Chianti - Day 15 to 16

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Day 15
We ventured back into the village this morning to buy some stamps and send of some postcards. Then a little walk around the Piazza to check if there were any more notifications in the village hall windows for possible language courses and upcoming festivals.
Once we were back at the house we decided it was time to give the car, a bright green RAV4, a bath. For some reason the boot smelt of wet dog which I couldn’t figure out until Jaime remembered that the owners had mentioned a dog that must have lived with the previous caretakers.
Anyway, we collected the paraphernalia needed and set to work.
Two hours later saw the RAV looking and smelling much better!

After lunch we decided to start on oiling the wooden benches dotted around the house with Linseed oil. Jaime set up one of the sun umbrellas for us to work under as it was getting quite hot and we didn’t want to risk sunburn. It was nice therapeutic work and I am surprisingly looking forward to applying a second coat. Maybe it’s something about working outside in such a healthy environment, or maybe its just because the sun is shining – am certainly feeling very zen’ed.

Day 16
This morning we decided to take some time off and explore the area.
But first another stop at that elusive library and YES it was finally open.

The librarian was very helpful and answered numerous questions for us, although he did explain that it was only his first day and he usually worked in the Radda library.
We joined and borrowed a couple of books. The librarian advised us that the selection of English language books was far better in the Radda library and recommended that we visited there on Wednesday evenings.
They also hold casual language classes there run by volunteers, which we will definitely check out.
At the moment I am trying to pick up a little Italian by using the Rosetta Stone software – some things are sinking in, but I have yet to fathom why the first lesson involves learning the word for elephant, not one I am likely to need in the near future.

Then we drove on to a charming little walled village called Vertine where two cats decided to say hello.
The village was very beautiful and peaceful, but I could imagine the hoards of tourists descending the cobble streets in summer.

We headed onwards to a village called Radda. We had briefly explored this village on our short trip last month, but wanted to take some time to wander the little boutiques. Surprisingly we found a small hardware store that stocked large tins of Linseed oil, great for continuing the oiling of the benches project!

The shops started to close for lunch around 12.30 so we ventured home again, had lunch ourselves and then I spent a few hours trying my hand at painting a ‘typical Tuscan’ farmhouse – you can tell I don’t do well with man made structures when it comes to painting…its all practise I suppose.

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