TUSCANY IN SPRING: A PHOTOGUIDE

Ochre, terracotta and any existing shade of burnt sienna are the colours that come to mind when thinking of the famous rolling hills. However, for a few months each year, the Tuscan landscape doesn't look like something coming out of a pottery workshop, but like Ireland in summer. Minus the rain. And the Guinness.

All green for a lunch with Raffaella in Montalcino

No better time for hiking Val d'Orcia than spring

Iris thieves during a spring below Sant'Angelo in Colle

Wanderers having a hiking break under Montalcino's oldest oak tree

TUSCANY IN SPRING
It won't last though. Unless Tuscany's warm season is unusally wet like the incredibly rainy summer 2014, the landscape will look like this by the end of spring.

A glass of Vermentino wine in front of the the ocre colored Tuscan hills in July

UMBRIA JAZZ TOP GIGS 2011

It's called Umbria Jazz, and in fact Ahmad Jamal, Herbie Hancock and Branford Marsalis are there for a reason. But the most expensive concerts are the ones of Carlos Santana, B.B. King, Liza Minnelli and the artist formerly known as Prince - or is it just Prince again?

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JANUARY IN TUSCANY - HAVE IT ALL TO YOURSELF

Just when you counted out that you'll have to get through another three cold months, you are surprised by the incredible blue of a Tuscan winter sky. And you think of your friends in Zurich, buried under months of fog. And then the friends in Britain. Buried under months of rain. And you remember the reason why you moved to Tuscany. Even in the winter. In fact above all in the winter! It's only a madly hot and crowded Italian August , that will make one reconsider some major life choices.

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RASHA OMRAN and KIM ECHLIN in MONTEPULCIANO: July 17, 2017

Readers of my memoir Aross the Big Blue Sea know about the courageous Syrian family who after a horrendous journey to Sicily stopped over at our refugee home in the Tuscan countryside. The plight of Syrians at home and in exile is at the base of poet, dissident and journalist Rash Omran's work. Omran, who has been living in exile in Egypt since 2012, will present her recent work this July in southern Tuscany. The reading will take place in the garden of beautiful palazzo Bracci in Montepulciano. The literary event is part of Montepulciano's longstanding Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte , the Tuscan wine town's art and music summer festival which is in its 42nd edition. DEFY SILENCE - SFIDARE IL SILENZIO : Poetry, music and translation between war and exile Rasha Omran, Kim Echlin and Ashti Abdo in Montepulciano Monday, July 17, 2017 - 9.15pm Palazzo Bracci, via delle Case Nuove, Montepulciano. Rasha Omran has been invited for the first Writer t

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MAPPING TUSCANY

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