Off to Tuscany!

On Wednesday I leave for ten days in Tuscany.

I’ve been to Italy a number of times but never Tuscany and I haven’t been back to Italy since my last visit to Venice in 1998.

Needless to say I’m excited.

Oh and…before you read any further I have to do this:

By choosing to click and read this blog post, you confirm you are of legal drinking age in the country where this site is accessed…

….rules, rules….

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Courtesy of Davinci Wines and a lot of support from family, friends and fans I will first spend several days in Florence looking at Islamic influences on some of the great buildings of the Florentine Renaissance. From there I’ll travel with a small group of fellow artists to the wine producing village of Vinci to immerse ourselves in Tuscan wine and Food culture. There, 200 local growers have banded together to form the Cantine Leonardo da Vinci, a new type of growers’ cooperative focused on producing authentic Tuscan wines.

This is not only a great opportunity to follow my passion and write about and photograph great wine and food but it will be a chance to spend an extensive amount of time with multiple generations of wine growers and to experience some amazing food by local chefs.

As regular readers probably know, this is the first time I’ve ever in my life I’ve travelled in some sort of organized groups on a tour with planned activities. It’s a far cry from hauling myself alone, on foot often times, through a journey.

And to be honest….I’m looking forward to it!

And no, this is not a vacation. I do wish it were. This year has been pretty rough personally (I’ll go into that sometime in the future) so although this is a working trip it’s going to be a relief to step away, however briefly, into a situation where I can focus completely on the work that I enjoy doing. The only downside will be missing my kids.  I can’t wait for the day when I can start taking them on some of these trips.

Anyway. I look forward to bringing you some fabulous photos and stories from Tuscany (I also have a post ready on some Russian pyramid climbers that is rather interesting).  My goal is to get one post up every day telling the story of this Tuscany trip, starting Friday.  After I come back I’ll have loads of material that I will be working through and posting here and in, hopefully, PAYING publications!

In the meantime, try some of these delicious Italian recipies.  Stuffed heron perhaps?

Stay tuned.

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