AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF TUSCANY

What, a blog on tourism? No, not really. This blog is more of a meeting point to provide you with the information you normally don’t get from your travel agency and to address the questions you have and that only someone who lives here can really answer.

My name is Raymond Lamothe, and together with my wife Anna Rita Diegoli, I am co-founder and co-owner of Tuscan Enterprises Srl. We are today the oldest existing Tour Operator and Real Estate agency in Tuscany that hasn’t been sold or traded to a larger concern, and that hasn’t taken on new partners since we started it all some 27 years ago.

I am half American (my father was an Army officer) and half Italian (my mother was a piano teacher) and I have lived my youthful years on military bases around the world. My schooling was traditional American and after University, I came back to Castellina in Chianti where my parents had retired on our family farm.

This is where Anna Rita and I still live and also carry on the farming activities with vineyards, olive groves and free-range breeding of a rare species of pigs called Cinte Senesi. If you are in the area of Castellina in Chianti during your holidays, you can stop by for a visit and to taste our products. The phone number is on the bottom of the home page where this blog is being run from.

I will use this medium to address different themes, issues and upcoming events in weekly messages, but would really like your participation – you can ask me anything you want and I will try to answer you as honestly as possible. And it doesn’t need to be related to rental of houses and tourism – go ahead and ask me that question about Italian politics or if you can or should put Parmisan cheese on top of your Porcini mushroom risotto. You will get a straight answer and you will get all the advice I can give you after living here in the heart of the Chianti Classico Region for the past 35 years.

I hope to hear from you soon - Raymond

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