For my last painting of 2022, I chose to paint a street scene from our month in Lecchi in Chianti, Tuscany – one of our travel highlights. You’d be right to think I was missing this place, and especially after I got a Christmas wish from our rental home’s lovely owner.

Lecchi in Chianti is a tiny hamlet of about 150 residents about a half hour northeast of Siena. It has one very narrow main street lined with low stone buildings, where only one car can fit through at a time. But this little spot has its riches too! Not only are there rolling hills of forests, vineyards and olive groves enveloping the town, you can get your morning coffee and fresh pastries from Alda at the Enoteca Rinaldi, all the groceries and Tuscan specialties you’ll ever desire at Paolo’s supermercato next door, and a fine evening meal up the road at Simone’s Ristorante Malborghetto. (Yes, we got to know people!)

The stone homes in the town were originally housing for the extensive labour force that served the Ricasoli family at their 11th century Castello di Monteluco a Lecchi above the town on a hill. Our rental apartment was in one of those homes, and it had maintained the traditional Tuscan interior of beams and terra cotta tiles, but also thankfully 21st century air conditioning!

Stepping out onto Via San Martino every day was a joy for the senses and my imagination. For anyone who’s spent any time in a medieval village, you know the feeling – that evocative mixture of awe, curiosity, and Pinch-Me-Now. Even after 30 days, it never got old!

My last miniature painting of 2022 captures one of those scenes along Lecchi’s main street – this one just across from our rental and the view out the kitchen window. A few doors down from our place was also a Vespa and Ape repair shop – it was fun to walk by and see what the mechanic was working on… like the baby-blue Ape truck in the painting.

Now it’s on to 2023, and planning for more travel and memory-making… and paintings too!

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