Stop the calendar right here. It is May, and we are in Val d’Orcia. If a perfect time does exist, then this is certainly it.
May is my favourite month. Colours come alive, the scent of flowers wafts through the air, the bees buzz around. It is already summer. You can finally wear a T-shirt, but it isn’t as muggy as in July and August. The green fields are dotted with poppies. Broom bushes bloom along country roads.
 

The days are the lightest and longest of the year, they never seem to end. At sunset, you can have your aperitif outside, watching the children play and run around in the square with the elders who are sitting nearby on a bench in the shade and talking. In the evening you only need a pashmina or a light jacket. The season of evenings spent outside the local bars, drinking a beer with friends and listening to live music.
 

May is also my birthday month. I celebrated it with my dearest friends in a restaurant that I really love, Il Chiostro, in the centre of Pienza, which was planned by Pope Pious II as the “ideal city” of the Renaissance. From its garden, it offers a splendid view over the Val d'Orcia.
A magical and still place where you can admire the sunset while sipping on a glass of bubbly and admiring the swallows that are flying about in the sky. Then a magnificent dinner paired with what is absolutely my favourite red wine, Sassicaia Tenuta San Guido. Excellent food, fine wines, enchanting setting, but, mostly, my friends, without whom I would never be what I am today. This is truly the perfect moment.