Cold Days in Tuscany & Our First Christmas Market

Cold Days in Tuscany & Our First Christmas Market

Heat. Heat. The sky is blue this morning and the sun is shining, but it’s very, very cold. Just look at these beams. The beams that line our garden, the chestnut beams, they’re full of frost. And as you can see, so is the grass. This is when we know that it’s really cold. At this time of year, the weather can swing from bright blue skies to soft gray clouds rolling across the horizon. And with a bit more time on our hands, it’s the perfect moment to tackle a few garden tidy ups. At last, we’re removing, well, we’ve removed one already. one of these metal bars. We had two of them sticking out of the trunk. The trunks are going and we needed to get rid of this um bar because every time I tried to take a beautiful picture of the hills in the background, I had these two metal poles here. So, Lorenzo’s just removed one. I’m going to do the other one. We’re going to do the other one. So, another little job that we’ve got to do is this window here with the four panels. That’s part of Kazaka. And I always like to keep some kind of flowers up there. So, we’ve bought some cichlmens and we’re about to put those up there now to make it look a little bit prettier. So, we would have liked to have put some in the tower window as well, but we need to somehow find some kind of bracket to um keep the plant um the vase secure. So, we’re working on that now. It means that we have to go to a blacksmith to get one made because um it’s not a standard size window. It’s changeover day today and um it’s been cold here. We’ve had a we’ve had a real cold snap here in uh Tuscanyany and we went down to – 1° C which I think is about 30° F and um I know in some parts of Tuscanyany I always call deepest darkest Tuskanyany down around near multiple places like that they had so much snow. I mean it looks so pretty I have to admit. So, um anyway, it’s cold and it’s changeover day and um we do have central heating here in Kasakumba, but I decided that this year I wanted to cozy it up a little bit more. We’ve had three lots of guests here already for November, which is great. So, look, I’ve bought some lovely blankets, which I found not too far away, and this nice furry one. So, um I don’t know where I’m going to put them yet. Although, I think I’m going to put some of these blankets in what we call the summer room, the lodger. Um it’s not a summer room at the moment. But if the sun comes out, this room gets really lovely and warm and a lot of our guests love to sit there and uh read a book. So, let’s have a look where we’re going to put everything. Let’s go open up this. Put my slipper there to keep that one open. This one’s always Oh, it’s not too bad because I opened it before. Stiff in the winter. So, um, no, but that’s fine. Okay, let’s see what we’re going to do. So, um, I think I’m going to put the blankets in here. So, let’s start by opening those up. See what happens. Cardboard in there. H I hope I’ve bought two the same. Yes, it looks like it. Oh, they’re nice and cozy. Nice and cozy to sit there. Oh, they’re lovely. Really, really nice. Really warm to sit out on the lodger there. Really like these. Okay, so now I’ve got to decide, put my scissors down, how I’m going to make this work. Um, by the way, I’ve had to put my jumper on. It’s so cold up here. The lodger, the summer room, as we call it, there are no windows there. They’re just mosquito screens. We’ll show you those in a while. Um, and we did that deliberately because we wanted people to feel that they’ve got a sort of inside outside garden room. But, um, anyway, we’ll tell you about that later. Let’s see how this is going to work, I think. Okay. So, this is how I’m going to do it. I think I’m going to thread it through and then do it like the magazines. And this should work, I think. So, I think that’s looking nice there. And uh you can see the other blanket over there as well. So, the guests can do what they want with them to be quite honest. They can put them where they want. I would wear that one though, the one that I’ve just added now. Just wrap it around my shoulders and sit here and admire the views out the window. We said we were going to show you here. So, I’m standing over at the mosquito screens. I’m going to show you how this works. It’s beautiful for the summer. So they all open up, but we don’t advise that you keep them open and go out cuz this was a place where the pigeons used to live. I don’t think I can open that. There we go. So look, they open right back. to be careful of my nails. Move this. So, there we have it. The cozy summer room in winter with a few blankets. And when the sun is shining, this room actually does get very warm. So here we have a partial view from the summer room. A partial view. I’ll show you the whole view in a minute, but you can see Castellari. That’s the hill with a little white church in the background. But just look at this precision stonework. Can you believe that that was done in the 12th century? It’s incredible. Isn’t it? So that is actually the bedroom, the bedroom wall, the tower wall. It’s Saturday morning and it’s the 29th of November and it is cold. It’s 2° C. But when we came out of our house this morning, it felt very cold. So, we’re heading to the market now. So you’ll find the market at the far end of the patza and it’s here every Saturday. So there aren’t many stalls and this is one of three markets that we have in Vikasano. So this morning we’re mainly here to get our fruit and veg and um there is a store there that does cheeses as well and hams and milk and all sorts of things like that. So at the markets you tend to get mainly seasonal vegetables. Lorenzo’s already finished the shopping. Well done. So, are you going to head to get some cheese now? Going to have some cheese. Okay, let’s go and get some cheese. So, what have we got? So, we’re going to get some grana padana. I just heard Lorenzo saying. So, there you go. So, this is how we buy it. She is absolutely yummy. It tastes so much better than getting it from the supermarket here. So, we have some dried cod bakala. So, it’s salted cod basically. And we would take this home. We’re not going to get any today. And soak it in cold water for a few days, couple of days in the fridge. Here we have some sardines and anchovies. And look, here is a cod cuz you can buy it like this. So, it’s already been soaked in water. I don’t know if you can see that. I know a lot of our viewers love anything to do with food. So, let’s go and have a quick look at the market. So, um, Lorenzo’s already done his shopping. But I think it’s always nice to see what’s in season. So we have some oranges, citrus fruit. In the winter, we just live on citrus fruit. It is really the only fruit available apart from apples and pears. We also tend to eat a lot of nuts in the winter as well. It’s the season for chestnuts. So we’re eating a lot of these at home at the moment as well. And here we also have lots of mushrooms. So these are the pino mushrooms. Lovely mandarini. And then behind us in the truck there, there’s lots of greens. Lots of greens. So let’s go and have a look over there. Every year we look forward to the artichoke season. And here they are. Wonderful. So, we will be eating a lot of these now over the winter period all the way through to springtime. There we have some chard. We have chicoria. And I really don’t know what this is called in English. So, I’m going to put that out to you guys. So, we’ve done quite a lot of shopping today. This is all our shopping lined up here. And I know we’re going to get told off cuz uh we have these biodegradable bags and people have asked us before in the past why don’t we bring our reusable bags and we do have reusable bags too. But um we use these ones again for various things in the house. Every Saturday this lady comes down with her eggs. So she has a beautiful. So you got the lovely eggs, wonderful eggs from the hills of Vikano. Viko Pisano above Vikano. This lady here, she see this is an amazing agrimo. And uh we need to go up and see them very soon because they do all sorts of things up there. And they also make look at all of these. Oh, Richardelli. Oh, so these um they’re like almond biscuits. Absolutely gorgeous. And then there’s all the cantoni. So all of this they make themselves which is wonderful. And this yellow um I call it eggnog but it’s like um it’s a leure made from the eggs cuz that’s what they specialize in. And of course we’ve got all these beans here as well. Tuscans adore their beans. So, we’re eating lots of lots of beans at the moment. Look at all these. Oh my goodness. I can’t look at them. There’s always time to bump into somebody and have a chat when you we come to the market. This is a friend of ours, Maria. And Maria comes to our gym. Say ciao, Maria. This is so exciting. It’s um the Christmas bless are being put up here in Bitano. We didn’t think they were going to come back this year because they are quite explosive. Woo. We’re all dancing. They’ve got this music playing. Oh, there’s a red one here. How exciting. It means that Christmas is around the corner. Okay, so it’s Sunday afternoon, 30th of November, and Lorenzo and I are on our way to visit a small Christmas market. Now, it’s a little bit early for us. We don’t like to start celebrating Christmas until the 8th of December. Sorry, I think my camera works a bit shaky here. Holding it in the car, trying to get Lorenzo in as well. So, what do you think, Lorenzo? Yes, there’s nothing to do on Sunday. Uh but we like to visit all this beautiful village around here. They’re all beautiful. Especially now all this little market, artisan stuff. It’s so beautiful. Yeah, it’s an artisan’s market, I believe. Anyway, we don’t know what to expect. So, you’re going to see it with us. So, Lorenzo’s just parked the car and we’re going to walk into the village. The village is called Kali and it’s one of the villages of the Monte Pisano. Look at this. I’m loving this outside the the plaque on the wall here. Look at that. Isn’t that pretty? Let’s have a closer look. Very nice. We just arrived here at the little market of Now we’re going to visit. Okay. The little things they have here is beautiful. Follow us. This is the first stall that we’ve just arrived at and it’s everything that’s made from olive wood. This gentleman has just recognized us because we look after a villa not far from Luca for friends of ours and this gentleman recognized us because he’s actually lives in the same village and he comes to Vikano sometimes as well. So, um, yeah. So, anybody who’s coming our way, we will definitely send you to him because this is a fantastic opportunity to buy all this olive wood. Look at the back there. You’ve got all the shopping boards. So, this is my first view of Babon Nutali this year. The first time we’ve seen Father Christmas. He’s going off there into the distance between the stalls. This is just such a fantastic market. It’s an artisan market, so everything we see here is handmade. And it’s so nice to actually see the artisans at work as well. Yes. Yes. There’s some lovely woven bags here as well. Woo! What time have we got now? Well, I somehow think it might be wrong. It’s 4:00, but it’s not saying 4:00 up there. Or is it 3:00? 4:00. 4:00, but it’s not saying 4:00. What did you just spot there, Lorenzo? Oh, it’s got your name on it. Yeah, absolutely. The weekly market unfolds around the heart of the village, an ancient church dating back to the medieval period. its striking striped facade and the unfinished bell tower rising above the square. It’s a beautiful backdrop and on this afternoon it felt almost Dickensesque. Children playing, laughter echoing, adults relaxing on benches and wandering between the artisan stalls. This town is also renowned for its extra virgin olive oil. And over the years, we’ve come to know some of the local producers. It’s always good to see familiar faces. This is Elder Joel. He has amazing olive oil. He’s over the hill from us, but we do support him. We love his olive oil. And uh we’ll be showing you more of Ela soon cuz we’re going to go up to his olive groves. He’s got a 500y old olive tree. Incredible. Incredible. As the sun dipped behind the hills, we took one last look at a nativity scene known as a proppe here in Italy. It was nestled in the back of an ape, one of those classic three-w wheeled vehicles you see all over the Tuscan countryside. Before heading home, we stopped at a small streamside bar for a quick appitivo. We hope you’ve enjoyed this video with its Tuscan winter vibe and a glimpse into the start of Christmas in Tuscanyany. Make sure you tune in next week for the continuing story of our life in Tuscanyany at this special time of year.

Experience a chilly but charming week in Tuscany with us! As temperatures drop, we find cosy ways to stay warm at home before heading out to explore our first Christmas market of the season. From festive lights and handmade artisan gifts to warming treats and winter vibes, this vlog captures the start of Christmas in Tuscany.

If you love slow living, Italian lifestyle, Tuscany villages, Christmas markets, and weekly vlogs, you’ll enjoy this episode.

In this video:
– Warming up Casa Colomba for a cold spell in Tuscany
– Visiting our first Christmas market of the year
– Seasonal market shopping in the village
– A gentle warm-up to the Christmas season

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