A CELEBRATION OF AUTUMN
After the summer season, which brings with it slowness and a calmer pace, the buzz in every part of our lives resumes. However, summer is not yet over and September gives us the chance to enjoy some more outdoor excitement. For those who have the chance, the countryside is the ideal place.
September has already run its course halfway through and I sincerely wish it would never end!
The landscapes change colour, the green of the trees fades into a golden hue that repaints all the hills of Tuscany. The kitchen prepares to welcome the autumn gifts that nature gives us, from figs to chestnuts, from mushrooms to pumpkins.
I love autumn. It is my favourite season.
There is something magical about this season, it gives me a feeling of perspective for all the wonderful things this time of the year will bring.
In September, the feeling of the beginning of the new year hovers in the air almost more than in January, this is because of the summer break that produces a suspension effect from our year-round commitments. We return from holiday and get back into the rhythm of our working days, make plans for the weekends ahead, put our ideas in order and make good resolutions for the season. It is also a good time to find the right inspiration to turn the great chaos that sometimes identifies your days, just like mine, into order.
The herbs in our garden give me their iridescent palette of different greens and their scent.
Like the landscape, my table changes colour. This time of year I prefer runners and placemats in warm colours, like amber, perhaps contrasting with crumpled linen napkins in a cool neutral colour like grey.
These are the last days I am spending at our family estate in the Tuscan countryside, just outside Florence. A feeling of calm and silence is typical of our days, mine are in fact pleasantly quiet days but at the same time vibrant with new projects that I wish to realise (among them, of course, the inauguration of my blog!).
The weather is wonderful, the sultry summer heat is slowly giving way to the temperate breeze that invades our garden. The ivy that surrounds our house has grown impressively over the summer, it is bright green and alive. These are its last weeks of life before it falls asleep and rises again next spring.
This is also the time when I dedicate the last few afternoons of light to the pleasant walks I like to take around my house, together with my little dog Luna. I put on my heavy cotton cardigan and set off along the little road surrounded by golden leaves, then continue past the vineyards, walking among the olive and cypress trees and picking dry branches and berries to adorn my autumn table. Nothing gives me more pleasure than those silent and relaxing walks, for me it is a form of meditation and gratitude.
At home, we start preparing wood for the winter. In summer we place white candles inside our fireplace as decoration. But in the last few days the smell of dry wood started to invade the living room again.
In these transitional months, when the weather allows us, my family and I love to organise barbecues with friends in our garden. I find outdoor dining to be one of life's true pleasures, especially if you live in the countryside. Silence and nature surround us, the only things we hear are our laughter and the natural nocturnal wildlife around us. These are my favourite 'indoor' evenings, perfect in their intimacy and simplicity.
I think of Milan, of when I will have to return for work. I think about how the city is filling up again and how it is preparing to celebrate fashion week. But I also think of that part of me that is 'city-dweller' that is preparing to resume her frenetic rhythms!
Two different worlds, that of rural Florence and that of Milan. But wherever I am, I can't help but always look for beauty and elegance in the things I like most: the little things. The perfumes with which I fill the rooms of my house, the woollen blankets that I take out of my wardrobe to keep me warm in the winter months, the boots for the rainy season that is coming, my coats and jumpers, but above all, the flavours of my cooking that I find in my apple and cinnamon cakes, in my vegetable creams soups and, of course, in my minestrone.
And so turn on the oven, light up the fireplace, cook your tagliatelle with chestnuts and mushrooms, bake your apple pies, and enjoy the most beautiful month of the year, the one in which everything is still possible, from fine weather to rainy afternoons, as golden as the first leaves of autumn. With a bit of good will and a pinch of luck, we will reach the end of the year pleased and happy, in a flash!
I want to enjoy every moment of this season, before the cold of winter arrives as suddenly as a frosty draught and accompanies us towards the big Christmas preparations.
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
