After our day-and-a-half delay in London, we arrived in Florence late at night and sleepily went through customs and connected with the driver who would take us to the Prone to Wander retreat in Sovicelle.  He was a kind gentleman who spoke a little English, so we exchanged the usual pleasantries, then sat quietly for the rest of the drive.  The main excitement of the ride was his driving style.  Mom and I referred to him as Mario Andretti the rest of the week, because he drove that oversized Mercedes van like it was a race car.  He was screeching around corners and passing everyone on the road.  Mom and I sat in the back, wide-eyed, gripping the nearest handle as if it would save us from calamity, hoping we would make it to the retreat in one piece.  I’ll break the suspense.  We did. Not only did we make

The afternoon was fading into the evening as we finished touring the garden of Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, and we decided to walk down the road to visit Chawton House, home of Jane’s brother, Edward.  He inherited the estate, including the house where Jane lived, from the Knight family, who named him their heir.  We knew it would be closed, but it was worth the five-minute walk to see a bit more of Chawton, the house, chapel, and grounds. The Knight family built the house in the 1580s, but there was already a manor house on the estate dating back to 1224.  It is a stunning old home, beautifully situated on a slight rise, so you can really appreciate it as you walk up the gravel drive.  As we made the walk up the house, I thought about how many times Jane and her sister, Cassandra, must’ve made that

After our morning in Minchinhampton and Winchester, we headed over to Chawton, Hampshire, to walk around the village and arrive in time for our scheduled unguided tour of Jane Austen’s House.  This is the home that Jane lived in during the final eight years of her life (aside from the months of illness just before her death, when she lived in Winchester to be closer to her doctor).  It’s also the home where she completed all six of her novels and published four of them.  The other two, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, were published posthumously. The village of Chawton is charming, with its mix of thatched and tiled-roof cottages and shops. The home where Jane lived with her sister, Cassandra, mother, and friend, Marth Lloyd.  The house was a thatched and timber farmhouse when it was first built in the 1500s, and then a coaching inn, before it was bought

With some degree of sadness that it was our last morning in the Cotswolds and our last day together, Julia, my mom, and I packed up our belongings, tidied up the thatched cottage that had been our temporary home, and set off to see more of the English countryside before heading to the airport to catch an early flight the next morning.  We had a bit of business to take care of before we could start the sightseeing.  My camera card was almost full, and I felt paranoid about deleting the photos, even though they were already uploaded to my laptop, before I got home and could back them up properly.  The photos felt like my most valuable souvenirs, and I wasn’t prepared to lose them in case something happened to either my laptop or the memory card while traveling.  So, we stopped into Cirencester, one of the towns we

After visiting Cotswold Farm Park and taking my fill of photos of rare breeds—cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and more —we went to meet Julia’s sister-in-law, Carol, at Daylesford Organic Farmshop.  Even after spending only three full days in the Cotswolds, I feel confident recommending this shop as a destination to add to your itinerary when in the area.  It’s not just a farm shop, but a beautiful store with lots of inspiration and eye candy, local British specialties, a garden center, and several different places to eat (my mom likened it to a high-end food court).  Julia thought it would be a nice spot to grab some refreshments and to do a bit of shopping, if we wanted.  As much as I enjoy shopping, I found myself disinterested in most of the stores we window-shopped while touring various villages.  It’s not that there was a lack of beautiful, enticing things