The richness in Tuscan villages

This morning in my letter box in Casabasciana I found an envelope from a friend in England which contained a piece from the Financial Times of 19 September. In his column ‘The Slow Lane’ Harry Eyres writes about his return to Sommocolonia after a gap of 30 years. He captures the spirit of small villages in this rural mountain area perfectly when he realises: ‘that people make places…The poor architecture glowed with an inextinguishable human warmth’. There are some architectural gems which he may have missed, but he’s right about the people. People who come on my gastronomic tours to the Garfagnana are always touched by the warm welcome they receive from the small, artisan producers I take them to visit. Thank you, Harry, for expressing it so poetically.