Holidays in The Dolomites and Venice

We have four smashing kids. The eldest two have slipped through the teen years into earliest adulthood, so 'kids' is a bit misleading really. Luckily for us they still want to come on holiday as a family, and the time together feels so very precious. Our holidays are now pretty carefully planned to have appeal for the whole family and the range of ages and interests our family of six now represents.

Our summer holiday this year has been a week of amazingly beautiful sights and extreme differences of environment. Our youngest would have probably enjoyed less sightseeing and more time playing in a pool, but overall it was a brilliant week together, and a joy to spend time together as a whole family. We had five days high in the Italian Dolomite mountains and three days in Venice. We had adventures in those mountains, long walks at over 7000ft scrambling over boulders and steep mountain tracks, wild swimming in freezing mountain lakes, walking in wonder through beautiful forests and meadows full of wild flowers. I wanted some adventure this year, and the Dolomites certainly gave it to me!

This was a good spot for a morning snack at about 8000ft, mid mountain hike!

Even in these inhospitable heights, there were beautiful flowers and ferns growing in gaps in the limestone.

Following the high paths down into the tree line, the waterfalls, forests and meadows were such a contrast to the rocky outcrops above.

Imagine the contrast arriving a few days later in sweltering, tourist crammed Venice!

It was all a bit of a shock, so we snuck off into the backstreets of some quieter areas to soak up some much less frenetic atmosphere. It paid off, the quiet canals and crumbling facades were the perfect place to soak up the spirit of the place and enjoy a gelato or prosecco or two four.

The beauty of Venice is disarmingly surreal, every corner and narrow street seems to open out on a suprising view more distractingly gorgeous than the last. The tightest of footpath can suddenly lead out to a view of the open sea, a series of ancient bridges or a faded palazzo.

The colours! 

Like Rome, the past and present seem to live and breathe together in the fabric of the buildings and streets in a way more potent than one is used to. It seemed easier to get a sense of place in the backwaters of the local residential areas than the central tourist spots around St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge. It was fun seeing it through the eyes of our kids too. There is never a dull moment with this one!

We had a simple but really delicous dinner by this quiet canal, at a family run trattoria, dusk falling around us and turning to night as we ate. Memories made.

Our second son is leaving home in September, bound for med school hundreds of miles from home. These times together feel like gold. I hope you are having a fun summer, and make some lovely memories wherever you are. x

flowers in the house

During a rare sunny moment between scudding, grey storm clouds, I whipped out my camera to take a some pictures of the few flowers in our house - just in time for Jane's monthly floral shindig. It is slim pickings in the garden this time of year, and although a few purple anemones are bravely unfurling in the swathes of mud, I found a few lovely long stems at a flower shop in town and couldn't resist. So I popped them in a white jug along with some green hellebore florets from the garden.

I have been loving the snowdrops beginning to carpet our little woodland area and a few of them always look so pretty in a tiny clay pot I think. They are cheering up our north facing kitchen.

Wishing you all a lovely week. I am full steam ahead with jewellery work, but plenty to do to get the garden ready for Spring too. It feels good to get my hands in the earth again.

Tuscany and Umbria

We have recently come home from a week in Umbria, central Italy. I am still trying to gather my thoughts and memories about our experiences there, there was so much to absorb, so much staggering beauty to take in. A lot of fun had. I have briefly been to this area but not for many years, and seeing it all through our kids' eyes, made it feel entirely new again.

Sunset view from the ramparts of old Cortona, Lake Trasimeno in the distance

We stayed for three nights close to the Tuscan border, in an old hunting lodge near Cortona, now an utterly gorgeous small hotel.

From there we visited Siena, Cortona, Pienza and Montepluciano - Tuscan cities/towns of such overwhelming loveliness it is really an impossible job to know where to start. The topographical location of most of the towns is mesmerising in that you see them on the skyline before you arrive. So many of the towns in Tuscany and Umbria are perched on the top of hills, terraces and fields of vines and sunflowers below punctuated by the vertical cypress trees, deep blue August skies above - Church and monastary spires the highest points. Once inside the town walls, the overwhelming impression of these hilltop towns is how entirely medieval they look, no modern buildings within the ancient town walls, peeling C14th frescos inside every religious building, bells still ringing out the hours. And being perched so high, the views from the town walls towards the open country are breathtaking.

Living in England I am used to ancient buildings, but the crumbling, unspoilt, almost unchanged feel of these places is astounding.  Especially in the back streets. We loved it all. I could write a blog post about each town, but I know other people's holiday snaps can wear thin, so here are a just a few photos that give a flavour of what I loved most - not so much the main 'sights' although they are stunning, more the winding medieval streets, the views,  the colours.....

Backstreet, Montepulciano

In the main square of Montepulciano, a group of unseen opera singers were rehearsing behind open upper floor windows of a grand town building, red curtains billowing. Their singing could be heard across the piazza. Only in Italy. Is it unfair to think it would have been radio 1 in Blighty?!

Backsteets, Pienza

Backstreets of Siena

Having said that, the Duomo in Siena is staggering. And building started in the 1260s. Blimey.

Duomo, Siena 

 It is great seeing teenagers gawping at C13th art. YES!

After three nights near Cortona we headed forty minutes drive south to a tiny, family run hotel near Todi. It was such a special experience, I will save it for another post, along with a cracking recipe given to me for Italian breakfast cake. Italian breakfast cake. You read right.