Under the Tuscan Sun

This Tuscan summer has been hot. Very hot! “It’s 38!,” people will exclaim and you think, “Oh that doesn’t sound too bad.” Until you do the math and realize that means its 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot!

Though people wilted, grape vines and olive trees thrived. I monitor the progress of the grapes and olives on my walks. It is a thrill to see this year’s crops growing week by week as I anticipate the excitement of the harvest. Now I marvel to see purple clusters dangling on the vines. And who knew grapes hang only from the lowest part of the vines?

To my untrained eye the grapes look nearly ready to pick. When I shared my naive observation with Monia whose 34 acres of vines spill over Panzano hills she corrected me.

“Oh, no, now is when the grapes get their sweetness.” She expects grape harvest around the first week in October this year. And those olives, the still bottle green pods hidden among silvery branches? It will be late October or early November before workers shake them down for pressing.

While the grapes and olives still have weeks to go before harvest, the sunflowers were recently in full glory! Each day their large, brilliant heads tracked the sun across the sky from morning to late afternoon before nodding to sleep as the sun slipped below the horizon. Such a magnificent sight!

What beauty basks beneath this hot Tuscan sun!

In July, still weeks to go….

Now stiill a month or more to go....

The olives are coming along. These olives are used exclusively for olive oil, not for eating.

And the sunflowers!