Tuscan Escapes

Buon giorno, una bella giornata.
I have just finished reading (as well as salivating and dreaming) a coffee-table book that I took out from the Cape Town Central library:
“Tuscan Escapes: Inspirational Homes in Tuscany and Umbria”.
Caroline Clifton-Mogg – Photography by Chris Tubbs. Dewy classification number: 747.25 – book to be found in the art section on the ground floor.
So many of the homes photographed and written about, could be here in South Africa, and once again I am reminded of how close the lifestyle and living in parts of the Western Cape are so similar to that of Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio and Campania in Italy.
From the Introduction to this book, Caroline writes:
Like all the world’s most romantic places, Tuscany is a state of mind as well as a physical entity. Say the T-word to Tuscophiles and their eyes take on a faraway look, as if they have suddenly been transported to that landscape, those houses, this village – all bathed in the bright, clear Tuscan light that has inspired so much great art over the centuries. This artistic heritage is particularly associated with the period of the Italian Renaissance, when, in cities such as Florence and Siena, painters, sculptors, architects – Giotto, Raphael, Botticelli, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi – created works of art that have influences and informed European Culture for more than 500 years.
Indeed, for many foreigners to the region, Renaissance Italy IS Tuscany – which may explain why the Tuscan landscape seems to strange and yet so familiar: the rounded hills dotted with tall, cigar-shaped cypresses and live groves, the rambling stone buildings and bell towers, and the dusty narrow roads along which one would hardly be surprised to see a cavalcade of noble horsemen, in plumed hats and gold-embroidered tunics, clattering up the hill on their way to hunt wild deer and boar. Artists working in Siena, Florence, Arezzo and other Tuscan towns composed their religious and secular works against a background made up of local landmarks – hills, trees and orchards, vineyards and olive groves, monasteries and churches – which is why, even more than in the rest of Italy, Tuscany is a place where the past, both recent and distant, is always present.
The evocative writing of Caroline and the stunning pictures of Chris, made this book for me a rewarding time spent dreaming and reflecting. It also made me realise that we have so much in South Africa with its various countryside’s, cultures and histories, that the state of mind Caroline writes about, is here as well. The first house portrayed in the book, from pages 14 – 21, remind me so of a house I owned in the Overberg of the Western Cape years ago, with its thick walls, indoor shutters and the wooden beams.

Link to Kalahari.net for more information on this book
(A scan of the cover of “Tuscan Escapes” on loan from the Cape Town library).
I can highly recommend this book, and if its not in the library, then more than likely I have taken it out on loan again.
Cheers… and salute
Love Italy, love life