Page 24 of A Wedding in Tuscany

As soon as I open the car door, I smell fragrant lavender and rosemary permeating the air and all the travel weariness seeps from my body. I climb out and stretch skyward, taking in deep breaths and sighing them out in a state of sheer bliss.

As Josh booked our accommodation, he searches his carry-on bag for the reservation. I made him print it out because I’d read multiple times that many Italians prefer ‘old-school ways’, such as reservations printed on paper in lieu of digital PDFs and QR codes, and you never can be too prepared.

Paper in hand, Josh disappears around the front of the building while the rest of us stretch our legs and start unloading the boot. When Josh returns, he’s carrying a four-inch-long old-fashioned key and he’s wearing a broad grin.

‘Guys, this place is unbelievable and wait till you see the view out the back.’ He walks over to a pair of tall painted wooden doors, one of which bears a brass ‘1’. ‘This is us,’ he says jiggling the key in the lock. Why number one when it’s the only accommodation in the castle? I think. There’s a click of the latch and he swings open the left side of the door and disappears inside. I grab our carry-on bags from the gravel driveway and follow him inside where the air is cool and the ceilings are high.

The hallway extends in both directions. ‘Where are you?’ I call out.

‘Turn left.’ I do, following the sound of his voice.

‘Oh, wow,’ I say entering a large, airy bedroom. I join Josh at the double glass doors that lead to a long, wide balcony running the length of the apartment. ‘This is gorgeous.’

Josh’s gaze remains fixed on the view. ‘I know, right?’

‘Hey, Sez!’ calls Cat from the other end of the apartment.

I drop our bags on the Italian tile floor and head towards Cat’s voice, passing a large bathroom on the left?our en suite. In the middle of the hallway, just across from the front door is a kitchen and dinette?by the look of it, renovated sometime in the mid-twentieth century?and when I get to the second bedroom, the doors to the balcony are wide open. I step out and join Cat at the railing.

‘Well, this doesn’t suck,’ I say, taking in the view.

‘It definitely doesn’t.’

We are on one side of a shallow valley and our view looks like something out of a travel brochure. ‘One Tuscany, please.’ ‘Here you are madam, just as you’ve ordered.’ In between us and a row of houses that are perched on top of the next hill, are irregular parcels of land?a grove of olive trees, rows of grapevines, low scrub, clumps of bushy shrubs, and the ubiquitous Italian Cypresses that we’d seen dotting the countryside on the drive in.

It’s breathtaking.

‘Are you sure you don’t mind if we take this room?’ asks Cat. The room at this end of the apartment is slightly larger than ours but its distinguishing feature is the much larger bed. Ours has what I’d call a ‘small double’.

‘Of course not! You’re the ones getting married?you get the bigger room.’

‘I know, but we’ve split the costs and …’

‘Cat, you’re taking the room. Consider it a wedding gift.’

‘You mean on top of letting me gate-crash your fortieth and doing most of the planning?’

‘Yes.’

We regard each other affectionately. It has been far too long since we’ve seen each other in person?close to three years now?our longest stint apart in more than a decade. ‘I’ve missed you,’ we say at the same time.

We both smile through tears and I hug her tightly. My little sis is getting married this week. And we’re here in Italy with our beautiful men, soon to be joined by our loved ones and everything feels right in the world. She lets go and goes inside, leaving me to gaze at the view and chew over my thoughts.

Everything is right in the world, as long as I don’t dwell on my looming birthday.

Bleh. If it were up to me, I’d skip my birthday?arrive in Italy aged thirty-nine and (magically) leave aged forty. But Cat tells me Josh has gone to a lot of effort?everything from where my birthday celebration will be held to what it entails?and I don’t want to hurt him by begging off.

Surely, if I can just breathe and enjoy where I am and who’s here with me, then this will be less about a number and more about what makes me happy?Josh, my family and friends, being in a beautiful part of the world. Not to mention good food, good wine (presumably, as I do love a Chianti), and good times to come.

Perfect! I just need to get out of my own frigging way and all will be right with the world. Hah! Easier said than done.

‘What do you think?’ I ask Josh.

After getting settled?which for me and Josh included a shower and a change of clothes and (okay) we may have had that shower together and taken a little longer than was absolutely necessary?the four of us have walked up the hill, away from our castle and towards the town centre, two-by-two as the footpaths are narrow here. And with Josh by my side and seeing Italy through his eyes as he gawps at even the tiniest details, it’s almost as though I’m here for the first time too.

‘It’s a really pretty town,’ says Josh, ‘even if everything seems to be closed.’

‘Siesta,’ says Cat.

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