“
I didn't get to stop missing her. Ever. It was the thing that my life had handed me, and no matter how heavy it was, I was never going to be able to set it down. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to be okay. Or even happy. I couldn't imagine it yet exactly, but maybe a day would come when the hole inside me wouldn't ache quite so badly and I could think about her, and remember, and it would be all right. That day felt light-years away, but right at this moment I was standing on a tower in the middle of Tuscany and the sunrise was so beautiful that it hurt.
And that was something.
”
”
Jenna Evans Welch (Love & Gelato (Love & Gelato, #1))
“
To me, love is more like a lending library. To keep it, we must continually renew it. Otherwise we pay a hefty fine.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
Although I am a person who expected to be rooted in one spot forever, as it has turned out I love having the memories of living in many places.
”
”
Frances Mayes (Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style From the Heart of Italy)
“
Those who cannot win hearts with love often control people with fear.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
Love, in any of its forms, takes the world from a bleak pencil sketch to a magnificent oil painting.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
This golden field covered in stars above - the empty night and the feeling of love.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
Each time you love—be it a man or a child, a cat or a horse—you add color to this world. When you fail to love, you erase color.” She smiles. “Love, in any of its forms, is what takes this journey from a bleak black-and-white pencil sketch to a magnificent oil painting.”
She touches my cheek. “It’s the sweet fruit that paints the field and wakes our senses. I’m not saying you must be on a constant quest for it, but please, if love comes to you, if you find it within your grasp, promise me you’ll pluck it from the vine and give it a good looking-over, won’t you?
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
Melancholy skies
and empty fields of gold
grey clouds
and emeralds days
our love in pieces
captured only by poems (of mine).
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
He's already tan, and leaning on the rail in his yellow linen shirt, with the pure glory of Venice racing behind him, I think he looks like someone I'd like to run off with, if I already hadn't.
”
”
Frances Mayes (Bella Tuscany)
“
I tear the edge from the crust and nod toward the church’s tower. “Check out that old clock,” I say. “Don’t set your watch to it,” Poppy says, dabbing her lips with her napkin. She turns to Lucy. “Like many things in life, it’s attractive and flashy, but notoriously unreliable.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
People who work alone know the beauty of solitude. The perhaps greater beauty of loneliness
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (Antonia and Her Daughters: Secrets, Love, Friendship and Family in Tuscany)
“
Festina lente. Make haste slowly.
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (Antonia and Her Daughters: Secrets, Love, Friendship and Family in Tuscany)
“
Nothing squandered, nothing cloaked.
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (Antonia and Her Daughters: Secrets, Love, Friendship and Family in Tuscany)
“
Love. Forgive. Love again. Forgive again. That, my dear girl, is the circle of love.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
All of Venice is tattered, resewn, achingly lovely, and like an enchantress, she disarms me, making off with the very breath of me.
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure)
“
To me, spirituality is less about Sunday mass than it is about love. It’s that simple. When you treat others with love, consistently and fully, you honor your god or goddess. Some of the holiest people I know have never stepped foot in a church. And I’ve met many churchgoing, self-righteous born-again Christians that God himself probably wishes had never been born the first time.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
It's mostly readers of my books who come to be with us. The tours become an extension of the books. Guests want to see the places I write about. They want to be where we are. I guess they want also to feel what I feel. They want to step through a magic door.
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (Antonia and Her Daughters: Secrets, Love, Friendship and Family in Tuscany)
“
You rob time, Fernando. How arrogant you are, taking an evening like this one as though it were some sour cherry, spitting half its flesh into the dirt. Every time you pitch yourself back into the past, you lose time. Have you so much of it to spare, my love?
”
”
Marlena de Blasi (A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure)
“
In the end, life is a simple equation. Each time you love- be it a man or a child, a cat or a horse- you add color to this world. When you fail to love, you erase color. Love, in any of its forms, is what takes this journey from a bleak black-and-white pencil sketch to a magnificent oil painting.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star Crossed Sisters of Tuscany (Audible book))
“
May God bless and protect you. May he smooth the path that lies before you, and give you the grace and humility to accept both fortune and sorrow. May you be strong as the redwood when troubles arise, and bend like the willow when forgiveness beckons. Above all, may you love joyfully, gratefully, faithfully, in Christ’s name. Amen.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
I stood in the doorway of one room, lost in a meditation of the house's recurring habits. People had made love here, sweated through pregnancy, gave birth, looked after children, became ill, died, the fire always burning in the kitchen. In this room, the next generation had done the same, the fire still burning. And the next generation, for thousand years.
”
”
Bill Buford (Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany)
“
It's not you it's me' she couldn't use that line. Even though it really was her and not him, everyone thought that line really meant, 'it's not me. It's definitely you.'
There was still a part of her that thought perhaps she shouldn't do it at all. In Andrew she had all the raw ingredients for a perfect life. Here was a grown-up, good-looking, solvent, generous, warm-hearted man who adored her. A man who adored her even when she looked like the loch ness monsters little sister and had a terrible temper to match.
It didn't take a huge leap of imagination to see Andrew standing at the top of the aisle, looking back at lou walking towards him with a grin as wide as the English channel. She could see him painting the nursery yellow; pushing a pram that contained two lovely brown haired twins (one boy, one girl); presenting her woth an eternity ring on their tenth anniversary, taking the twins to school, teaching them how to play football on long, summer holidays in Tuscany, giving the daughter away at her own wedding, cosying up to Lou on the veranda of their perfect house as their retirement stretched ahead of them- a long straight road of well-planned for, financially comfortable and perpetually sunny days.
'oh god' Lou poured herself a vodka.
”
”
Chris Manby (Getting Personal (Red Dress Ink))
“
SIENA
I wander down the steps along the walls of bricks and high houses -
down to the waters that lay deep.
Streaming down from the hill on which the old city was built with a tower standing high, that reaches up
not far from the grave that these waters lay in.
Alabaster is the hand that reaches in it and cold is the heart that touches the pale divine.
Beating fast after climbing back to the light and narrow streets - I found now what it seeks.
Descending down, down to the hidden stream - oh Siena, my goddess without a pomegranate seed.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
And this is what I’ve always suspected about Tuscany. It is about many beautiful things—about small towns, magnificent vistas, and fabulous cuisine, art, culture, history—but it is ultimately about the love of books. It is a reader’s paradise. People come here because of books. Tuscany may well be for people who love life in the present—simple, elaborate, whimsical, complicated life in the present—but it is also for people who love the present when it bears the shadow of the past, who love the world provided it’s at a slight angle. Bookish people.
”
”
André Aciman (Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere)
“
Sometimes in the evening, around sunset, the colors of Via Appia are those of Tuscany. I learned of that northern region when I was very young, still a child. First in a travel guidebook. And then during a school trip. It was a civilization contemporary with Rome that has now disappeared. I wish I knew how to tell you about the beauty of that region, where that civilization and that philosophy occurred in a lovely and fleeting coincidence. I wish I could tell you about the simplicity of their existence, their geography, the color of their eyes, of their climates, their agriculture, their pastures, their skies.” (A pause.) “You see, it would be like your smile, but lost, untraceable after it occurs. Like your body, but vanished; like a love, but without you or me. And so how can one say? How can one not love?
”
”
Marguerite Duras (Writing)
“
According to a study done in 2011 by the welfare department of the CISL trade union, in the three-year period from 2006 to 2008 it could take as long as 540 days to have a mammogram scheduled (Puglia), 90 days to get a bone-density scan done (Veneto) and 74 days to see a geriatrics specialist in the generally well-organized Tuscany region. I myself know someone who had to wait seven months to get a heart bypass, and one of my next-door neighbors here in Rome waited almost a year for a hip replacement.
Of course, this is not unusual for a country with national health; all the Brits I know decry their own system violently and even in Sweden, once a model for such things, there is considerable disorganization. The fact remains that the Italian national health system is often more virtual than real, forcing people who can afford it to look for an alternative solution.
”
”
Sari Gilbert (My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City)
“
he asked them. “Too long. Don’t be such a stranger. Stop by if you’re in our neighborhood. We would love to sit and chat. We can talk about the good old days and we got lots of pictures and stories from Tuscany.” “Will do. Enjoy the evening.” Jack turned and was face to face with their daughter, Patti. “Hi, Jack,” she whispered. “Great to see you again,” she said and kissed him on the cheek. “It was so good to talk with you the other day. It meant a lot to see you.” He watched her as she started to walk away and turned to him and say, “I wanted to let you know that after we talked I gave my husband a phone call. Eric and I decided to get back together. We’ve shared a lot of history, and we’re at least going to give it one last try to see if we can make it work. Thanks for everything, Jack. Bye.” She kissed him on the cheek. Jack saw Hope walking across the floor. “She’s pretty. Who was that?” glancing at Patti walk away. “An old and dear friend. Both Charley and I had a crush on her when we were younger. I’ll introduce you to her and her mom and dad later. You’ll like her.” More people filed inside to an already full hall. Soon it was standing room only. Jack turned to Hope and whispered, “I can’t believe this. We’ve had over twenty businesses make donations to the veterans’ fund to help support job training and for overseas servicemen’s wives and families. We also got money from the Yankee Bookshop, the Woodstock Inn, the Billings Farm Museum, the bank, and Bentleys Restaurant. They all donated money.” “That’s great,” she said excitedly. “And we’ve received over thirty new membership requests for the Veterans Post and that’s just yesterday. This is better than I ever expected. And four companies have committed to hiring more vets locally, including King Arthur Flour Company. They’re planning to build a new distribution center just west of town. I can’t believe all of this is happening.” “You should,” Hope said. “I remember you sat down right over there at that table and laid out what you wanted to see happen and you kept working on it until it did. I’m so proud of you.” He hugged her close and kissed her. He never wanted to let her go. The distinct fragrance of fresh balsam, pine, and holly filled
”
”
Bryan Mooney (Christmas in Vermont: A Very White Christmas)
“
All too often these walls proved minor impediments. Court records in Tuscany describe how men secretly entered convents to satisfy what one document called their “libidinous desires.” Included among them was a man who in 1419 managed to live for five months in a Dominican convent in Pisa, and a priest who, two years later, entered a convent of Poor Clares thirty miles west of Florence “and stayed many days, knowing carnally day and night one of the recluses who wore the nun’s habit.”17 The most notorious convent in Florentine territories was undoubtedly Santa Margherita in Prato, scene in the 1450s of the love affair between an Augustinian novice and a Carmelite friar: Sister Lucrezia Buti and the amorous painter Fra Filippo Lippi (the painter Filippino Lippi would be the result of the liaison).
”
”
Ross King (The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance)
“
Diana talked about visits to Tokyo and Rome. Daisy listened, wistfully recalling her own grand plans. When Beatrice no longer needed bottles or sippie cups or an endless supply of chicken nuggets, Daisy had wanted to travel, and Hal had been perfectly amenable. The problem was that his idea of a perfect vacation was not Europe but, instead, a resort with a golf course that could be reached by a direct flight from Philadelphia International Airport, while Daisy wanted to eat hand-pulled noodles in Singapore and margherita pizza in Rome and warm pain au chocolat in Paris; she wanted to eat in a sushi bar in Tokyo and a trattoria in Tuscany; to eat paella in Madrid and green papaya salad in Thailand; shaved ice in Hawaii and French toast in Hong Kong; she wanted to encourage, in Beatrice, a love of food, of taste, of all the good things in the world. And she'd ended up married to a man who'd once told her that his idea of hell was a nine-course tasting menu.
”
”
Jennifer Weiner (That Summer)
“
Hues of pale green, on delicate olive branches
the soft rustling of somberness along the fields of gold that lay themselves to gentle rest
after another long summer.
I have nothing to bury under them
except my own heart -that is my soul's greatest regret, once my lines begin to fill in autumn,
under the velvet gloom of shortening days.
The admiration of the Florentine sun
had doomed my words
to become eventually a remembrance
once September falls in October's pale hands.
I shall have nothing to grieve for
once the winter arrives, coming over the distant hills and laying bare the orchards along his way.
I doomed them to become ruins by overthinking, hoping - at least once too often - for change;
So, let it be then.
I will mourn my mere passion for life in the presence of death -
though my art may be eternal.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
Sicily--- Oranges, pistachios, and/or aubergine. Sicilian food a product of immense, diverse history. Have sardines! Try the orange cake. You'll find it all over, but there used to be a good one in Taormina.
I shake my head in amazement. Somehow, it feels like Dad had been quietly guiding me.
Tuscany--- Wild boar is good but tomatoes are better. Nothing else! Please say something with Chiara's tomatoes. I want to help her. Farm is a century old and sells some obscure varieties. Tomato salads, tomato bread soup, panzanella.
And here too, Leo and I had organically found the path my father laid out for us. The notes on Liguria are less specific, but when I read his scrawled handwriting, I smile to myself.
Liguria--- Was thinking about beans, but basil a good opinion.
Oh boy, I cannot wait to show that note to Leo. Basil a good option!
Leo.
I sit and write with an open heart, not shying away from treacly memories of cut oranges shared in the sea. Pushing my cynicism to the side and allowing the love I have for food, for Italy, for my father, to run from my heart down my veins to my fingers and onto the page.
”
”
Lizzy Dent (Just One Taste)
“
Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan is a British journalist best known for his editorial work for the Daily Mirror from 1995 through 2004. He is also a successful author and television personality whose recent credits include a recurring role as a judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. A controversial member of the tabloid press during Diana’s lifetime, Piers Morgan established a uniquely close relationship with the Princess during the 1990s.
I mentioned I’d been in contact with her mother.
“Oh crikey, that sounds dangerous!”
“She’s a feisty woman, isn’t she?”
William giggled. “Granny’s great fun after a few gin and tonics.”
“Sh, William,” Diana said, giggling too. “My mother’s been a tremendous source of support to me. She never talks publicly; she’s just there for me.”
“And what about William’s other granny?”
“I have enormous respect for the Queen; she has been so supportive, you know. People don’t see that side of her, but I do all the time. She’s an amazing person.”
“Has she been good over the divorce?”
“Yes, very. I just want it over now so I can get on with my life. I’m worried about the attacks I will get afterward.”
“What attacks?”
“I just worry that people will try and knock me down once I am out on my own.”
This seemed unduly paranoid. People adored her.
I asked William how he was enjoying Eton.
“Oh, it’s great, thanks.”
“Do you think the press bother you much?”
“Not the British press, actually. Though the European media can be quite annoying. They sit on the riverbank watching me rowing with their cameras, waiting for me to fall in! There are photographers everywhere if I go out. Normally loads of Japanese tourists taking pictures. All saying “Where’s Prince William?’ when I’m standing right next to them.”
“How are the other boys with you?”
“Very nice. Though a boy was expelled this week for taking ecstasy and snuff. Drugs are everywhere, and I think they’re stupid. I never get tempted.”
“Does matron take any?” laughed Diana.
“No, Mummy, it gives her hallucinations.”
“What, like imagining you’re going to be king?” I said.
They both giggled again.
“Is it true you’ve got Pamela Anderson posters on your bedroom wall?”
“No! And not Cindy Crawford, either. They did both come to tea at the palace, though, and were very nice.”
William had been photographed the previous week at a party at the Hammersmith Palais, where he was mobbed by young girls.
I asked him if he’d had fun. “Everyone in the press said I was snogging these girls, but I wasn’t,” he insisted.
Diana laughed. “One said you stuck your tongue down her throat, William. Did you?”
“No, I did not. Stop it, Mummy, please. It’s embarrassing.”
He’d gone puce. It was a very funny exchange, with a flushed William finally insisting: “I won’t go to any more public parties; it was crazy. People wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Diana laughed again. “All the girls love a nice prince.”
I turned to more serious matters.
“Do you think Charles will become king one day?”
“I think he thinks he will,” replied Diana, “but I think he would be happier living in Tuscany or Provence, to be honest.”
“And how are you these days--someone told me you’ve stopped seeing therapists?”
“I have, yes. I stopped when I realized they needed more therapy than I did. I feel stronger now, but I am under so much pressure all the time. People don’t know what it’s like to be in the public eye, they really don’t.
”
”
Larry King (The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, From Those Who Knew Her Best)
“
Count ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS once remarked to one of the most distinguished English statesmen that there was in the country in Tuscany ten times as much heathenism as Christianity. The same remark was made to me by a fortune-teller in Florence. She explained what she meant. It was the vecchia religione—"the old religion"—not Christianity, but the dark and strange sorceries of the stregha, or witch, the compounding of magical medicine over which spells are muttered, the making love-philters, the cursing enemies, the removing the influence of other witches, and the manufacture of amulets in a manner prohibited by the Church.
”
”
Charles Godfrey Leland (THREE Collections of Charles Godfrey Leland: GYPSY SORCERY and FORTUNE TELLING, ETRUSCAN ROMAN, ARADIA or THE GOSPEL OF THE WITCHES (Annotated History of Charles Godfrey Leland))
“
I have never before gathered eggs from under a hen. Fernando has never before seen a hen. We bend low into the shed where perch a dozen or so fat lady birds. There's no shrieking or fluttering at all. I approach one and ask if she has an egg or two. Nothing. I ask in Italian. Still nothing. I ask Fernando to pick her up but he's already outside the shed smoking and pacing, telling me he really doesn't like eggs at all and he especially doesn't like frittata. Both bold-faced lies. I start to move the hen and she plumps down from her perch quite voluntarily, uncovering the place where two lovely brown eggs sit. I take them, one at a time, bend down and nestle them in my sack. I want two more. I peruse the room. I choose the hen who sits next to the docile one. I pick her up and she pecks me so hard on my wrist that I drop her. I see there is nothing in her nest and apologise for my insensitivity, thinking her nastiness must have been caused by embarrassment. I move on to another hen and this time find a single, paler brown-shelled beauty, still warm and stuck all over with bits of straw. I take it and leave with an unfamiliar thrill. This is my first full day in Tuscany and I've robbed a henhouse before lunch.
Back home in the kitchen I beat the eggs, the yolks of which are orange as pumpkin, with a few grindings of sea salt, a few more of pepper, adding a tablespoon or so of white wine and a handful of Parmigliano. I dig for my flat broad frying pan, twirl it to coat its floor with a few drops of my tourist oil, and let it warm over a quiet flame. I drop in the rinsed and dried blossoms whole, flatten them a bit so they stay put, and leave them for a minute or so while I tear a few basil leaves, give the eggs another stroke or two. I throw a few fennel seeds into the pan to scent the oil, where the blossoms are now beginning to take colour on their bottom sides. Time to liven up the flame and add the egg batter. I perform the lift-and-tilt motions necessary to cook the frittata without disturbing the blossoms, which are now ensnared in the creamy embrace of the eggs. Next, I run the lush little cake under a hot grill to form a gold blistery skin on top before sliding it onto a plate, strewing it with torn basil. The heat of the eggs warms the herbs so they give up a double-strength perfume. Now I drop a thread of find old balsamico over it. And finally, let it rest.
”
”
Marlena de Blasi
“
You're my sweet, sexy, goddess of love and I want you and every beautiful little thing that you make.
”
”
Giselle Fox (Slow Burn in Tuscany)
“
Today Alessandro had his first meeting with a Frenchman from the “conversation exchange” website. His name is Florent, and he wants to learn Italian because he bought a plot of land in a tiny village near Lucca, in Tuscany, and he plans to build a house there. But mostly because he is in love with a waitress he met in the village.
”
”
Eloisa James (Paris In Love)
“
I was taught how to tie up the loin with a butcher's looping knot and was so excited by the discovery that I went home and practiced. I told Elisa about my achievement. “I tied up everything,” I said. “A leg of lamb, some utensils, a chair. My wife came home, and I tied up her too.” Elisa shook her head. “Get a life,” she said and returned to her task.
”
”
Bill Buford (Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany)
“
It’s not an accident that the best cooking in Tuscany is found at home. It’s the place where Tuscans’ passionate love for food meets their passionate love for family and friends.
”
”
Pino Luongo (A Tuscan in the Kitchen: Recipes and Tales from My Home)
“
I realize that love plays many roles. Paramour. Comforter. Protector. Mate. Though Rico is my heart’s only true passion, there’s much to be said for a love that provides deep friendship, or simply companionship, in a world that can sometimes feel like a fisted glove.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
continuous quiver of love runs through Italian folklore. In speaking of the Sicilian tales, I mentioned the popularity of the Cupid and Psyche type found not only in Sicily but also in Tuscany and more or less everywhere.
”
”
Italo Calvino (Italian Folktales)
“
That feeling is primal, as if instinctually, we are born knowing of this mother's love. And when it is absent, it leaves us with a thirst that can never be quenched.
”
”
Lori Nelson Spielman (The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany)
“
Here, almost all media are subtracted from daily life. I notice the enormous difference immediately. The habit I have, of turning on the radio news as I drive to work, comes to mind as a destroyer of the natural rhythm of the day. Subtle, because flicking on the radio seems almost an automatic gesture, a neutral gesture. But in the half hour from my flat to the parking lot at school, drug lords are shot, children are abused by those who are supposed to protect them, car bombs go off, houses are carried off by floods, and my waking psyche has absorbed a load of the world's hurt. The bombardment of frightening, disturbing images assaults any well-being that might have accrued from a lovely night's sleep. TV probably would be worse; I rarely watch TV news except for reports of earthquakes and dire events. At school, I get out of the car already tense and not knowing why. The constant overload of recurrent horror on the news and in the papers we assume is normal until we live without it. Has any study focused on the correlation of anxiety and level of exposure to news? I read the paper here two or three times a week, enough to more than keep up with crucial events. “I'll start the day without that negative drone,” I tell Ed. “On my own terms.
”
”
Frances Mayes (Bella Tuscany)
“
Nikolai and Bran got married exactly two months ago in a stunning Tuscany destination wedding because Nikolai refused to get married after Jeremy. My guess is that he was just too eager to have Bran as his husband. I’ve never seen my friend so happy as when he was professing his undying love to Nikolai.
”
”
Rina Kent (God of War (Legacy of Gods, #6))
“
Short story: The true and incredible tale of David Kirkpatrick, a Scottish ex-boy scout, and miner, serving in WW2 with 2nd Highland Light Infantry and the legendary elite corps 2nd SAS. A man who becomes a hero playing his bagpipe during a secret mission in Italy, March 1945, where he saved the lives of hundreds just playing during the attack.
After he fought in North Africa, Greece, Albania, Sicily and being reported as an unruly soldier, (often drunk, insulting superiors and so on) in Tuscany, 23 march 1945 he joined as volunteer in the 2nd Special Air Service ( the British elite forces), for a secret mission behind enemy line in Italy.
He parachuted in the Italian Apennines with his kilt on (so he becomes known as the 'mad piper' ) for a mission organized with British elite forces and an unruly group of Italian-Russian partisans (code name: 'Operation Tombola' organized from the British secret service SOE and 2nd SAS and the "Allied Battalion") against the Gothic Line german headquarter of the 51 German Mountains Corps in Albinea, Italy. The target of the anglo-partisan group's mission is to destroy the nazi HQ to prepare the big attack of the Allied Forces (US 5th Army, British 8th Army) to the German Gothic Line in North Italy at the beginning of April. It's the beginning of the liberation of Italy from the nazi fascist dictatorship.
The Allied Battalion guided by major Roy Farran, captain Mike Lees Italian partisan Glauco Monducci, Gianni Ferrari, and the Russian Viktor Pirogov is an unruly brigade of great fighters of many nationalities. Among them also not just British, Italian, and Russian but also a dutch, a greek, one Austrian paratrooper who deserted the German Forces after has killed an SS, a german who deserted Hitler's Army being in love with an Italian taffeta's, two Jewish escaped from nazi reprisal and 3 Spanish anti-Franchise who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War and then joined first the French Foreign Legion and the British Elite Forces.
The day before the attack, Kirkpatrick is secretly guested in a house of Italian farmers, and he donated his white silk parachute to a lady so she could create her wedding dress for the Wedding with his love: an Italian partisan.
During the terrible attack in the night of 27th March 1945, the sound of his bagpipe marks the beginning of the fight and tricked the nazi, avoiding a terrible reprisal against the civilian population of the Italian village of Albinea, saving in this way the life of hundreds
The German HQ based in two historical villa's is destroyed and in flames, several enemy soldiers are killed, during the attack, the bagpipe of David played for more than 30 minutes and let the german believe that the "British are here", not also Italian and Russian partisan (in war for Hitler' order: for partisans attack to german forces for every german killed nazi were executing 10 local civilians in terrible and barbarian reprisal). During the night the bagpipe of David is also hit after 30 minutes of the fight and, three British soldiers of 2nd SAS are killed in the action in one of the two Villa. The morning later when Germans bring their bodies to the Church of Albinea, don Alberto Ugolotti, the local priest notes in his diary: "Asked if they were organizing a reprisal against the civilian population, they answered that it was a "military attack" and there would.
”
”
Mark R Ellenbarger
“
It’s never too late to take stock of one’s work, relationships, and life. What dreams of yours are unfulfilled, and why have they been pushed aside? Sometimes circumstances or economics are the unavoidable roadblock to achieving your dreams.
When things are outside of a person’s control, all one can do is to evaluate how best to deal with these obstacles, and then take action. That was my personal approach when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The best thing about my cancer was that I realized how many people cared about me and wanted to help. I am not very good at asking for help and, unfortunately, many people are the same. Family and friends are a grossly underrated asset, which is why I centered my debut novel, To Tuscany with Love, on a group of friends who help each other save, and forgive, themselves.
A surprising occurrence is that sometimes we ourselves, like my characters, have become the obstruction to achieving our goals. Passionately investing in your relationships and dreams is the first step to molding yourself into the person you dream of being and in the process, achieving happiness and fulfillment.
”
”
Gail Mencini
“
Respect love for the gift it is.
”
”
Gail Mencini (It Happened in Tuscany)
“
CHIANTI
The yellow sun lays low upon the fields that are covered in dry grass.
Soft is the rain that falls in the distance yet does not dare to come near the places where summer lives and dies.
The haze is the aftermath of the kiss summer shared with the land so gracefully.
And now, I may kiss your wine-stained lips within September's pale delight.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
SAN GIMIGNANO
The towers align the hills like crowns of heavy stones;
Empty are the dreams of the ones that built them long ago.
The thirst for power still stands frozen in its tracks - the only witnesses of it stand high against the silver sky.
The distance gets smaller, and the towers become higher.
So many have fallen,
laying their family's name to rest, in gentle forgetfulness.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
A POET'S HOMAGE TO FLORENCE
What heart dares to look upon a city so golden and is not moved to write a single line?
Whose soul can bear such beauty
and not praise it with all its words?
May there be poets without a page left, artists with no colour to give a memory of you; and even lovers who refuse to burn?
My love, your likeness is like marble that makes the altar of paradise.
”
”
Laura Chouette
“
And after this is over? Do I retire to that lovely villa in Aix-en-Provence that I saw in the magazine? Or the hilltop estate in Tuscany that was in that foodie show with the adorable Stanley Tucci?
”
”
David Baldacci (Simply Lies (Mickey Gibson, #1))
“
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