Better late than never. Covid had put the kibosh on so many celebrations during lockdown, but there was no way my friend Tracey wasn’t going to make a big splash for her 50th birthday – even if it had to take place four months later. And Tuscany was just the dream place to gather a group of girlfriends after a nightmarish time.
For a blissful few days, this slightly unruly gang of fifty-something women could step out of time for a while and let ourselves fall under a Tuscan spell. No one was a mother, or a wife, or a taxi driver. We left our responsibilities at the bottom of the long, rosedecked lane that led to our temporary home, Villa Chiantisol. Here we found ourselves in a landscape that – no matter how many times I come to Tuscany – never fails to enchant.
Rolling vineyards, swaying rows of cypress trees, honey-coloured stone houses topped with terracotta roofs, forests of olive groves
