MAPPING TUSCANY

Design hotels in Tuscany - they do exist! The Argentario Golf Resort & Spa excels with something not many hotels in Tuscany's countryside have managed to pull off - tasteful contemporary design.  Tuscan hotels are usually located in centuries-old villas, castles or farmhouses. In the best-case scenario, they will have been painstakingly restored and the interior design is a sophisticated mix of aristocratic joie-de-vivre or a romanticized version of Tuscan  peasant life.  In the worst case, the interpretation has gone awry with lots of velvet curtains, fake antique furniture and heavy-set four-poster beds in an international baroque style that has little to do with Tuscany but lots with a type of interior design invented to pimp up international hotel cha ins. It's a relief that the five-star Argentario resort de cided for a different approach . No more fake Renaissance architecture, but at last a well thought-through contemporary approach to ...

I normally wouldn't tell my best friend to come to Tuscany to attend a yoga seminar.  I love yoga and thankfully there is a wide choice for any of its practices all around. And yes, it sounds great to spend a week  bending and stretching with awe-inspiring views over the rolling hills. But it sounds sad - at least to me - to have to forego Tuscany's fabulous wine and food whilst you're out here because of all that downward facing dog.  To make sure I can at last recommend a yoga seminar in Tuscany, the people from It's  Yogafirenze and Villa Le Pianore organize a joint venture stretch with plenty of chances to taste, eat, drink and explore some of the area's best in food, wine, culture and nature.  VINYASA WINE AND WALKING AT LE PIANORE Daily Ash tanga yoga, organic winery visits, great food, guided countryside walks, sightseeing (e.g.  Sant'Antimo Abbey , Tuscany's Romanesque treasure) and a hot dip in Bagno Vignoni .  Join the troupers ...

Italy's schools close for three months every summer. A fact that drives the country's parents crazy. I'm lucky enough to be able to send my two rascals off to their relatives in Switzerland for all of July. But that still leaves me with eight hot weeks in the company of an 8- and a 10-year-old who spend their days arguing with each other.  As every Italian mother knows, the easiest way to lift the family spirit is to spend as much time as possible at the sea. And  the Argentario Sailing School has the perfect address for a new summer activity, once the youngsters are beyond  the age of prolonged sand castle building.  The weekly sailing courses take place from June to the beginning of September. Children need to be able to swim and can participate from the age of six. The course takes place from Monday to Saturday with morning groups for smaller kids and first timers and afternoon groups for the more experienced between the young sailors.  ...

Every year on a Sunday in May countless private Tuscan villas open the gates of their immaculately kept Renaissance gardens to the general public.  Organized by the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (the association of historic mansions in Italy) some of Tuscany's most beautiful gardens in historical estates, medieval castles and Renaissance villas can be visited for free on the day. Many of these are not accessible through the rest of the year, or if so only on payment.  Near Siena visits to the sublimely trimmed gardens of the recently restored Villa Cetinale in Sovicille and to the park of Villa Geggiano in the Chianti will be two of the highlights. Further south in the Maremma you'll be conceded access to the castle in Marsiliana, which consists of an entire hamlet which has been the property of the Corsini family since the 18th century (a partments on the  Marsiliana estate  can be rented in  case you're not here on the day or you'd rather have ...

If my Tuscan native is going to leave me one day, you'll know why. Nobody could for ever put up with my never-ending ideas for a change in interior design. Or rather exterior design.  We must have about five tables around our house. One for every time of the day and amount of sunshine. I would have been happy to move them around according to the season, but my brother-in-law preferred to cement them into the ground for eternity. Hence, my need for another one. To enjoy the winter view from our olive grove.  A trial meditation last December with the table I normally use on our terrace (the only movable one left) It was just before Christmas that I realized that I couldn't possibly get through another winter without a table in the midst of our olive trees. Not just for  picking breaks , but for quiet contemplation and morning meditation. Which, no need to say, is all about coffee in Italy. 

Summer in Tuscany and I'm hot and bothered. Since temperature remains over 30 degrees. For weeks. Inside our house . Summer in Tuscany and my Tuscan native is constantly grumpy. Since the construction sites he works in and the roofs he climbs upon are definitely under the Tuscan sun. It's summer in Tuscany and our two  kids are endlessly bickering. Since - autumn, winter, spring and summer - that's just what they like to do.  Once dreaded August 15 is on the horizon - and with it Ferragosto hell  - our ill tempered little family leaves the touristy hill towns and jellyfish invaded beaches behind and happily drives off to a better life. In Switzerland. Where temperatures drop and rain fall starts the moment we cross the border. And all we'll remember of the crowded, irritating and unbearably hot Tuscan summer is this.  Contemplative Cappuccinos before the heat sets in  and early evenings at Fiumara beach mornings spent collecting tomatoe...