Festa al Colle!

Have you ever dreamed of going to real Italy? Where families sit around big picnic tables in the country side with red and white chequered table cloths? Drinking amazing red wine, biting into the freshest bruschetta, having the tastiest oven cooked pizza melt in your mouth next to some home made tomato sauced up al dente pasta? Maybe with a side of juicy sausages that have just been grilled over an open flame? All the while kids run around chasing dogs, the adults dance to the live music and the elderly sit back and tell stories of times once passed? I know I did hehe, and I was a lucky lucky boy who was blessed with the opportunity to experience it; We had arrived! Jeremy and I. After our adventure in Radda we had finally made it to the rural Italian town of Il Colle (near Monti in Chianti). We had been invited out to a festival by the wonderfully talented photographer Lelia Scarfiotti. It felt like we had stepped foot into an old Italian painting. We were surrounded in the culture, the landscape, the people, the food and wine. It was incredible! A dream come true :)

Viva Italia!

A big thank you Lelia for the invite and to the townspeople for letting us be a part of Festa al Colle. It was an unforgettable night and I look forward to returning one day soon :)

Radda in Chianti, Italy

Radda in Chianti... What a town to get stuck in. Back in June my good friend Jeremy and I had been invited out to a festival that was being held in a small village in Tuscany. We were busy all day running errands in Siena and just managed to hop on a bus out to the festival with less than a minute to spare. Once we arrived in Radda we began looking for the festival. We were asking locals for directions but no one seemed to know what we were talking about. After about an hour of strolling the streets, photographing the unique beauty of the town and it's people, it dawned on us that we were in the wrong town! A town with no public transport, no taxis and no means of getting home at this late hour. We continued to wander the streets photographing while we pondered ideas on how to get to the festival or even just to get back to Siena. It was looking pretty dire as we resorted to hitch hiking, it wasn't going well as everyone who drove past these 2 desperate aussies thought our hand signal for hitch hiking was a signal for waving hello. We got a lot of waves back but alas that didn't help us get to where we needed to go :P We went back into the town and spoke with a very friendly, incredibly talented local photographer there, after explaining our situation he offered to drive us out to festival! (Amazing Italian hospitality shines through again!). After 30 minutes of driving along the winding roads of the magnificent Tuscan landscape at sunset we arrived at our destination, just in time for the festival to really kick off. We can't thank that man Martino enough for his kindness. What a day, what an adventure, photos of the festival in the next post :)

But for now, by pure accident, here is beautiful Radda;

Cheers, dt