries up to three – one broken rib that meant laughing and coughing and general movement was painful for the best part of three months, then he managed to wrench his knee, luckily not actually breaking it… Still hobbling about from that one! They say ‘7’ is a luck number, so let’s hope that 2007 is a good year for him.

In January we celebrated Annie’s 8th birthday with a treasure hunt and general activity in the woods nearby followed by a party tea and mayhem at home afterwards.

In May we will be celebrating a wedding here and in June Isabella will take her first communion – so another party! That’s how we like it.

A house like this likes lots of people about, after all is was built originally for 40. So come and join us!

All the best
Miranda William Isabella and Annie.

Ps. Thank you to all of you who write to us and apologies to those still awaiting a reply – but they will come!

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May 2006

The clock in the kitchen has decided to go all Italian on us; it still ticks, but very very slowly! We mostly have no idea what the time is and despite knowing that it is wrong we still instinctively look at it, and then have to search for a more modern timepiece, the trusty mobile phone. The clock on the radio is mostly a few minutes behind as that’s how long it takes to walk up the drive to switch the electricity back on when it trips (rather too regularly that we would like) It’s lovely how the electricity has a mind of it’s own too – but we don’t feel alone in this – it happens to everyone here. Even after nearly 4 years of living here sometimes we forget that the supply of kilowatts to every home is so limited. If you learn to take everything in your stride (like the clock) it all works perfectly well.

But mother natures clock it working perfectly well! The spring flowers have now passed their ‘sell by’ date, we have a myriad of colour all around both wild and slightly tamed. The Kitchen Garden is sprouting young green life and the fruit trees have finished blossoming and are in full fruit producing mode. Tomatoes planted along with the usual melanzane, zucchini, citriole, etc and all growing well. I wonder why we planted tomatoes as the majority of the land around us is at present being planted with just those! I guess you just can’t have an Italian Kitchen Garden without toms! But there will be a whole lot of Passata being produced this summer with the help of my lovely friend Vera.

The greatest recovery has been in the citrus fruit department, the lemon that caught a chill last year made a great recover this year and spent the winter in Il Pastore – is now flowering madly and so we look forward to lots of fruit from her, the other little one which we brought with us from the UK found everything just to cold and got flu! But after a serious pruning is making a grand recovery – but I think it will be a while before she is flowering again.

The chickens are laying more eggs than we can scramble despite the fact that Vera (the hen as apposed to the friend) has gone broody on us and spends every possible moment on her nest (with no eggs) trying to produce chicks – without a Cockerel! We have tried to explain a few facts of life to her but it’s obviously making no difference. On the other hand with her sitting on her nest so much it is very peaceful around here as she has to be the most talkative chicken we have ever met!……. bossy more like!

William, when not out on a project spends every moment on the mower! Another timepiece we have been advised to take heed of is the moon. We have been told that if we mow during a descending moon we will not have to mow so often – I can categorically tell you this is a myth!

He is still busy with the Commitato too – with the old Mayor out we now have local elections for his position coming up so you can imagine what it is like. This morning whilst I was teaching English at the nursery school we had every possible candidate for Mayor coming around the school to show how much they loved the kiddies, but actually what they really wanted, and got, was a cup of the stiff black stuff that the nuns there are so good at making – ‘un espresso perfafore’

Thank you to all those who have written to us of late – we really do love receiving emails from people. And thank you too to all of those who have decided to holiday here this year – it all goes a long way to paying the mortgage and continuing the restoration of our beautiful home. Although the guest accommodation is finished and super – we have still to do our part of the house. It will still be a while before we are living in the same comfort that our guests enjoy.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

And I’ll let you know how the elections go!

Miranda William Isabella and Annie

May 2006

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April 2006

April started with, downpours and flash flooding ! The sort of rain that soaks you to the skin (even with a coat on) in 40 seconds flat! With sunny bits in between – no body knowing whether to put on wet suits or shorts! So it was the layered look for Spring in Tuscany.

I said goodbye to my thirties, actually at the end of March – but whose counting! What is it about turning forty and everything heads south and the grey hairs! Where did they come from!!! As a result I have been to the hairdresser’s and now resemble a blond zebra-crossing, and the anti-aging cream is being administered liberally! Can’t say I have noticed much of a difference but it’s early days yet!

April also brought with the sadness of saying goodbye to our lovely Irish guests, Harry and Dawn Marshall, their gorgeous children (rather two grown up to be called children) Debbie and Kris, and their friends the Doyles, who were here for a month for ‘The Toscana Tour’ International Show Jumping event at the Arezzo Equestrian centre. It is always hard to say good-bye to guests but when they are here for so long they become family and it is absolutely terrible when they go away. The best part is looking forward to seeing them again next year… and at the very least they know they have an instant fan club when they get here with the girls who all truly believe they are the champions of the world – second only to Isabella who is determined to be just a great … when she is bit bigger mind you… until then she will just have to watch listen and learn everything she can from them.

Aproposito to Isabella, she continues to enjoy Topsy(pony) and is now handling her ‘rodeo’ acts very well, she is a feisty little pony to say the least, but together they are now jumping logs and bushes and puddles in the woods and having a great time.

Annie is enjoying her little jaunts on Topsy too and for some reason topsy is a whole lot calmer with her – I guess Isabella suffers from electric bottom syndrome!

With only another couple of months of school left for this year I am very please to announce that both girls have ‘passed’ this year and are allowed to move on into the next class in September. Annie will be in the third year and Isabella in the fourth. They are both doing fine at school although the Italian is getting harder and harder and so we are all suffering a little with homework and dictionary is looking very battered this days. But we are all learning a lot and I think we will have an Italian teacher during the three-month holiday in the Summer as it is a long time, and we can’t afford for them to drop behind with their grammar.

Now nearing the end of April the pool is open again and is already at 20 degrees C without any heating system, so …… yes you are right the kids are swimming again, and even some of our guests, but I personally am not mad enough to get in yet – the water has to be much warmer before I get in! The water may not be warm but the weather is certainly improving – lots of sunshine – a good excuse to sit by the pool with our guests, and share a bottle of wine and some time together.

We hope you had a happy Easter – We did!

See you in the Summer!

Miranda William Isabella and Annie

April 2006

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March 2006

March and the season of birthday’s is in full swing, it seems that every Saturday and Sunday there is a birthday party to go to. Annie had her 7th birthday back in January and Isabella just celebrated her 9th last week. Not being the best time to have a party we have postponed both and will be celebrating in May instead. But…. for Isabella’s birthday we brought Topsy (the pony she was given for Christmas by our dear friend Ita) home to our house. Amazingly she hadn’t noticed as we cleared out one of our downstairs rooms and turned into a stable, nor did she notice when we unloaded bales of straw and hay into it. Whilst she was at school we collected Topsy and installed her into her new home. When she got home and we showed her the new arrival she was speechless for a whole minute – anyone who know Isabella will know that is quite an event – and then she turned to William and said ‘’Thank you Daddy, now I have no more dreams to come true!’’ Now, words like that just make everything worthwhile don’t they!

We were going to take a holiday in February but ended up not going anywhere – just as well really as we have had loads to do and loads on inquiries for holidays here this year and we might have missed them if we had been away – as a result things are looking really good this year. Oh and of course we were going to Egypt and when I looked at the British Embassy’s website, to find out about visas, the first thing it had written at the top was ‘high risk of terrorism’ so perhaps it was just as well we couldn’t go, but we were sad just the same as our friends that have been posted there for work reasons are greatly missed and we would have loved to see them and their new home in Cairo.

A great piece of news, that I am sure everybody who knows us will be happy about, is that the Mayor, yes that chap who so lovingly welcomed us to Tuscany and then presented us with the proposal of an international airport in our back garden, has been ousted from his position as Mayor before his term was up! Not just a matter of politics, but of a lawsuit made against him for dirty dealings! The man is a fraud! He has been using his position to get backhanders left right and centre – he is now under investigation and is due in court shortly. What is it they say – what goes around comes around - well it has come round and smacked him in the face! I know that lots of you will be pleased to hear this news after your heartfelt emails made it quite clear how you flet about him and you can imagine how we feel about it. Along with him has gone his plan for the Airport! Yippee!!!

We have been busy getting some trees planted in the garden, William’s parents very kindly gave us 16 large trees as a 10th wedding anniversary present so those of you who have been here before will notice a difference when you come again, and for those who have never been, you will appreciate the shade in the summer, and the fact that they look very pretty! We just hope we can keep them all alive during the hot summer months as for the first three years they will need regular watering.

So busy busy busy round here!

All the very best to all of you and if you haven't been here yet now is the time to start thinking about it!

See you soon.....

Miranda William Isabella and Annie

March 2006

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December 2005

A year to look back on…. where does one start… how stupid, at the beginning of course!

Christmas last year was spent at our friends Sandra and Paul’s house just a stone’s throw from here. Very relaxed and fun! The calm before the storm of New Year.

We had the biggest New Year celebrations yet with around 50 guests all enjoying each others company and the grand feast of traditional Tuscan antipasti, spit roast pig over the roaring fire in the banqueting hall and a myriad of puddings, oh not to be forgotten the traditional Italia version of the tall dark (preferably handsome) stranger – a huge bowl of lentils with catacchino, which to the uninitiated is a kind of huge pork sausage – and I have to say that although I didn’t fancy it much on first sight, it was necessary to try it (after all we need no bad luck here) and even I liked it!!

Our New Years Eve celebrations are becoming a tradition in the area and so the party just keeps getting bigger – this year, so far we have 45 confirmed guests and another 20 pending!

January brought a lot of excitement as myself and the girls planned our trip home to the Uk, much to the irritation of the school we escaped for the whole month of February leaving on the 27th January so that Annie celebrated her Birthday on the 28th at Granny’s house in Ludlow, with a few friends and cousins and a Piggy birthday cake – very apt as it was gone in a flash with the hungry little people lovely the bright pink icing – Clever Granny!

We had a whistle stop tour of the UK going up to Yorkshire to visit my Dad for a night in his and his partner Liz’s house in Masham – simply lovely house.

Then on down to Northampton for a night to stay with my brother Stephen and then on to London where we stayed with my Godfather in Putney, Which was lovely, especially for me as I have seen him nor his family since our wedding 10 years previously. Whilst in London William’s brother Christopher organised for us to go up Canary Warf, and we had a blast, especially as a surprise we were taken onto the roof of the 800 ft tower to take in the rather foggy view over the City of London and beyond – truly amazing experience.

Down to Devon to visit William’s parents and see their new house. Busily driving about from one entertainment spot to another and planting’ my tree’(a Weeping Willow) in the field in front of their house, next to the babbling brook the runs through just there. A solitary position, perfect for just sitting and reading a book – by myself! Oh the thought of it…

And then back up to Ludlow a week later where we spent two further weeks in the hospitality of my mother, where we caught up with a majority of the children’s friends and mine to boot – what a great break we had. Spoilt only by a 6-hour delay at Coventry Airport on the return journey! Oh well, I guess that was our punishment for having so much fun whilst poor William was left here in the freezing cold working hard and coming home to a freezing cold house after a long day out on a project. Nobody to keep the home fires burning and cook his supper! Sorry Will, we do love you really but we had to get away for a bit.

Home in time to get involved in the creation of the suite in the Tower. William of course having done the hard bit, the wiring, plumbing, rendering, floor laying, building of staircase up to the tower, painting, I came swanning in to do the soft furnishing and curtains, arrange furniture and make the bed etc. We both know our place when it comes to this project. Welcoming our first guest in the Tower in April.

And so began the season. In fact in March, but who’s arguing. Busy – now that’s a good word for the season we enjoyed this year. The pool finished in May and christened when only about a foot deep in water, in the POURING rain by Isabella and our very brave RLNI lifeguard Adam (our hero!) Well who can refuse a challenge from a feisty 8 year old – well not him for sure… I could!

Our summer was fantastic with nothing but great guests and fun, fun, fun! Swimming everyday, well the children anyway. Lots of barbeques, outings, and far too much wine. Loads of cleaning and ironing (the only downside to this tourism thing!) A few visits to the various cantinas (wine makers) – always with a few bottles of Chianti’s finest as a going home present,

We had a great evening in the middle of the summer where we had 20 guests for a pizza evening – the twist was that they had to make their own pizzas! And for afters the children and their friends Isabella, Evie, Kitty and Molly, (who just happened to be staying at the time) performed a play. They were fantastic. I know there was a reason why we put a stage by the pool! Everybody had a great evening, An unforgettable memory for us and for the children.

Thanks to all our lovely guests we had a great summer and have all sorts of stories to recount of the next few years.

Autumn came suddenly and with a chilly wind that has taken a bit more roof off one of the outbuildings. Kiddies back to school after 3 months holiday, miserable! But they are both doing really well as school with the term nearly over and glowing reports from the teachers.

The girls are both riding regularly and coming on a storm and thanks to our dear friend Ita, they now are the proud owners of the delectable pony Topsy. I can see we will be riding even more now.

Other animals have appeared over this year too – our lovely chickens Gladys, Cookie, Daisy and Vera. As well as a sweet little stray cat now called Winnie – she lives outside!!!

Their latest activity has been to join a small theatre group in Arezzo. They were very keen especially after all they plays they put on for the entertainment of our guests over the summer, so I took them along and as a result they will performing in a play on Sunday afternoon – in the smallest theatre I have ever had the pleasure of attending.

Here’s to next year and hoping that we will be seeing much more of our friends and family out here over 2006.

With lots of love and all the warmest wishes for a great Christmas and New Year from all of us.

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November 2005

In the middle of November already, my, doesn’t time fly when you are having fun!

We started the month by celebrating William’s 41st birthday in formal style finally, and for the first time in over three years, having all our best china, glasses and hardware out in the banqueting hall. A much smaller affair than last year, with a hard core of twelve. We had a delightful evening and it was very much enjoyed by all, at least we think so as we didn’t get to bed until 3am! Very late for fuddy duddies like us! We are normally asleep on the sofa by half past nine… should we admit to that? Probably not…

The chickens are still not laying any eggs but they are still young (or so we are told) and there is a saying in Italy (apparently) that January brings with it eggs! Well let’s wait and see. But they are such a personable bunch I would be sad if they had to be replaced for better layers! Mind you with all this fear of bird flu around who knows if they will last until next year. Lets hope for the best…. Isn’t that what we always do round here. Smile in the face of adversity.

October brought our other celebration – we have just celebrated 10 glorious years of marriage and as a reward, oh no, I mean present from my in-laws we are now the proud owners of some shade! 16 huge trees. At the moment they are lying on the ground outside but in the next few days we will be planting them – here’s hoping we can get on the ground. We have had our fair share of rain and sogginess recently so I hope we will not get the JCB stuck in the mud, we did that once before and it remained stranded for some days before we managed to dig it out with a spade – seems a bit silly having to dig out the JCB with a 6 inch spade, but when needs must….

We still have guest coming and going, which is wonderful, just goes to show it was a good idea to put in central heating, and infact last night we had so many guests staying that in the end we all ate together in front of the fire, it was lovely to be able to sit and eat with our guests all together, it gives us such a good opportunity to find out more about them and for them to get to now eachother. Of course in the summer we often had BBQ’s with our guest, but somehow this felt different, cosier.

We are busy planning Christmas and New Year at the moment as we will have resident guests and local friends joining us for both occasions. We do have space for more if any of you would like to join us.

All the best
Miranda, William Isabella and Annie

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September 2005

Wow, what a summer! Only our second summer up and running and we only had two weeks empty. Not bad going I think. We have had the loveliest guests and have really enjoyed having them all here.

Our guests all had a tale to tell us and some of them have gone home with some stories to recount to their friends. Some more eventful than others, like being stopped for speeding and getting away with it! A quick phone call back to base (here) and the policeman said he couldn’t possibly fine them, as they were guests in his country! And such nice ones too!

I took some guests to taste some wine at an organic vine-yard and although the system used to make wine today is thoroughly modern, the ‘mother’ of the house (being in her 70’s) took great pride in giving alive demonstration of wine making the old fashioned way, piece of tree in hand beating the grapes to a pulp in front of their eyes… it was lovely – funnily enough they enjoyed tasting the 2001 and 2002 red and came home with loads of it.

William has been hard at it this summer with the project management business beginning to reap its rewards. In the past month he has been doing a lot more in the pool line too. So he is being kept busy between all of that and keeping the grounds of Il Pero under control, and his continuing restoration projects here.

I have been kept on my toes this summer too with breakfasts and suppers for guests, changeovers, gardening, teaching, translating and secretarial duties here in the office at home. And not to be forgotten the girls – we have had a lot of fun this summer!

Many of our guests had children and the theme of the holidays seemed to have been either bug collecting (top favourite) or creating plays for evening entertainment. We have some great friends over from the UK, between them they had four little girls and with our two we had a gaggle of six lovely little girls, who once totally face painted and costumed they performed a short but great play for an audience of 25 at a pizza evening.

The pizza evening was a huge success, everyone made their own pizzas and William baked them in the bread oven, we only had one fatality in the oven, which is damn fine going on his part. Just goes to show that William’s ‘bread oven skills’ are now up to scratch.

The pool house now has a lovely new roof, thanks to William, and thanks to our friends Richard and John, who gave us the roof tiles! William has also found an ingenious use for old ‘demigiani’ (50 lt wine bottles) turning them into lights around the pool. They look great!

Our film which was part of the No Gong Back series continues to be broadcast world wide, and we are still receiving a wonderful amount of emails from lovely people who take the time to find us on the web, we do so enjoy receiving emails from you all so please do keep it up. It is nice to know what every body else is up to.

In the last we week we have had 5 new animal additions to the family. Firstly a very sweet and very badly injured black kitten appeared from behind a tree. She is so friendly and so in need of love, which she has even managed to win William’s heart. She has taken up residence in his workshop and is recovering from her terrible injuries slowly but surely. She is now most definitely Annie’s cat and is called Winnie.

We also have 4 chickens. Cookie (Isabella’s) Daisy (Annie’s), Vera (Miranda’s) and Gladys (William’s). New to the place and more than a little bit ‘dizzy’ they haven’t really ventured out much yet, but I don’t suppose it will be long before I am trying to protect my kitchen garden from them!

The season is not over yet and we will be welcoming more guests over the next few weeks. We do still have vacancies though so if you want to come and stay in this idyll please just let us know. We are also looking forward to a full house at Christmas, with one apartment still available. Like wise for New Year! Want to come too?

Take care,
All the best
Miranda, William, Isabella, Annie and all the animals!

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May 2005

Finally we have a pool! Well the hole has been in the ground for some time and infact the pool itself has been built for some time, but now some lovely chaps from Rome have been and lined it! Blue and white! It looks great and we will be baptising it this week – it will, after all, take a few days to fill. But we are all so happy to finally be able to say that we do have swimming pool.

The vegetable garden is coming on a treat this year and hopefully we shall have enough onions to keep us going for the whole of next year, my friends say it looks more like a market garden, but I am determined not to have to buy much in this year. The watering system will work better this year too as we have now put a pressurized water system all the way to the garden. The really good news in the garden is that this year is appears that we will have fruit in the orchard! Not a great deal as the trees are still pretty titchy but hey, something is better than nothing.

We have also made the front of the house a little smarter with a semi-circular kerb giving us a proper sweeping drive, and behind the kerb we have planted box hedge, and although they are small, they immediately have given the place an air of order! Something that appeals to me as we have little order in the house!

We have our first guest arriving on Saturday next week to baptise the Tower or La Torre, and I have to say I think they are going to like it! I only wish it was my bedroom, the views from up there are stupendous, you forget just how high up this house gets until you see the views from the top. We will be making the bed and ‘dressing’ the room this week – my favourite bit!

For the technologically minded, we now have a Skype telephone/internet connection and for those of you that do the same our Skype address/number is taxisfamilytuscany. It’s a bit new to me but I am enjoying using it. If you haven’t a clue what I am talking about, then get yourself a telephone headset, plug it in and go to http://www.skype.com/products/ and down load the system. You can call people as if by telephone through the Internet, which makes it so much cheaper to talk to your friends abroad. We are hoping to get all our friends and family on to it so that we can keep in touch a whole lot more.

We have only got 4 weeks until the kiddies start their summer holidays so we are on countdown, life will be so much fun for the kiddies for 3 months. I love having them at home for so long, it gives you time to get to know them again after so much school and the never ending piles of homework during the school terms. Three relatively stress free months for the will be great, and now with our own pool they will become fish by the end of the summer!

Here’s to a great summer for all of you, it has already started here, with long hot days and beautiful sunsets and equally lovely guests to share a glass of Prosecco with after they adventures everyday.

Here’s hoping that you will come too one day and enjoy all that is Il Pero!

All the best
Miranda William Isabella and Annie
May 2005

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So here we are and it’s March 2005 already! So where did all those months go?

We had a lovely Christmas spent with friends locally, a traditional English Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. Yummy!

New Years Eve was celebrated here at home with lots of people from all over Europe, we enjoyed good company and once again the spit-roasted pork was the high light of the evening, only to be out done by the fireworks at midnight the length of the drive! We have the perfect viewpoint from here to see the whole valley alight with fireworks at midnight. We had some dancing and then a long and relaxing chat around the open fire until the early hours. Next year we think we should go ‘black tie’ for the occasion!

The girls and I went back to the UK for the whole of February, leaving poor William here working hard and for some of the time without electricity or, as a result, water as we had a fault in the line – but this was soon resolved and won’t be happening again.

It was really nice to be back in the UK for a wile, as everybody seems to have moved house during our two year absence. So it was nice to be able to see where they all live now and be able to picture them in their new homes now that we are back.

In our absence, William has been working really hard and has almost finished the Tower, we are few tiles short of the finished article and then we can put the furnishings and finishing touches to the masterpiece on high. The views are spectacular form way up there in the gods. I would like to be able to be the first guest to sleep up there!

The Project Management business is going well and we are looking forward to the start of the next job. William has taken to it like a duck to water and so far all is going pretty well.

We have two moulder girls now, Annie turned 6 in January and Isabella has just turned 8 a few days ago, so they are both feeling much more grown up! They really enjoyed being in the UK seeing all their cousins and friends and generally having a whole lot of playtime! Then back to Italy and school where they were given such a warm welcome back that they felt really quite special!

For a really miraculous change the school has given the children 10 days off for Easter, everyone, even the other parents, were surprised to have a change from the usual 4 day break – but none the less we are all very happy about it, especially as we are enjoying lovely sunny, warm days. Unlike last year, when the winter seemed to last until May, spring has positively started to bloom and it is lovely. The children never seem to be in the house, constantly running about outside and are nagging us to open the pool!

Easter only a few days away and we are delighted to say that we have guests here now and will be full over Easter. We have a quiet trickle of bookings coming in and are keeping our fingers crossed that we will have lots of lovely guests over the summer, and on into the Autumn and Winter months.

Don’t forget that those of you who like painting and photography, the Autumn days are still just as beautiful to work with, the temperatures are not so glaringly hot and light is just perfect.

We are looking forward to another fully booked Christmas and New Year, so if you are interested in a change of scene and a totally catered Christmas lunch, think on….

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us this year as a result of seeing our episode of No Going Back - we are still stunned by the fact that it is still bieng aired and also by the fact that it has reached so many different parts of the world! We really do appreciate the time taken to find our website and then the time taken to contact us - it really helps us to keep going and restores our flagging energies, when we know that so many lovely people are supporting us! Thank you all and do keep in touch, it makes it all worth while.

All the best
Miranda William Isabella and Annie.
Molly Dog and Biscuit the cat!

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It’s November 2004 and it’s ever so slightly chilly here. I guess Autumn is upon us, but it is oh so very pretty and the sun is still shining and if you can find a sheltered spot you can soak up the warmth of it’s rays.

We have been here now for two and a half years and really, looking back on those endless months, we have achieved a lot. From holes big enough to drive a bus through in the roof and the remnants of years of animal dwelling all over the house, no running water, no heating, no power, to nearly totally restored (except out part) with two beautiful apartments, though I say it myself, I am not the only one, our guests have been very happy too and we have been told that our apartments are among some of the nicest and best equipped that many people have stayed in. So we must have done something right.

Last weekend we had a birthday party for William’s 40th which went of with a few bangs and a belly dancer! He had no idea about the party until the tables and chairs arrived in the morning and I had no idea about the Belly dancer until she arrived during the party. A friend of ours had decided that rather than give William a tree for the garden; she would give him a birthday present he would never forget! I don’t think anyone will forget either the party, or the dancer. She was fantastic. The setting was perfect too. With the new Red Verona and Travertine floor set in the centre of the room, the fire ablaze and the whole room lit by candlelight, you couldn’t beat it for atmosphere. A great evening had by all with good food and great wine and even more perfect company from both nearby and abroad. I can’t deny having felt very smug to have managed to pull it off without a hitch, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends. Thank you all! It just goes to show that even the children can keep a secret!

The best secret of all was his birthday present – I have organised for us to go hot air ballooning in the Spring. Just perfect floating over the Tuscan countryside with a champagne breakfast afterward – I guess that will be Fanta for the kids though!

If any of you want to have the same experience when you come, just let us know.

So the ‘Banqueting Hall’ is nearly finished and the tower is now nearer completion so we are so much closer to the finished article. With the pool now only missing it’s liner, come the Spring we shall be ‘tutto a posto’ well at least I do hope so. And very selfishly I would very much like to take a break from the renovations for a little while and concentrate on the garden and it’s very much needed make over.

Business is trickling along, with the apartments having been occupied a bit, but not as much as we would have liked. We have had the most delightful guests and from all over the world – England, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, Holland, Belgium, France and the USA, which goes to show we need to learn more languages!!!!!!!!

Our other business of project management is taking off as well, which is fantastic as it is really the direction in which we want to go. We now have a few clients with varying projects and so the work in always interesting.

We have joined forces with another Englishman and are now supplying and fitting swimming pools and all their accessories all over the area, providing an English, therefore, reliable service to all!

So we have been busy!

The kiddies are riding, playing, schooling and eating loads and growing even more. They were to be found writing letters to Father Christmas the other day which is worrying as it is only the beginning of November!

We will be here for Christmas this year as we have guests booked in for a fully catered for Christmas, we still have room for more if you are interested! I can’t wait to have Christmas Dinner in front of our roaring fire with the biggest Christmas tree we can find. We are also throwing a party for New Year if you want to come!

We are looking forward to welcoming you all to Il Pero some time soon.

Miranda William Isabella and Annie Taxis
November 2004