Anne Hanley

Lo

28 January 2026 So farewell then Renato Bittarello, the man who made us suspend our rational minds and lulled us with the swinging of his beautiful silver fob watch – engraved with the insignia of the Turkish Otto…

New blog post | Some departures, some art and some strange speculation. laverzura.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/2...

4 January 2026 Lake Trasimeno It’s utter misery outside the window on this fourth day of a new year which hasn’t been entirely kind so far, on various unrelated fronts. And the forecast for the next few days is u…

New blog post | More foreigners, fewer bars, less rain and a hospital trip in a rocky start to 2026. More musings from #umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/4...

5 December 2025 I had been planning to kick off with tales from our weekend in Venice but that’s difficult to do after a subsequent weekend spent immersed in a small community numbed by the fatal shooting of a wom…

New blog post | Femicide, trash and tinsel in #Umbria, boats and Biennale in Venice. More musings from #CittadellaPieve laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/12/05/5...

The beautiful place I call home.
www.qantas.com/travelinside...
#cittadellapieve #umbria

10 November 2025 We’ve been flitting about. With no big trips planned for this winter, we’ve been making up for it with short hops.  I had a yen for the sea, which I suddenly realised I hadn’t glimpsed since… …

New blog post | Some sea, some city then back to alliums and truffles. Autumn wandering in my musings from #Umbria.

laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/1...

9 October 2025 When I was weeding around the Magnolia soulangeana bushes behind the chicken house I turned over a stone, and lying beneath it was a fresh chestnut. Which is odd, because chestnuts are scarce aroun…

New blog post | Caching, chunking, a non-saint and a bike cave. More musings from #Umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/9...

14 September 2025 Never look back. I’ve just been perusing posts from Septembers past and gosh, I am repetitive. I’ll try to dive right in elsewhere and shun lamentations about the slow decline towards winter. And a…

New blog post | Out with summer, in with autumn – featuring some musing on the side-effects of the Palio, more climate talk, a little moaning about plant names and plans for satisfying cyclists. Thoughts from #Umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/09/14/1...

21 August 2025 David Hockney at the Fondation Louis Vuitton Covid seemed such a thing of the past but here I am, needing a long sit-down after walking a few metres and generally feeling wiped out. I blame the cou…

New blog post | A lot of Paris, some Pieve and some Palio. More musings from #Umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/08/21/2...

5 August 2025 A quick walk up Monte Cetona When I moved the vegetable garden to its current location from what is now the far end of the car park in December 2016 what I regretted most was the loss of my damson …

New blog post | Plums (which may or may not be damsons), jam, fencing and non-functioning. A mixed bag of just-about-cohernent rambling from Umbria over on the blog. #cittadellapieve #umbria laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/8...

And that makes 30. For the past 30 Sundays we've gathered in the piazza, hoping that next Sunday we won't be necessary. #stopthegenocide #gazagenocide #gaza #cittàdellapieve

6 July 2025 It’s hard to work up the courage and energy to go outside and work in the garden in these long days of high-30°s (90°F-plus) heat. And when/if you do, it’s hard to think of what you can do without …

New blog post | Eggs, heat, tourism, festivals, immigration... and a dead cat: a mixed bag of ramblings from #umbria .
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/07/06/6...

18 June 2025 The other morning I had the bright idea of getting up early (which for me means before 7.30am) and spending some cooler moments of the day out in the garden, before coming back in and getting down …

New blog post | Omens, dormice, odd holidays and heat. Plus fireflies again. More musings from #Umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/1...

30 May 2025 There are two things which make me uncontainably happy in spring: my roses, and fireflies. Last night we stood outside at the southern end of the house as weaving and bobbing points of light rushed…

New blog post | Spring's delights, Umbrians' saving... and a new blue bike. More musings from #Umbria.
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/05/30/3...

14 April 2025 Down in our valley, it’s peak flower time. Or at least it’s flowers bursting out all over time. It’s simply glorious. Every walk is an unveiling.  There’s periwinkle everywhere, and patches of ador…

New blog post | Flowers in the valley, pampering in Switzerland and a fox in the garden. More musings from Umbria. #cittàdellapieve #umbria laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/1...

10 March 2025 I’m suffering from asparagus angst. This is partly because there are so many distressing things going on in our world today that fretting over vegetables is a comfortably anodine displacement activ…

New blog post | Asparagus, resident foreigners, garden(er)s and spring chores: more ramblings from #Umbria .
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/03/10/1...

15 February 2025 More proof – if proof were needed – that cold is less and less my thing: here we are, just back from three pleasantly warm weeks in Sri Lanka and I’m pining. They’re saying it may even snow this we…

New blog post | An escape from the cold: musings on three glorious weeks in Sri Lanka. How DO they get those vegetable garden beds so neat?
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/02/15/1...

5 January 2025 On the road to Perugia It’s a dull drear day for the poor old Befana to mount her broomstick and bring presents to good children and coal to bad… in that magnificently punitive fash…

New blog post | Festive musings, featuring vandalism, rainfall, wealth, transport and security. Happy new year from #Umbria !
laverzura.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/5...

As things unfold in Syria a small persistent voice in my head asks: what does this mean for Syrian women? #Syria

5 December 2024 I’ve been thinking about our fox without the bushy tail. And also about the extent to which we (don’t) see what we (don’t) want to see. Was it a fox we were eyeball to eyeball with? Foxes feel wild…

New blog post | A wolf at the door, (Etruscan) grave robbing plus worrying environmental changes. More musings from #umbria
laverzura.wordpress.com/2024/12/05/5...