I take to heart what Ferruccio Ferragamo writes in his family's book : IL BORRO A Land Of Living Traditions. I read his introduction yesterday afternoon sitting right here in the same spot on my living room cough with my daughter's cat curled up here in between my feet, nestled warmly on a day that earlier saw a sky filled with thousands of streams of white snow falling through the air from a white blanket of sky. No blue. No sunshine. Quiet and peaceful. It's a bit precarious now typing with my HP laptop pushed close to my face. I like it. ...
Today I have gone back and studied some of the pictures and I must say that there are some that I really like. That includes some of the maps as well. The picture on page 89 may be my second favorite after the picture on pages 72 and 73 of the incredible field of sunflowers. The picture on page 89 is also one of sunflowers yet that's just the bottom half with the upper half being of a brilliant blue sky and the middle being the hills and the deep greens of the forrest and trees. The sunflowers also have to share their magnificent glory with the delicate colors of the lavender that also spreads through this flat valley. Wonderful, lavender and deep cadmium bright yellows. Being a painter I am drawn to these colors, shapes, forms, textures and sunlight, too. Everything life-affirming as I imagine the audio sounds that we would be enjoying if there of bees buzzing around busily and all other insects and animals moving around doing their chores to survive here in this beautiful valley of Il Borro, Tuscany. ...
Is there any artwork that survives that may be included in the next edition/ printing, from the past that is? I like looking at the sepia-toned photographs and really enjoyed the picture of the young children sitting on the road on page 38. That was perhaps my favorite of all of them. ....
( this picture is not taken in Tuscany. Those will have to wait until later. This one I took in Washington D.C. with my family and it's just to break up the writing. Tuscany has beautiful skies like this one : we all share them thankfully. ....
I also liked some of the pictures of the restored town itself. I liked best the ones that were not so dazzlingly crystal-clear and complete, and that permitted my imagination, as well as me some more liberty to enter into them and add my own observations and adventures. I compare it to wine : I like some space to move around in, for my whole body and all my senses to fit into : a picture or a taste that excites and invites me in, and welcomes and permits my body and my thoughts/ feelings some room to move. Very much like music as well as in the famous song called : " Room To Move " by John Mayall on his album : Turning Point. This fits here as what the Ferragamo family has done and been completely supportive of is a turning point, too : one for the better, for the good and prosperity of all those there in the region I would hope? ....
I can see myself screwing up my nerve and my courage on the four photos on page 63 to walk along by myself and encounter whatever was in store for me with very little Italian under my belt. I would perhaps even get the nerve to go up the stairs in the upper right-hand picture and knock on the door and see who would answer? I'd have my sketch pad in hand with my pens and my oil pastels and motion with my hands holding these that I would like to draw them? That would at least help to relax the situation, bring smiles and giggles to everyone's faces and make it an overall positive experience for everyone? I would hope so. ...
I would like to see some people and animals in these pictures of Il Borro today. Just like the old sepia pictures of the past it would be more alive and inviting with some life in these beautiful pictures of form, shape, color and texture and yet void of visible life? Just an idea. ....
( This is an earlier watercolor that I did, again to break up my text and these colors are some of the very same, the shapes and the textures an forms, too that my daughter and I enjoyed on our lovely afternoon with Salvatore Ferragamo, his dog, his assistant Sarah on October 29th, 2009 when we toured Il Borro and had a wonderful tour and wine-tasting. Prego Salvatore, Sarah and your dog, Salvatore : and your wife and family for permitting you to drive from Florence to Il Borro to meet with my daughter and me. Prego ). ...
Page 116 is also a great image of Il Borro as it encompasses so much between the natural beauty of both the village perched on the side of a verdant and beautiful hillside soaked in sunshine with flowers, stone, small dwellings up ahead, a lovely path to get there and in the left foreground an assortment of ingredients essential to any and all meals : bread, a bottle of Il Borro olive oil,yellow peppers , cheeses, rosemary and other herbs, small red flower clusters, sausages, red tomatoes , and so much more including what looks to be three or so cut irises from the greens shoots to the side cut in half?!? This picture alone Ferruccio speaks columns. It's practically a story or at least three of four chapters already of a fine book. I like it, I like it a lot. My only comment is : why is there not some olive oil poured in a clear container besides the bottle so that we may luxuriate in both the color and the clarity of one of the essential food items from Il Borro? And if I wanted to be a real nuisance I would also ask : where/ dove e a bottle of Il Borro wine? But hey, I do not want to be either a pest or a nuisance : I like very much this book and I will return someday I hope. ....
One of the things that I told Salvatore when I saw him again for the second time was that visiting Il Borro had come highly recommended by my two dear Italian winemaker friends : Andrea Fossi of FOSSI Chianti and other Italian wines like his Vino Nobile, Primitivo and more : and Alessandro Furlan that has made wine with his family's winery in Friuli, Italy called FRANCO FURLAN. Now Alessandro brings a collection of small family-owned estate wines to the United States. They both worked with me in the eighties at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits that imported wines from Italy with the help of owners Aaron and Hellen Millman, Sidney Moore and Michael Downey. Those were some mighty fine days and it was then that our friendship started and have grown to where they are today. They both at separate times saw Il Borro on my list of possible places to visit and they bot said to be sure and visit Il Borro! Prego Alessandro e Andrea! ...
( another photo I took of the sky when visiting Washington D.C. and the National Aquarium with my family on a weekend ). ...
On page 118 is another very important picture and one that I think also speak volume Ferruccio. It's a picture of a bottle of IL BORRO 1999 Toscana Indicazione Geografica Tipica on a light cream paper and with a sepia-colored drawing/sketch of the village of Il Borro. I like that because it's all that there is on that page and it brings the wine together with the village : the two are dependent on each other, one cannot exist without the other. Or, more to the point : one should not exist without the other as there is a great relationship created this way that rewards everyone that lives or comes to IL BORRO or learns of IL BORRO. Cheers e bravo! I like this, too. ...
Once again, if I wanted to be a slight nuisance I would say : please include another picture of this sepia-toned sketch of the town of Il Borro enlarged on the same page so that we may better see it and appreciate it : like looking at the fine old maps of the region around Il Borro on page 23. I like how that map shows in detail what has been planted and what grows in this region. It's very beautiful this map, and some of those images can be enlarged, again to give us all a better appreciation of them, with labels by their sides so that we know exactly what they are. ...
... ( a watercolor that I did years ago where some of the colors remind me of the Tuscan landscape that my daughter drove in and around Il Borro in late October 2009. Cheers. ...
As I leafed through this book again : IL BORRO A Land Of Living Traditions and looked at the many photos I was again struck by how well-executed, composed and organized this book is. Fresh as the day it was published back in 2001. Bravo. I like how it has an expansive framework and vision. It was clearly well-thought-out. I enjoy how all the elements of the land and the water sources, the forests, the hills, the valleys, the woods, the flowers, herbs, wheats and grains, the chestnuts, the various trees, crops, livestock and wild animals, bees, butterflies, : many elements - all living are photographed and beautifully arranged for us. Again, if I wanted to be a pest I might say that a couple of aerial shots taken from a plane would be nice to include to show better the relationship and the proximity of one thing to another. ...
I wish that I had had more time with my daughter in Italy so that we could have driven around to better see and record in our own mind's eye where all this was , and how all the glorious pieces fit together here? It definitely takes some time and attention, and not being rushed. That's exactly what the Ferragamo family is providing of course with their guest houses and rooms for people to come from all around the world and relax and absorb, appreciate, experience the experience that is Italy, that is Tuscany, that is the land, the tradition , the past thriving and blooming in the present : that is Il Borro! ...
I have much more to add and I have not even gotten to the pictures of the winery, cellars and vineyards yet1 i will leave you all with the image on page 148-151 of the Ivory cattle that graze there - the Chianina. The picture of the three Chianina on page 150 is spectacular : two of them facing us and fully attentive, and the one in the back with it;s back to us seemingly unaware, not caring, not to be disturbed. I love that. Priceless really. ...
Cheers and stay-tuned for my next blog on IL BORRO A Land Of Living Traditions. This is Part-Two. Be sure and read Part-One. Take care e prego ; caio! Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
( this picture is not taken in Tuscany. Those will have to wait until later. This one I took in Washington D.C. with my family and it's just to break up the writing. Tuscany has beautiful skies like this one : we all share them thankfully. ....
I also liked some of the pictures of the restored town itself. I liked best the ones that were not so dazzlingly crystal-clear and complete, and that permitted my imagination, as well as me some more liberty to enter into them and add my own observations and adventures. I compare it to wine : I like some space to move around in, for my whole body and all my senses to fit into : a picture or a taste that excites and invites me in, and welcomes and permits my body and my thoughts/ feelings some room to move. Very much like music as well as in the famous song called : " Room To Move " by John Mayall on his album : Turning Point. This fits here as what the Ferragamo family has done and been completely supportive of is a turning point, too : one for the better, for the good and prosperity of all those there in the region I would hope? ....
I can see myself screwing up my nerve and my courage on the four photos on page 63 to walk along by myself and encounter whatever was in store for me with very little Italian under my belt. I would perhaps even get the nerve to go up the stairs in the upper right-hand picture and knock on the door and see who would answer? I'd have my sketch pad in hand with my pens and my oil pastels and motion with my hands holding these that I would like to draw them? That would at least help to relax the situation, bring smiles and giggles to everyone's faces and make it an overall positive experience for everyone? I would hope so. ...
I would like to see some people and animals in these pictures of Il Borro today. Just like the old sepia pictures of the past it would be more alive and inviting with some life in these beautiful pictures of form, shape, color and texture and yet void of visible life? Just an idea. ....
( This is an earlier watercolor that I did, again to break up my text and these colors are some of the very same, the shapes and the textures an forms, too that my daughter and I enjoyed on our lovely afternoon with Salvatore Ferragamo, his dog, his assistant Sarah on October 29th, 2009 when we toured Il Borro and had a wonderful tour and wine-tasting. Prego Salvatore, Sarah and your dog, Salvatore : and your wife and family for permitting you to drive from Florence to Il Borro to meet with my daughter and me. Prego ). ...
Page 116 is also a great image of Il Borro as it encompasses so much between the natural beauty of both the village perched on the side of a verdant and beautiful hillside soaked in sunshine with flowers, stone, small dwellings up ahead, a lovely path to get there and in the left foreground an assortment of ingredients essential to any and all meals : bread, a bottle of Il Borro olive oil,yellow peppers , cheeses, rosemary and other herbs, small red flower clusters, sausages, red tomatoes , and so much more including what looks to be three or so cut irises from the greens shoots to the side cut in half?!? This picture alone Ferruccio speaks columns. It's practically a story or at least three of four chapters already of a fine book. I like it, I like it a lot. My only comment is : why is there not some olive oil poured in a clear container besides the bottle so that we may luxuriate in both the color and the clarity of one of the essential food items from Il Borro? And if I wanted to be a real nuisance I would also ask : where/ dove e a bottle of Il Borro wine? But hey, I do not want to be either a pest or a nuisance : I like very much this book and I will return someday I hope. ....
One of the things that I told Salvatore when I saw him again for the second time was that visiting Il Borro had come highly recommended by my two dear Italian winemaker friends : Andrea Fossi of FOSSI Chianti and other Italian wines like his Vino Nobile, Primitivo and more : and Alessandro Furlan that has made wine with his family's winery in Friuli, Italy called FRANCO FURLAN. Now Alessandro brings a collection of small family-owned estate wines to the United States. They both worked with me in the eighties at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits that imported wines from Italy with the help of owners Aaron and Hellen Millman, Sidney Moore and Michael Downey. Those were some mighty fine days and it was then that our friendship started and have grown to where they are today. They both at separate times saw Il Borro on my list of possible places to visit and they bot said to be sure and visit Il Borro! Prego Alessandro e Andrea! ...
( another photo I took of the sky when visiting Washington D.C. and the National Aquarium with my family on a weekend ). ...
On page 118 is another very important picture and one that I think also speak volume Ferruccio. It's a picture of a bottle of IL BORRO 1999 Toscana Indicazione Geografica Tipica on a light cream paper and with a sepia-colored drawing/sketch of the village of Il Borro. I like that because it's all that there is on that page and it brings the wine together with the village : the two are dependent on each other, one cannot exist without the other. Or, more to the point : one should not exist without the other as there is a great relationship created this way that rewards everyone that lives or comes to IL BORRO or learns of IL BORRO. Cheers e bravo! I like this, too. ...
Once again, if I wanted to be a slight nuisance I would say : please include another picture of this sepia-toned sketch of the town of Il Borro enlarged on the same page so that we may better see it and appreciate it : like looking at the fine old maps of the region around Il Borro on page 23. I like how that map shows in detail what has been planted and what grows in this region. It's very beautiful this map, and some of those images can be enlarged, again to give us all a better appreciation of them, with labels by their sides so that we know exactly what they are. ... 
... ( a watercolor that I did years ago where some of the colors remind me of the Tuscan landscape that my daughter drove in and around Il Borro in late October 2009. Cheers. ...
As I leafed through this book again : IL BORRO A Land Of Living Traditions and looked at the many photos I was again struck by how well-executed, composed and organized this book is. Fresh as the day it was published back in 2001. Bravo. I like how it has an expansive framework and vision. It was clearly well-thought-out. I enjoy how all the elements of the land and the water sources, the forests, the hills, the valleys, the woods, the flowers, herbs, wheats and grains, the chestnuts, the various trees, crops, livestock and wild animals, bees, butterflies, : many elements - all living are photographed and beautifully arranged for us. Again, if I wanted to be a pest I might say that a couple of aerial shots taken from a plane would be nice to include to show better the relationship and the proximity of one thing to another. ...
I wish that I had had more time with my daughter in Italy so that we could have driven around to better see and record in our own mind's eye where all this was , and how all the glorious pieces fit together here? It definitely takes some time and attention, and not being rushed. That's exactly what the Ferragamo family is providing of course with their guest houses and rooms for people to come from all around the world and relax and absorb, appreciate, experience the experience that is Italy, that is Tuscany, that is the land, the tradition , the past thriving and blooming in the present : that is Il Borro! ...
I have much more to add and I have not even gotten to the pictures of the winery, cellars and vineyards yet1 i will leave you all with the image on page 148-151 of the Ivory cattle that graze there - the Chianina. The picture of the three Chianina on page 150 is spectacular : two of them facing us and fully attentive, and the one in the back with it;s back to us seemingly unaware, not caring, not to be disturbed. I love that. Priceless really. ...
Cheers and stay-tuned for my next blog on IL BORRO A Land Of Living Traditions. This is Part-Two. Be sure and read Part-One. Take care e prego ; caio! Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
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