One of the many beauties of living high up in the Tuscan hills is that its quite handy for jumping into the car on a whim and drive aimlessly through breath taking scenery until settling upon one of plentiful picturesque spots in which to relax and become lost in the wilderness of one’s thoughts.
On one of those scenic drives with my family we drove through the Pistoia Mountains (Montagna Pistoiese), past valleys, meadows & glades before breaking at La Macchia Antonini for refreshments. Its a beautiful picnic spot, 962 meters above sea level, surrounded by a deep forest of century old oak trees, beeches, pines & maples; the smell of the fresh clean mountain air combined with the fragrance of an assortment of trees soon sent me floating above my troubles.
During our rest at the cafe, I couldn’t help myself but to sneak off in which to check out the area further. Here I stumbled across an old derelict building and barn. It was quite saddening to see a beautiful building in a terrific spot slowly decaying and lacking the warmth of a loving family.
Passing the building, I stumbled across a farmhouse and what struck me was the design of the door knockers, they were Egyptian heads. Upon further investigation (and thanks to Mary Jane Cryan, historian and journalist), I found that during ‘Napoleon’s Tour d’Egypt‘ French (and later Italian) fashion and architecture were affected between 1798-1801 (thus a great way to date buildings).
Wandering around this Tuscan mountain spot, I found myself deep in my thoughts as to what life may have been like in this very spot 2 centuries ago…
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Ciao,
Susan
