Discover Tuscany! is a FREE monthly Newsletter dedicated to helping you get the best from your holiday in Tuscany.

Merry Diwali!,
bet I’m the first to wish you all the best for the festival of light! and while I’m at it, Happy Chinese New Year. OK, some folks might already have scored me off their Christmas card list, but, honest Guv, life was just too full of festive malarkey to put pen to paper recently. What with hob nobbing with Bobo the clown, squeezing into tights at the Nutcracker, panto miming (oh yes, I was!), building castles in the sand and spending a few days on the piste, I was whacked! I’m at present lying down in a darkened room, 2 slices of cucumber on my eyes on a strict festive detox.

Hope you had a Cool Yule too!

Looking back on 2004, it was a belter, full of fantastic memories. We managed to meet many of you and even had the special pleasure of helping make someone’s special day even specialier! Enough or I’ll come over all emotional!

We are cock a hoop about 2005 and choca with new ideas and plans. We are busily beavering away on lots of cunning schemes to make your hols easier and more fun. Keep watching this space for details.

So, without further ado. Snuggle down on the futon, grab a rhubarb and nutmeg smoothie, kick off the new Prada, furry slippers and devour the latest “Diwali” issue of “Discover Tuscany”

- Merry Diwali
- Intro & Thanks
- 2004 looking back
- 2005 New stuff
- In flight movies
- Smoke gets in your eyes
- New seaside villas
- Wellness Centre
- Shop til you drop
- These boots were made for walking
- Surprise Surprise
- Late Christmas pressie

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To “DISCOVER TUSCANY!” the www.rent-a-villa-in-tuscany.com Newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and find the information and advice useful when planning your holiday in Tuscany. We have lots of great ideas for the content but if have any ideas, comments or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you, just email us. Maybe there is something you need to know before you arrive or a great tip you’d like to pass on after your holiday, (when you get home don’t forget to sign our guest book on the site to tell us about your holiday and upload your favourite holiday snaps!).

-A couple of quickies to get us started

– Ryanair have a great offer on at the moment. Take out an individual adult yearly travel insurance policy and you get a return Ryanair flight free! Check out www.ryanairtravelinsurance.com for further details. Offer ends 31 Jan.

-Ryanair are now offering “inflight” movies. For a small fee you can rent a mini DVD type player with selection of movies, cartoons etc. Will be available on most flights soon. Ryanair are also offering more and more routes, for example, Glasgow – Pisa direct from 1 March.

- Good news! (I make no apologies for calling it this) the Italian government have brought in a new “No Smoking” in public places law. In bars, restaurants, shops, cinemas etc. You can now savour your wild boar and chips without having smoke blown in your face. Makes it worth coming on holiday.

- You spoke, We listened. Although Tuscany is more famous for its countryside landscapes and rolling hills, many of you want to be near the sea, so, we are presently adding new properties at or near the Tuscan coast. Another much requested area, which we don’t have on the site is Cortona, we will soon be adding some great new properties. Full details should be online in the near future.

- A cool new “Wellness Centre” called “B” has just opened in Valdarno. It has a full range of relaxing therapies, including massage, mud treatments and a candlelit pool. It also has a well-equipped gym and to cool down after, a relaxing juice bar. Go on pamper yourself! Details will be online soon.

-You may not have heard about the designer factory outlets in Tuscany. Between Florence and Arezzo there are a number of Top designer names such as Prada, Gucci, Fendi, D&G who have opened outlet stores. If you are lucky you can kit yourself out in top clobber and save a few bob too. We are just putting the finishing touches to a new “Designer Outlets” page on the site , which will give you full details.

- If you’ve never visited the main Tuscan towns of Florence, Siena, Pisa or Lucca, someone who knows the area can make all the difference but the cost of a personal tour guide can be high. We’ve found a great company who produce a range of guided city tours on cassette. “Il Cicerone” supply a map and cassette, which guides you on a city walking tour and gives lots of useful insights and practical info. The guide has an enthusiastic manner and points out things that even the locals probably don’t know. Full details on a special page soon.

- We know that many of you visit Tuscany as a special treat or to celebrate a special occasion. To help you make these events even more memorable we are working on a new “surprise gift” scheme. This will mean you can order flowers, chocolates, wine etc to be surprise delivered to your villa, it could also take the form of a voucher for dinner, hot air balloon trip, quad bike trip, kite surfing lessons, wine tour, shopping trip etc. More details to come soon.

Finally, as if I haven’t crawled enough, I want to give you a little something as a late (or early for next year) Christmas pressie. Anyone who books a holiday with us in the next 28 days will receive a £10 voucher from top online Italian store Valvona & Crolla They have a fantastic range of Italian food, wines and products. If you live within travelling distance (they are based in Edinburgh) you could even go to a wine tasting or cookery demo. Those of you not within easy reach can order online.

That about wraps up this issue, please drop me a line if you have any comments or ideas you’d like to see added to our site.

Keep warm, toodle pip

Jim
Head Prefect

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