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

Yea, I’ll bet, wot’s the catch? That was the reaction from some of our less trusting avid readers when news of our bumper, Summer, Last Minute Offers hit cyber doorsteps worldwide. Ye of little faith! News spread like wildfire and in less than two shakes of a lamb’s tail, Mr H from Prague got a villa in Tuscany for his family for a massive 70% discount. That’s less than the price of 3 pints of Guinness, 2 bags of jelly babies and a bunch of bananas a day.
Those of you who don’t live in the picturesque Ulster fishing village of Banbridge (ie 99.99% of you) probably won’t have spotted the superb, full colour feature on “Rent a villa in tuscany” in last week’s issue. It was just after the ad. for colonic irrigation and sandwiched between an in depth interview with the girl who works part time in the local newsagents and the results of the Bonnie Baby contest. Well done, young Tyler

Things here in Chiantiland are really hotting up, only problem is anything left lying around for a bit, melts (ie MY phone charger, MY cassettes etc), please be careful if bringing your Gran on Holiday.

This big “Catch” issue of Discover Tuscany prattles on about the Sunday Sport, the Amazonian rain forest, Richard and Judy, flying Kites and Julie Andrews even gets a name check or two. And you thought Tuscany was all about wine tasting and Classical Music!!

Settle down, slip off your D & G flip flops (slight seconds only €200), try not to drip on the floor and get ready to enjoy this month’s Discover Tuscany.

Intro and Thanks
Bit off the top
Save the Rainforest
No, no please, no more Missus
Tinkle on the grass
Ooh la la!
Wot a pair
Fill er up guv
Extreme pile of kites
Coming soon

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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!).

Bit off the Top
We’re proud as punch of our New Last Minute Offers page. A number of lucky families have grabbed up some amazing offers, (70% discount on some top villas) and together with a bargain deal from Ryanair have got the holiday of a lifetime for a truly unbelievable price. But we’re not finished yet! New bargain deals are being added daily, we are in constant touch with our owners and any spare weeks they have are being added, if you don’t see the villa you want, just get in touch, their may be a great deal waiting to go online. Remember if you see a place you like, move fast, these offers are snapped up fast. Check out our Last Minute Offers Page for details.

Save the Rainforest
In addition to not using the equivalent of an Amazonian rainforest in paper (readers voice – making the Sunday Sport from teak these days, are they??) the Travel sections of the online versions of the UK Sunday Press are a cracking good read. I’ve been tootling around the Guardian, Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Herald and they are full of great articles, advice and tips on Italy and Tuscany (OK, and the rest of the world, but you wouldn’t want to go there on holiday would you!) Check them out Sunday papers

No, no please, no more Missus
Enough we said! No more new properties. But when owners contact us with villas, which have an 11+ wow factor, what can we do. We just have to let you know about them. Online in the next few days: an elegant restored villa with stylish, modern Tuscan interiors called Villa Baccano, various sized apartments. Another new addition is Villa Gerlino, a newly restored farmhouse sleeping 22 with pool, jacuzzi and sauna. After a number of requests for villas down on the Tuscan coast, we are also putting a couple of stunning luxury villas on the site. These properties have every comfort and you can even have a chef (who has cooked for the royal family) prepare dinner for you. We also have a number of places in Cortona in the pipeline, keep checking.

Ooh la la!
Vive le difference! As someone Italian might say if they could speak bad French. You’re foreign, that’s ok, nothing to be ashamed about, in fact being foreign can be put to good use. Let me explain. The natives here in Chiantishire are creatures of habit. They all do the same things at the same time, you, on the other hand are different, so for example if you want to avoid the queues in the Ipercoop (by the way, now one of the top tourist attractions in Tuscany) just go at lunchtime when all the natives are stuffing their laughing gear with nosh!

Tinkle on the grass
If you’re into tinkling or like a good old strum now and then, and who doesn’t I say, this summer “the (Tuscan) hills are alive with sound of music” (two obtuse references to Julie Andrews in one issue, Freud would have a field day!) All over Tuscany various Music festivals are taking place. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Folk, Comic, Classical something for all tastes. Big International artists will be playing as well as local musicians. Check out posters and the great little magazine “Toscana Tascabile” http://www.toscanatascabile.it/ for details and dates. As well as the music, food and wine are usually available.

Wot a pair!
Richard & Judy What can you say, proper TV stars, some would say. The best double act since two of the Marx brothers, since Bernard Manning and somebody else, since Bill and Ben probably. Women just swoon over Richard’s fake tan and slick delivery and men just thank their lucky stars that Richard is married to Judy and not them. For those of you who haven’t seen Judy, just imagine a cross between Cindy Crawford and Demi Moore, Judy looks nothing like this but I just like imagining. Now, you may laugh (In fact, I think you were meant to) but to get to the point, the other day on this top Channel 4 TV show one of our most stylish Villas “Casa dei Fiori” was featured. It has been chosen to star as the “perfect villa” in publicity for a world famous olive oil company. It will be featured in various promos for the company (for the purposes of the ads, they have renamed it Villa Bertolli) If you go to the channel 4 web site, you can see the feature and can even enter a competition to stay there. Then again, you could also go direct to our site and book now! https://www.rent-a-villa-in-tuscany.com/casaroseto.html

Fill er up guv
Just to get you in the holiday mood, as you while away the hours surfing the web at work until home time (you know who you are!) wouldn’t it be wonderful if a place existed where they had petrol stations with pumps, which served red wine and white wine! You know what, they already exist and right here in Tuscany. This is a well kept secret so don’t go telling everyone! In San Giovanni Valdarno, Arezzo, Loro Cuiffenna and Giaole in Chianti there are wineries, which have enormous tanks and pump out wine just like a petrol station. You take your own container (10L, 25L or if you are Australian, 50L) and fill up with red or white. Prices start from an amazing €1,50 a litre! Fil er up guv!

Extreme pile of kites
Let’s go fly a kite, try it if you’re hard enough! No, this is no Mary Poppins style kite, We are talking extreme, this is seriously cool, phat and other kiter gergo that I don’t know, we are talking Kite Surfing. This is not wimpy tourist stuff like being towed behind a boat on a string. Imagine skimming across the waves at 100kms an hour balancing on a plank of wood strapped to a parachute, whilst doing a few somersaults to impress the folks on the beach. The Tuscan coast has got some of the best kite surfing conditions in Italy and some great Kite Surfing schools. Both Talamone http://www.kitesurf-university.com and Castiglione della Pescaia have schools, where you can rent the gear and take lessons. Bring your own flowery surfer shorts and wrap around mirror shades.

Top stars
Watch out for the phrase “Sotto le Stelle” it means “Under the Stars”, and is used to describe various outdoor events. If your Italian is up to it, (or you have the Penguin book of lip reading) lots of towns have outdoor cinema. Most films are dubbed (ie no subtitles)

Coming soon
Hope to get some new snaps into our photo album (please feel free to send in any you like) some new trendy t shirt designs are on the drawing board, one or two new properties will be put online asap and for those of you who don’t read newspapers, we hear we are going to be featured in the Scottish Daily Record soon.

Hasta Manyana peeps

Jim
Temp. Assistant to Head of Special Projects

PS The earlier reference to Guinness, jelly babies and bananas was intended as a handy, monetary conversion reference and should not be taken as dietary advice.

PPS The penguin referred to above in the “Penguin book of lip reading” is the publisher not a book for penguins who want to lip read, not that I’m saying penguins are stupid or anything it’s just that …………………………..

Gotcha,

right sarge, straight jacket on and let’s lock ‘im up for another month …………………

climb every mountain, ford every…..,let’s go fly a kite, and send it soaring etc etc etc

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