Tuscany, When the Rosemary's in Flower
Back to our drive through Tuscany. One of the loveliest things we saw that weekend was enormous rosemary bushes (3 -4 feet high) covered in tiny purple flowers. What I would have given for a leg of lamb to roast with all that rosemary abundance! 
On our way through Chianti wine country, we ran into a big, scary pack of Vespa bikers. Doesn't this display just strike fear into your hearts? I'm imagining these guys parked all together in Sturgis, South Dakota just scaring the pants off of everybody else.
A tour of Tuscany is incomplete without an image of the gorgeous rolling hills where the grapes grow. Right now, the fields are laden with empty grape-vine trunks, no leaves or fruit to speak of yet. I'd love to be here in summer when this is all green and in fall when they harvest. Guess I'll just have to come back!
posted by Susan in Italy @ 4:20 PM
15 Comments:
Beautiful photos! I love the rosemary "tree". I can smell it just from looking at that photograph.
just stunning.
Gorgeous landscape!
even sans fruit or leaves, that is quite beautiful countryside.
glad you survived your run-in with the vespa gang.
first, i planted a twig of rosemary 5 years ago, and today it is a heaping mound of fragrant loveliness. i never in my wildest dreams imagined it would be so... large!
second, t is dying to go to sturgis one day... but it would kill his butt to ride all the way. and he would look ultra-silly on a vespa! :)
third, those rolling hills are so peaceful. i just want to take a deep breath looking at them!
fourth, the tomato seedlings are coming along. maybe i'll actually get tomatoes from them, which would be a miracle given my brown thumb!
fifth, the lamb shoulder is waiting for dinner tomorrow night. i'm excited!
Rosemary grows here the way it apparently grows there, it is always a buzzing mess of blue and bees. I loved your photos in the post and I also really enjoyed the Vespa/Sturgis reference. I can just picture a tatted up geezer flying along on his Vespa in South Dakota, wearing a "Hell on Italian Wheels" t-shirt. Ha!
Hi Loulou, That "tree" just knocked my socks off as I was walking down a pretty street in Arezzo, Tuscany.
Hi Ragazza & Beenzzz, Thank you!
Scott, Yep it's hard to beat Tuscany for countryside loveliness, and between you and me, the Vespa gang got the worst if it.
Hi Melissa, WOW! Rosemary bushes! I just tried to root rosemary cuttings and killed them all, if you can get rosemary to the bush stage, you'll rock on those tomatoes. Are you doing Moroccan lamb shoulder or lamb shoulder roasted with huge rosemary sprigs tied to it? Oh, and promise me that if you ever go with t. to Sturgis that you'll pick up a riveted black leather bikini top with fringe. ok?
Hi Christina, Wow! You too? My American life was always up in the chilly north Midwest, I almost didn't think rosemary bushes were possible. Oh and here you do see the occasi9onal vespa geezer sans biker accoutrements though.
oh, that rosemary! It reminds me so much of our weeks in Croatia... I was already vacation sick for it, but now I might be inconsolable! (thank god we're heading to Colorado soon, I need a break)
As to the Vespas... The only fear they instill in me is the fear of a roving band of drunk yuppies! That's the kind of Vespa riders we have here in the City!
moroccan lamb shoulder.
and i'll get a studded leather fringe bra JUST FOR YOU! :)
getting the rosemary to shrub stage required planting it in the ground. no more, no less. the tomatoes are much more of a challenge to me. i'm having to baby them along, especially because i need to keep the on the porch since the deer & rabbits love 'em.
Oh my goodness, Susan, those are beautiful pictures.....and that abundance of rosemary makes me weep because I buy a couple of sprigs at the food market for $2.99 each!!! *sigh*
Lovely pictures - great one of the Vespas! The rolling hills of Tuscany are indeed lovely in the summer, but once I was there in early November, the vines were red and gold and purple, and it SNOWED so they were iced with white. Unforgettable.
Gosh, that's a beautiful place. Great pictures!
Hi Ann, I hear Croatia is really beautiful. Loads of Italians go each summer.
Hi Melissa, He he! I can picture you now on the back of a hog! ;)
Hi Lotus, Wow, that's expensive! I remember the astronomical N. American prices for fresh fige that I can now pick for free. At least you have good and cheap maple syrup!
Hi June, That sounds beautiful! I'd so love to see that.
Hiya ML, Thanks a lot!
tuscany looks beautiful, but don't forget to come out here to le marche too! landscape-wise, i think it's even prettier (okay so i'm kind of biased!). the rosemary in bloom is beautiful...
have a great may 1st!
jackie
it must be nice to actually be able to TRAVEL while in italy.
i'm SO not bitter:)
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