Tuscan days can be hot and today in Chianti the temperature went up to 33 C. I stayed down in the cantina for most of the afternoon cleaning up my strimmer and then when the day cooled down a bit, I used it to buzz away the grass around the olive trees. Disturbed a couple of grass snakes that were resting in the sun, strung along the tops of the grass, and also saw a slow worm (legless lizard) - they're not really slow! The slow worms hibernate quite deep in the ground - I dug one up last winter. They're much rarer than grass snakes and vipers.
The summer and harvest festivals seasons are only a couple of months away. The Festivals of Tuscany website lists many of the famous ones as well as a few minor but interesting fetivals.
Author: Anna Maria Baldini
