As our stay in Tuscany comes to an end, I will sum up a few things we have done since my last blog.
We have made some incredible friendships along the way, from all nationalities. Friends we have spent many an evening eating and drinking with, visiting amazing places and attending villas and street parties.
I just love the locals and the fact we started to become and accepted as part of their wonderful community. I enjoyed how the children, of all ages, come out at night to play so seamlessly together, kids just being kids. It was also wonderful to be part of The Passiggiata, where residence of all ages come together and chat the evening away, what an experience.
The historic villages and towns around Tuscany are just stunning and so unspoilt by the progress of time. I just love the medieval history and architecture and how it is still so vibrantly present for us to appreciate today.
The scenery in Tuscany is just spectacular. I often just stared in wonder taking in the beauty of my surroundings. The views are panoramic of undulating terrain perfectly stripped with vineyards, an abundance of olive groves, orchards, nature reserves, winding streams and agriculture land. It just defines Tuscany like no other landscape can.
Our life at the Podere La Fonte farmhouse was unforgettable. Our hosts Emanuala and Marco were wonderful and made us feel at home as soon as we arrived. The property was traditionally quintessential Italian, with a lovely garden terrace situated under a walnut tree overlooking the Tuscan hills. There was a welcome breeze that waltzed up the hillside providing us relief from the summer Tuscan heat. Each night we would sit in awe of the glorious sunset offering us variants of colour every evening.
I embraced the challenge of the Tuscan terrain whilst exercising with gradients of between 7% -25% and elevations between 2500ft – 3500 ft. Although difficult at first it became a mission with me stepping up the challenge to complete my rides and hikes with extreme determination to improve my distance, time, speed, heart rate and power and each time. Strava making this easy to track with personal records to exceed and legend awards to achieve.
We revisited several places just to take in one final memory of these beautiful villages, towns, cities, and restaurants. I imprinted the Tuscan views day and night into my memory just standing and appreciating the landscape.
On our last day Emanuala and Marco had invited us and our friend Tracy to a cookery lesson, to learn how to make ravioli. They have an incredible kitchen, commercial in layout. The day started with a Café, figs from the orchard and grapes. We then moved onto the preparation. Starting with the tomato sauce made from ingredients from the farm. We then moved onto prepping the garlic bread which may I say was delicious finished off with sea salt, garlic, and rosemary. We were making two types of ravioli, one with potatoes seasoned with mint and the other with ricotta and spinach seasoned with parsley. After making the pasta we rolled and made the ravioli using cutters, we were extremely proud of our efforts. All made and cooked, we sat down together to eat our meal along with some wild boar liver Marco had made earlier and La Fonte wine. What a lovely final day with our hosts and Tracy chatting away and admiring the food we had cooked from scratch.
Radicondoli we will never forget you and your community, and we may just return one day.
Below are some of my favourite photos of our time in Tuscany.
Travel adventures 