Friday 10 April 2026

Yesterday we learned that our flights booked for today from Stansted were cancelled; David successfully found two seats on the 16.55 BA flight from Gatwick instead, allowing a more leisurely leave-taking of Andover and an easier train journey. We arriving in Verona in time to get some cash in readiness for Massimo, who appeared at 20.45 to let us in to our Avenue Room 127 via Porta Nova. We greeted Alberto and his new partner at the local enoteca (after eating supper on the plane purchased from Pret at Gatwick)

Saturday 11 April 2026

We assumed a 08.30 rendezvous with the Summa bus at the Ovest car park close by both us and the railway station, and after a breakfast bar stop en route we bumped into James Button of Decanter (also a regular) and enjoyed another beautiful motorway journey in the Spring sunshine towards Trento and Magreid. Beautiful buildings, interesting wines, far fewer german speaking biker types… great lunch options, and those marvellous deep fried cinnamon apple rings. Beautiful skies and spring growth. 

We ate at Bottega & Tavola di Corte Palazzina on our return from Magreid, and called in again to Alberto, to try a local Valpollicella.

Sunday 12 April 2026

Vinitaly ! The weather is warm, and largely sunny. No great focus this year, though a white wine report may beckon. The launch of the Italian edition of David’s book is imminent though no-one had been in touch, until yesterday when Andrea Fattizzi had texted David asking him to attend a 16.00 presentation in The Piemonte Land of Wine stand. This understandably dominated the day as David oscillated between preparing – and learning – a speech in Italian, or just a short improvisation.  

The actual event began at c 17.45 and the nearly two hours of hanging around cost David a lot, as did the celebratory supper (and Champagne) we had at Miola. Speeches were almost drowned out by a disco starting up at the end of the day! 

Monday 13 April 2026 

Slow start after disturbed night: David frequently waking; me coping with gut issues. Slow walk to the Fiera, and slow progress round old friends – Sarah Abbott, whose Old Vines Conference will be hosted in December at Fontanafredda; Michele Shah, all three sisters of Mesma, Guelpa, and lovely Pietro Russo (Caterina has been unwell but is hoping for a full recovery) 

We headed to the Tulipa tasting room for Gabriele Gorelli’s stupendous presentation: The Reason Whyte. Gabriele is outstanding.

Lunch once again in the modest restaurant alongside the self service upstairs between Pad 6/7 where the food is good but the staff seem very tense though it’s rarely very busy. 

We strolled around the Piemonte, the Toscana and briefly Puglia pads in pursuit of Andrea to thank him properly for the publication of the book, spending a few minutes with Guelpa, Sergio Germano, and later Lucrezia in Pad 7 in the absence of the presidente Francesco Monchiero. In passing we saw Grati, Beppe of Peschiaia, and several others, including Paola Sordo. 

Supper in  Agli Angeli – a fine fish and seafood place across the via Porta Nova, a few doors down from yesterday’s excellent Miola

Tuesday 14 April 2026

Rainy walk to the Fiera just after nine, where we bumped into Antonino of Roletto and the whole Traviglini tribe in the cafe. We collected two more copies of the book from Anna, visited Guelpa again who warmly offered his hospitality should we need it in Lessona, and then headed to the Chianti Classico presentation at 10.30. We are now regulars in the small service ristorante found between pad 6/7; the food’s pretty good and the loos delightful, even if the waiters are anxious. 

We have suspended further work on the white wines of Piemonte. David has a full diary until late June, and the prospect of yet more wine reporting alongside the on-going Piemonte Nord reports does not appeal. I think we are both relieved. We spent a half hour with Grati, hearing about his 1913 and 1915 vines, and encouraging him to contact Sarah Abbott. 

Back to Miola for supper and its fine wine list, quiet at 19.15; busy of course by 21.00. 

Wednesday 15 April 2026

David’s energy levels are increasing, and we enjoyed working the whole of the Piemonte pavilion showing people the book, giving out David’s new card and using the QR code to direct them to the purchasing page on Edizioni Ampelos. It was wonderful to see just how many people recognised him and valued his work. 

We left the Fiera at 13.30, walked back to Massimo’s where we collected the cases, left the keys and strode on to the stazione for the 14.52 fast train to Florence, arriving promptly at 16.27. 

The city was heaving with tourists in the unusually warm weather. It was a tough 20 minute walk dragging cases over the uneven slabs through masses of people, past the Duomo and onto the Corso, from which we turned down the piazza di Donati to the Albergo Firenze. It is very central, poor breakfast but cheerful staff, and not noisy. The bathroom is snug with an uncooperative lavatory seat, awkward sink plug, narrow bath and a noisy extractor fan. David will be here until Sunday, when he goes to Pisa to meet the Tuscan tour. 

Supper was (once again arranged via the Fork) at La Galleria, on via Guicciardini 47, and having crossed the Ponte Vecchio onto the south bank, we walked back along the Lungarno admiring the illuminated river, crossing north to catch sight of Santa Croce before turning west to the hotel. 

Thursday 16 April 2026 

It was difficult to decide what was best to do given my limited stay. Florence is an overwhelming place which withstands the masses remarkably. The sun shone; it was unusually warm. We started in Orsanmichele which I enjoyed so much when visiting Margaret here in November 2015. Better organised and recently restored, it is remarkable; built as a granary and a place of worship in the first decades of the 1300s. 

The views from the upper floors are staggering; the building itself is breath-taking in its height and architecture. I sneaked a look at the medieval toilet while David photoed the twenty-first century hanging staircase. 

We passed Dante’s street, and spent a little while in La Badia where Beatrice was baptised and married, at 17. She died at only 27 though she was immortalised by Dante in La Vita Nuova and La Commedia. La Badia has remained less embellished than most of Florence’s churches. It felt like a working church and not a monument or museum. 

We had a late morning coffee, and then tackled another challenge: could there be a new leather jacket waiting for me in one of the many leather shops around the Bargello? Well, there was! It’s the very familiar simple style in dark blue lamb’s leather with contrasting pale cuffs and collar, trumping a couple of other possibles seen in two or three other shops close by.  I was surprised by how painless it was and how well we coped. And David very sweetly bought it for me.

We walked on towards Ognissanti, which had closed for lunch, allowing us to while away an hour or so eating authentic if rustic food in the nearby, very popular Tredici Gobbi. 

I had forgotten just how elaborated this early Ognissanti church is, but the remarkable wall paintings of the Amerigo Vespucci family benefitting from the Madonna’s encompassing cloak remain to the right of the nave, with the familiar faces of the cast of Botticelli’s Primavera. His burial place is marked in a side chapel, and decorated with fresh red roses – and briefly, one yellow bloom, a gift of the leather shop. 

There are several other remarkable pieces tucked away in corners of this beautifully maintained and well lit building. Good signage, clear labelling and clear information has found its way from the guide books to the buildings and art in the intervening 11 years since I last visited. 

We walked over the nearby Ponta alla Carraia bridge, into a much more lived-in part of Florence, remembering Vanessa Hall Smith and the British Institute (in the Harold Acton building alongside the river) and our brief stay in March 2008. I had visited the Santa Maria delle Carmine and the Brancacci chapel in 2015, so we moved on to Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi’s last cupola and a hugely ambitious design. It is dour and monumental but really didn’t deserve the extravagant altar which now dominates the transept. The quality of its art is impressive, among the 34 sombre huge columns. 

The art shop at the start of the Ponte Santa Trinità remains. All the arty grandchildren would love it. My orange pen came from here, as does my next ‘diary’ writing book. 

Back for a rest for me and some more electronic wrangling for David. A fruitless search for an enoteca to eat in reminded us just how busy Florence is. We found a reasonable place relatively close by, but well away from the Duomo, the Piazza della Signoria and the Gucci Museo and restaurant with its dozen or so attendant blacked-out people-carriers, awaiting their clients inside.

Friday 17 April 2026

We skipped breakfast as David walked with me to the tram (G2) outside the Stazione Santa Maria Novella which goes directly to the airport in c 20 minutes. Very civilised! 

Despite any number of automated luggage check-ins, BA doesn’t have any, so it meant a long wait until it opened at 09.30. Of course most brits were already anxious after press reports about delays at passport controls, so perhaps fifty people awaited the one woman checking us in. 

And it got worse! I was first in the queue. However, Which? had recently reported, that single travellers who hadn’t selected a specific seat (ie paid less) were vulnerable to being tipped off the passenger list; and indeed I discovered I was! 

I quickly introduced a reason for my absolute need to fly this morning: a funeral to attend. No one likes to talk about death, least of all Italians; and a phone call to the main office was made to get me back on the boarding list. 

A short runway and high winds? There was not a breath of wind as we took off, nor as we landed in London City. I can’t comment on the length of the runways..

Below is my new leather jacket, alongside one David bought at Falconeri during his longer stay.

A quick DLR journey to pick up the Jubilee line, and only a ten minute wait for the Salisbury train to leave Waterloo meant I was home at 15.00, having travelled with a Trissa, Henrietta Wentworth-Stanley’s guest, anxious about her lift from Grateley, and with whom I shared a sandwich. 

Just as well I was soon home – that evening I went to Wherwell to hear Rhoda Bucknill on the former Priory there, and sat with Joanna Ferguson, Sue Filmer and John Barlow. 

Saturday 18 April 2026

Shopping at 08.00; rehearsal by bike at 11.00 in St Michael’s on the Weyhill Road; mow the grass in time for tea with Rhoda (ferried here by Anne and John Isherwood) who then joined me at the Concert for 19.30, along with her hostess. 

A very enjoyable concert! It’s such a shame Amy Walters leaves for Catterick in June.

It was an extraordinary twenty four hours, in which I saw more people than I would normally in a week: Brian and Sarah Jane Dyke; Lynne King’s husband (tennis), Henrietta herself, Terry and Ruth, Chris (next door) with newly returned Helen; Eddie (last house on LHS with new hedge). The following day I enjoyed the company of Lucy, Olive, Luke and Ernest at swimming, then Hugh, and Ralph and Sam arrived for lunch after football. Eight of us! More football on Meadows Field, with Lucy playing some of the time.

David stayed on in Florence, visited and tasted at Nipozzano on Friday, and watched Chelsea on Saturday and reached Pisa on Sunday by train to meet the American club touring Tuscany with the Wine Scholar Guild. 

They stayed at Tombolo Talasso, a five star hotel near Castagneto Carducci to visit Bolgheri, visited Moris Farms, and then on to stay in Siena, and visit Chianti Classico and Montalcino. He is certainly living the high life!!