Under the Tuscan sun

The heat in Tuscany is quite unlike that in England. In England, no matter how hot the day, there is always that hint of a chill—the merest echo that warns that summer is short and that winter, loaded with the passage of time, is not far away. Here the heat is like a blanket. It wraps away the anxieties of life in a cocoon of enforced idleness and fatigue.

Holidays do not come naturally to me and …