I don’t know of anyone this year who gave Christmas its usual fanfare. A strange year for all, by all accounts…

Ours wasn’t the exciting, romantic, ‘first Christmas in Italy’ that we had hoped for – partly due to absent people and partly to not being in our ‘proper home’ yet.

To be fair, it might have been if Covid restrictions had allowed the usual Christmas markets; trips to Siena and Florence to see the Christmas lights (I’ve always wanted to see Siena at Christmas!); Christmas music concerts; Santas on Vespas (?!), and ‘son et lumiere’ shows that we had been promised by the locals. But, as with everywhere this year, these were all sadly cancelled and the 10pm curfew has been very well respected.

Walking around the walls one night, Jas and I were delightfully surprised by the ‘lumiere’ show, projected on the city walls, without the ‘son’! Beautiful…

These images are taken from the Madonna del Parte by Piero della Francesco