Blog

There’s a certain kind of magic that happens in Tuscany at this time of year.

 

The days are getting longer, the countryside is waking up, and everywhere you go there’s that feeling that life is slowly moving outdoors again — café tables on sunny corners, washing strung up across balconies, locals standing in the street catching up on winter gossip.

 

Morning is a favourite time for people in any Tuscan hilltown, but especially in places like Cortona.

 

Shops are opening their shutters, someone’s out sweeping their doorstep, and the smell of coffee drifts through the narrow streets.

 

Enjoy breakfast like a local, sit in the sun in Piazza della Repubblica with a cappuccino and just… watch.

 

Tuscany’s menus shift with the seasons — and spring is all about fresh, simple flavours.

 

Right now you’ll find fresh pecorino cheese, artichokes prepared every way imaginable, wild asparagus (foraged from the hillsides) broad beans (fave) eaten raw with pecorino and a glass of wine and the first strawberries of the year, small and sweet

Every town has a market and wandering through is as much about the atmosphere as the food. Listen for the old ladies asking for just four artichokes or telling the stallholder exactly how their mother cooked asparagus.

 

This time of year is prime walking season in Tuscany.  If you are near Cortona there’s a beautiful, peaceful path from Cortona out to Le Celle (the hermitage built by Saint Francis in the 13th century) that winds through olive groves and forests. It’s about 40 minutes each way and the kind of walk that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into another world.  Listen for birdsong. Notice the tiny wildflowers. Look for lizards sunning themselves on stone walls.

 

As the days get longer, evenings stretch out lazily.

 

Aperitivo becomes an outdoor affair — a glass of wine, a little plate of olives or pecorino, and a view of rooftops turning gold in the sunset.

 

One of the best things about Tuscany, in any season, is that it teaches you to slow down. To notice the small things. To appreciate a morning coffee, a chat with a stranger, a view that makes you stop and stare.

 

Right now Tuscany is stretching, blooming, waking up — and quietly waiting to share its simple pleasures with anyone, like us, who is lucky enough to be here.