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Holiday villa with private pool at Tuscan Paradise. An historic private 4 bedroom (all en-suite)18C farmhouse with private pool in Tuscany overlooking an amazing lake sleeping 8. Additional studio for a further 5 not let independently to ensure complete privacy.

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In Italy the preamble towards Christmas begins much later than in England but with the arrival of some very cold weather so came the fairy lights and piles of seasonal Tuscan goodies in the supermarkets…innumerable boxes of Panetone with added nuts or chocolate or fruit, Panforte in all shapes and sizes to suit your budget. Food is important to the Italians. On every corner and in every available niche you would see a nativity scene, some humble and some life-size interpretations. Unfortunately Robert would not be with me to partake of the full larder as he was scheduled to make a trip to Hong Kong to conduct the Symphony Orchestra in a New Years Eve extravaganza, which meant he had to fly from Italy on Christmas day. Worrying about the possibility of snow and missing his flight, he decided to spend his Christmas eve in a hotel at Rome airport. It was not what I had in mind for our first Italian Christmas, but Luke and I took ourselves off to a traditional Italian lunch of about 10 courses at that lovely Albergo of Allessia’s we know in Sansepolcro. It was quite an experience. After the usual Christmas period had elapsed all the shops had their discarded trees collected by the Christmas tree van….what a brilliant idea! No sad trees without needles standing in corners here.

The Estate was progressing well, but not as well as Giorgio imagines. He is continually telling us the house is finished as we stand amidst the un-plastered walls, the un-laid floor tiles and the enormous quantity of mud. Mud like I have never seen, due to the heavy rain combined with the lorries and digging machines. Cold is a big issue too for the builders and they use a room in the other house to put together a make-shift canteen, where they can light a fire and at least enjoy their short lunch break with some warmth. Although lunch is fleeting the men always seem to make the effort cooking fish and other fare on the open fire, bottles of olive oil always at hand.

With practise I am slowly mastering the subtleties of pellet stove use, and am making a huge effort to drag myself out of bed before sun-up to get down to my workshop to start the kiln before 7.30am, which means I am not down at the site as the evening draws in. These efforts are more often than not rewarded with the glorious sight of a sunrise over the beautiful . Most times I leave Anghiari in the clouds and drive those 10 minutes to the elevated position of the Estate where I arrive to clear skies.

At our apartment in Anghiari the Italian gas company hit us with a surprise bill of 2000 euros for heating and hot water for 2 months. The problem stems from an in-efficient boiler which should have been replaced before we arrived. Robert adjusts the time clock in the cellar, we will simply have to make more use of blankets. The price for the basic utilities is so expensive out here in Italy.
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FEBRUARY slides in and surprises us with some temperatures as high as 20 degrees in the sunshine. Everyone is much more cheerful and without the rain the site is quite bearable. Apart from the bathrooms, all the cotto floor tiles are laid in the rooms on the first floor by Giorgio’s brother, a perfectionist, who works steadily and precisely laying them in the traditional herring bone pattern. He sees the potential beauty in an attractive rosette feature in the entrance hall which he duly executes with his usual perfectionism. In smaller areas he uses the off-cuts so as not to waste the antique tiles which these days are becoming harder to come by, those that are available being priced accordingly! The new window openings are formed and the stone surrounds laid in place, at last the house really seems to be taking shape. The measurements for the wooden windows with shutters and new doors are taken and we eagerly await their arrival on site in three or four weeks.

After a wait of some six months a man from Telecom Italia arrives on site to talk to us about the phone line. We even have an allocated number, but we mustn’t get too excited as a friend was given her number over 2 years ago and still has no line! The Telecom man speaks a little English and together with my little Italian we realise that this is only a visit to see about a single line, with no computer access. Perfectly useless to anyone, like us, who needs the internet to run a business. We now have to apply again for another meeting to fix us up with two lines, which was what we wanted in the first place!