An Easter in Tuscany, with egg hunts, chocolate eggs, one poorly child who picks up soon (but misses the long-awaited egg hunt, poor lass), and lots of hearty home-cooked food, some of it in the sun. Log fires in the evening, a touch of heating in the morning.

Who would have known you could dye quail eggs to get the sweetest mini-Easter-eggs? A happy experiment. These four survived into the evening, after having been happily hunted all morning in a friend’s garden.

We gently settle into the rythme of things, after a couple of days of being tired and rather anxious: this place will, after all, be home for a year from next summer. Will we grow to think of it as our home? Will the children learn Italian in school quickly enough to enjoy it, or will the somewhat traditional-style-bums-on-seats-rote-learning schooling prove rather challenging to two children who began their happy schooling in Montessori heaven? Will the endless summery hot place we know from holidays turn into a damp muddy wintery mountain? We will have time to discover if this is the greatest adventure, or one long strange challenge… But, after a few days of rest, we all feel better about our plans. I think. I hope. Certainly, it will be a change. Meanwhile, we eat chocolate: in my case, the sweetest little sewing-themed set Mr T found for me in Aosta, where we stopped on the way down.

The children certainly take easily to being able to tumble out into the garden (“the hillside” probably better describes it…) to go and chase bugs, play games, or just poke about.

The “Monte Forato” can be seen from the house, an amazing natural stone arch. This is also known as the “Uomo morto” – the dead man. Can you see him lying back, his knees bent up on the right, his face with the ‘hole’ to the left?

Now, to settle down and do some sewing…

Happy Easter! JJ