It is that time of the year. Grape harvest season means Toscana for the happy few. Two weeks of the slow, artful, almost timeless happiness in the Tuscan countryside. But first we Florence in style. When Stendhal visited Florence for the first time, he experienced a one-time feeling: a mixture of amazement, beatitude and exhilaration that proved literally overwhelming. He was dizzy and confused and sick with emotion, while physically incapable of leaving the city. I felt it too, my first time in Firenze: the allure, the wonder, the perfect beauty and the inconceivable happiness of just being there. You know that special tension you feel when you’re desperately in love,…
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THE BEST TRAVEL ADVICE IN THE WORLD
ONE: Travel to wonderland. Just use the rabbit hole and go where the magic is: visit Disneyland or the Harry Potter Studios, fly a kite on the beach, spend a week in an old mill or farmhouse, camp in the desert and bathe in the Milky Way at night. Travel back to yourself, recapture the world as it was before you grew up. TWO: Return to your happy place. You must have one. It’s either a cabin, or a lake, or a beach, or a city, a precise time of the year, a table with a view, or a person. Return as many times as you can, or move there.…
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TUSCANY #SINEQUANON: SEE? PERFECTION EXISTS
Plan on a minimum of two weeks here; this is not a place to fast-forward through. In Tuscany, you take your time, give in, and never resist temptation – this is where you learn the true meaning of slow travel. You really need the time to live it, not just visit it, and once you do it properly, you’ll find there’s no place quite like it. Intel Best time to visit: September. Transport: fly into Pisa or Florence and then rent a car – this is non-negotiable. Tuscany has the most beautiful medieval castles and villages, plus the most wonderful country roads. If you can’t freely move between those vineyards…
