We headed west, through Anqua, Massa Marittima and Cura Nuova to the coast and the seaside town of Follonica. Although I could imagine what it would be like in the height of summer, popular with Italians, in May, in the pouring rain at siesta time it was dead. And you know what? It was bliss.

We hunted down an open restaurant for a coffee, and at 1 euro it was the cheapest so far in Italy, and sat for a while, watching the locals watching the telly, and relishing being the only non-Italians in the vicinity, never mind the restaurant.

Where next? North, along the coastal road to wherever it would take us. The road was very straight and the landscape very flat. On our left was the sea (not that we could see it) and on our right were miles and miles of farms: big estates with long drives lined with baobab trees, against a dramatic back drop of mountains and dark grey storm clouds. It was still raining and the landscape looked lush - almost tropical. This was much more interesting, much more real to me than herding round antiquated hill towns. This was a working, living Italy.

It was time for a break, so we stopped in Cecina for an ice-cream, and boy it was the best chocolate ice cream of the whole trip (more on Italian ice cream and food in general in a separate post). It almost made up for the fact that outside our little hire car, it was still absolutely chucking it down.

Back east now, back on winding hilly roads, and through some pretty towns at which we would have undoubtedly stopped for a wander if we wouldn’t have got soaked through within seconds.

Another calm and silent evening at the villa was spent reading our novels, and we were only just beginning to feel completely relaxed: disconnected from the outside world, no internet, no phone, no TV, just books and our imagination. I was totally absorbed by Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, which couldn’t have felt more appropriate. It was lovely.

Wednesday. My heart sank as I peered out on yet another cloudy Tuscan day, the dull grey sky draining the landscape of its beauty. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! But just as we were ready to head out in the car again, the sun started to look like it might make it through the clouds so we decided to take a punt on a day at the villa. Hopeful, we walked up to the village for barbeque meats, then read our books, and at about 4pm the sun finally made it through. We wasted no time in getting sat round the pool, but within 30 minutes the dark grey storm clouds that had been looming over the hills began to rumble and down came the rain. So our lamb did not make the barbecue, we cooked it on the grill indoors instead, got very very drunk and went to bed hoping that the storm would clear the air for the morning.

No such luck. Thursday was just as cold and cloudy as the day before and to make matters worse I was hung-over. I resolved to sulk and lie in bed for as long as possible, only rising at 1pm when a chink of sunlight drew me to the window. Yes, it was sun! So we sat outside for an hour willing the intermittent sun to hold its ground, then we moved to the pool and soaked up enough heat to warrant a swim! Brilliant! But that was it – 45 minutes later and the rain started to fall.

So that night we went to La Pergola for dinner hoping that tomorrow, our last day, we might get a chance to barbecue our beautiful t-bone steaks and Tuscan sausages.

Friday. No sun. In fact mid-afternoon it started raining again. Gutted.

Then, 5pm, just for us, a wonderful thing happened: the sun came out. So, we started the fire, got the barbie going, rustled up some salads, prepared the meat and let it sizzle, poured the wine and enjoyed a wonderful evening. It wasn’t hot by any means, but it wasn’t raining and we were glad for this small miracle.

Labels: travel