Benvenuti and Welcome to all my Lovely Followers,
If you are new to this column I should tell you that each month I reflect back on the previous one, which in this case is April 2017. My aim is to bring you lots of fun things, and not too many serious ones.The first week in March welcomed the British Royals Charles and Camilla on a tour of Italy. Charlie visited some of the earthquake sites, whilst Camilla popped into her Grandmother’s old home in Florence. There was big coverage in the local papers and when the two of them were together, Charles was doing a lot of smiling, thoroughly enjoying all the attention and media coverage. Obviously, now we know that his father Prince Phillip has stepped down, Charlie needs to lift his nice guy image and make himself and his second wife, very popular.
Meanwhile, down in Roma, the Romans were complaining bitterly about the lovely soft yellow street lighting being replaced by nasty white lights that turned the city into a black and white horror movie! I have to say, looking at the pictures, it looks pretty horrible and it is even keeping people indoors as the atmosphere is downright creepy.
On a lighter note, rock tours were starting to gear up for the early summer and the first arrivals will be the great Patti Smith at the age of seventy-one, here as part of her world tour in May. I will be performing one of her songs ‘Because the Night’ at my concert in June. Email me at june.finnigan@virgin.net if you are here on the 24th and would like an invite. More ageing rockers are also arriving in the form of the super band Deep Purple. The Italians just love the old bands and I’ve just heard that the Rolling Stones will be in Lucca in September. The tickets are already sold out!
Then, over coffee in our local village of Fiano, I read about a brand new Rock Village, which has been built in Florence to accommodate visiting rock bands to Tuscany. This is fabulous news for rock fans and is already attracting top acts including Radiohead, Aerosmith, Placebo, U2 and Madonna. The talk is that the village is likely to rival Glastonbury and will attract followers from all over the world, and in a stunning location too.
Meanwhile, whilst we are talking about celebrities, our still hugely popular ex-Prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has been reported to have saved a sweet little lamb from the Easter slaughter and is himself now vegetarian, bless him! Well, that ticks a couple of boxes for me, bravo Silvio!
And, as Easter goes in Tuscany, and all of Italy really, it was a time of great festivities, religious and otherwise. Big organised Easter Egg Hunts for the children, more serious church services for the devotees, big family gatherings and enormous quantities of food. Those restaurants that had stayed open, and there were not too many, were packed on Sunday. We, by choice, always eat at home on the Easter Weekend and our own family joined us on Saturday. I felt sorry for the tourists, wandering around like lost souls, trying to find something open. The Italians do love to take Festa days off, shutting up shop, even at the height of the season!
From my own point of view, the last week in April took me to the UK on a book promotion tour. My latest novel, The Italian Connection, is now available in both paperback and E-book. Go to any Amazon site or my own site at June's Web Page
Finally, I returned home to the musical welcome of Bee-eaters and Hoopoes, and the twinkling of the first fireflies. That, and the wonderful sweet smell of the Tuscan countryside soon had me back into relaxed mode.
So, here we are in May; how time flies when you are having fun!
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Salute June x