Today it is snowing and snowing and snowing. We drove off for Lucca this morning to do some Christmas food shopping, but had to return home half way there, the road was so quickly built up with snow. We were drifting all over the place till we got stuck behind two trucks who couldn’t ski up a slope in the road. Finally we put some snow socks on our tyres and breezed up the road till we were safely home.
It was minus four outside but all that luminous white was enticing and work seemed irrelevant on a day like this, so instead, we piled on our woollies and trudged up a pristine road to Bagni Caldi to get a view over the valley. It was spectacular. Steaming wisps curled elusively from rocks and stairways, venting from the springs broiling below. Soft and hushed the world about us, slowly silencing our merry chatter, the snow slipping wetly over our faces and forming little mounds on our shoulders and shoes.
At the top we came across our friends, Rosi and Adriano, on their way to their mountain land to feed the horses. We climbed excitedly into their four wheel drive with them, to go and see the horses in their white domain. We clambered and slipped up the pathways to the stables and there they were, prancing around in the snow, nipping bits of foliage still there so late, galloping freely towards us, halting uncertainly when they perceived our numbers, then rushing forward again to receive their food.
Lovely friends these horses. The horse whisperer had come again recently and from a a mysterious world he told Rosi some of their stories. Romon spoke of his other lives as a free mountain horse, that this life was the first he had had to deal with humans. At first he had hated it, but now he quite enjoyed it. He felt he had a lot to teach humans and was adamant that he receive respect, his spirit was unbroken. His message to Sollai was not to try and get outcomes but to build up on a trusting relationship first, the rest would follow. Nisan told Rosi that he felt she was uncertain and insecure about having the horse farm and because of that he had been avoiding her because he thought she would sell him. It was true. He told her that he loved her and never wanted to part from her. In another lifetime, Rosi had been a stable boy and they had really loved each other too. The stable boy had told Nisan then that they would always be together but it hadn’t happened in that lifetime. In this lifetime he hoped that it would. The message brought commitment to Rosi and the yard is happy.
Lovely. Today we were transported to a mythological fantastical world where horses were the wise friends of man before man forgot we could speak together. How perfect in this hidden Tuscan valley where the mists are like dragons weaving their way elusively through the mountain tops, that today it is snowing and life seems pure and unhurried and we can take in all that is real to us.
Living Tuscany & Provence 
I stumbled upon this conversation tonight looking for the man behind these lovely small postcards I bought in Bagni di Lucca past October. So delicate.
To find such gentle people sharing such a significant part of their life.
We live in a small hill community, far away in upstate New York just south of Montreal. We have had beautiful snow here as well.
Thank you for this little bit of Italy, I miss it. My sister and I enjoyed it so much.
Hi Corinne
Thank you for your lovely response to our blog.
Are the postcards that you bought in Bagni di Lucca by a man called Brian Nunan? Little drawings, snippets of life in the region. If so, he is my father and there is a link to his website on the blog.
Have a beautiful Christmas.
Cheers
Shona