| Happy New Year! |
Dear Friends This coming season will be our sixth year of Art Toscana. In 2009 we welcomed new guests from Canada, Australia and New Zealand and were delighted to see the return of many former guests for their second or third holiday with us. Mari was thrilled (more like ecstatic) with the abundant porcini mushroom crop this year. Through most of the summer months she went mushroom hunting in the woods behind the pig huts and returned with her apron brimming with porcinis and a big grin on her face. The locals boasted of finds exceeding 30 and 40 kilos ( the Italians are rather prone to exaggeration) and the talk of porcini mushrooms swept through Barga. We had a visit from three juvenile wild boars who nonchalantly walked up the garden steps, enticed we think, by the aroma from our outside oven. They took no notice of our dog Billy, stayed long enough to have their photograph taken and then slowly sauntered back down the steps in search of a more interesting playground. Last year our guests were invited to paint in the studio of Bruno Cordati, one of Italy’s famous early twentieth century Tuscan painters, who lived and painted in Barga. They felt very privileged to work in his grand studio surrounded by the imposing frescoes depicting country life at the turn of the century. Each window in the studio imparts a different view of Barga; the Tuscan coloured houses, terracotta rooftops, magnificent cathedral, the great ‘Pania’ mountain and the hilltop village of Sommocolonia. This visit proved very successful and it is now incorporated in our 2010 programme. While writing this newsletter Chris is busy in the studio preparing his paintings for an exhibition in Bruno Cordati’s gallery in September 2010. Some of the paintings celebrate Cordati’s life in Barga expressed as montages from his studio windows. Others paintings are in response to Chris’s trip to Sicily, the city of Palermo and the fishing village of Scopello. The hilltop village of Cascio is a big hit with our guests not only for the magnificent scenery but also for Gloriana’s sumptuous lunches! At the historic mountain village of Fornovolasco, one of our new painting venue for 2010, the cascading river, stone bridges, narrow streets with tiny piazzas and imposing Appenine mountains offer splendid scenes for drawing and painting. Hooray, Mari’s cook book is now available from our website at www.art-toscana.com Wishing you a very Happy New Year, Best wishes Chris & Krysia |