A Day of Leisure away from the Tuscan Sun

We had previously decided to give ourselves a couple of easy days once we arrived in Impruneta. We are the oldest travellers from overseas in Italy after all!   With the forecast for 38 degrees we were happy to do just that.

So we got up late, had a refreshing breakfast and got on with what needed to be done ... checking the bank account, writing journals and doing the Blog. The blog has caused some huge time wasting as various issues keep arising.

In the mid afternoon we adjourned to the very dry garden and read and slept in the shade until aperitivo time.

I have been asked if we have air conditioning. The simple answer is no; electricity is very expensive in Italy and air conditioning is not permitted in many areas. In our case it is not really needed because these traditional houses were built to cope with the conditions; to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

At Il Sorbeto we have very thick rock walls. The windows have shutters on the inside. So all day you keep the windows and shutters closed and in the evening you open up the shutters and windows and leave them open all night. We do have ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

I decided to show some of the features of this house, however I took the photos during closed shutters time so some are quite ordinary.

Carrara marble double sink in the kitchen. Old style sinks are usually broad but very shallow, more like the one shown in the second last photo. Maybe that is the original.

All the cabinets, wardrobes, the bench seat and some doors are hand made, including the hinges and clasps.

Many of the pieces have small drawers included. The writing desk to the left of the picture below has many small drawers.

The fire place is huge, Kel can stand up in it.

Late this evening a cat walked past our table and Kel said 'Ciao Miaow.' That was all it took for it to settle in.