The Magpie's Guide to Montalcino

11/11/2025

25 years ago today!

10/11/2025

Parma! What a jewel of a town. It’s as if Lucca and Bologna had a baby. This is a place where people talk about “Giuseppe’s” birthday (10 October 1813) as if there were no other Joes in town and where opera is as fundamental to identity as the Palio is to Siena.

Still reverberating after attending the Verdi Festival in Parma and performances of Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff and the Requiem Mass.

1) Teatro Verdi in Busseto, a town closely associated with the composer. The theatre, inside a 13th century fortress and with a capacity of 300, was inaugurated in 1868; all the ladies present wore green while the chaps had green ties. Verdi did not approve of the theatre (“too expensive and useless for the future”) in spite of having contributed generously to its construction and owning a box there.

2) The neoclassical Teatro Regio, as seen from the stage, built by Napoleon’s second wife, Duchess Maria Luigia, and opened in 1821 w

3) Correggio’s vertical perspective “di sotto in su”

02/10/2025

Just back from a week devoted to the luminous and enigmatic works of Piero della Francesca on the first of my autumn

Primed with daily lectures from erudite , we took day-trips to Arezzo, San Sepolcro, Monterchi, Perugia and Urbino to gaze at heavy-lidded Marys, swathes of drapery, thistle and pomegranate brocade, matchy-matchy angels, painted dreams, visions and night scenes… The works, underpinned by mathematics, manage to be both abstract and rational, with an unexpectedly soothing quality.

Terrible photos of some incredible art and a wonderful week.

19/07/2025

Sage advice from the Tuscan coast…

16/07/2025

Calling all Brunello lovers! If is not on your radar… well, he should be and not just for his excellent taste in reading matter. His new website includes the Brunello DOCG disciplinare in English, beautiful photos of all cover crops with botanical names and a breakdown of cellar operations and vineyard phases.

12/06/2025

Well I *was* trying to wean myself off this platform but cannot resist sharing the news of this marvellous review penned by on the website. Thrilled to be on the same page as .winefoodtravel and with the wonderful tome “On Tuscany”…. validation of the highest order!

C is for Completely Chuffed

05/05/2025

A morning spent in the company of all manner of magical creatures in the lush Sacro Bosco di Bomarzo as preparation for the March 2026 “Beyond Rome: from the Etruscans to the Renaissance” with .

This fantastical mannerist garden was commissioned in 1552 by widowed Prince Vicino Orsini as a distraction from his grief. Its chaotic symbolism might have been an intentional departure from the organised gardens of Villa Caprarola or Villa Farnese and perfectly illustrates the high Renaissance interest in the grotesque. There are 40 sculptures, some massive, all made from peperino, a local grey volcanic stone. The garden was in a state of abandon until it was rediscovered after a short film made by Salvador Dalì in the 1940s.

Ogni pensiero vola .dei.mostri

09/04/2025

Where would you go?

D is for Decisions

24/03/2025

G is for Gambelli, nestled between and in my . This great man, of indescribable significance to Montalcino would have been 100 today. A plaque is being unveiled in his hometown of Poggibonsi this afternoon.

17/03/2025

Driving through seas of green, chasing sunsets en route to

11/03/2025

27/02/2025

is just steps away from Piazza del Campo in Via di Città. It is an institution in Siena and has been satisfying bookworms since 1974. There is a a lovely children’s section, heaps of arts books and many texts in English and other languages. It is a joy to see nestled on the shelves in this lovely bookshop.

L is for Libreria