Tuscany | Mary J. McCoy-Dressel ~ Contemporary Romance

Tag: Tuscany

#AmWriting #MFRWauthor Week 50: It’s All About the Vacation

Posted at 6:42 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on December 21, 2018

Wow, we have one more week to go in the 2018 Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop with our hashtag #MFRWauthor. I have no idea what the future holds for this challenge blog hop. If it has met its end, I’ll come up with something else in this time slot. If not, I fear I will become an absent blogger.

Week 51: My Fantasy Vacation

This is a big world. How can anyone limit it to one fantasy vacation? Income, on the other hand, can possibly limit a family to a once in a lifetime trip.

For my fantasy trip, I wouldn’t need a travel partner, but I’d prefer one. I’m not Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love nor am I Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun.

I don’t mind traveling alone across my country on a plane or train, but if I ventured on a fantasy vacation, I’d like to have a fantasy partner to travel with me. He can be my age with salt & pepper hair, or he can be younger with any hair. I’d also consider traveling with a best friend or with my boys and daughter-in-law where I wouldn’t have to impress anyone but myself.

I live in a beautiful country, and there’s so much to see in all fifty states, but I’ll limit my fantasy vacation to one for this post.

Like many Americans, I’d be interested in vacationing in other countries like Europe, Australia, and Canada. For the record, I have vacationed in Canada.

For this post, I’d love to plan a fantasy vacation around Tuscany, Italy. I can think of many reasons to visit this part of Italy—beginning with the food and Chianti—a fantasy in itself. I’d tour the country, visit wineries, and take cooking classes in a chef’s kitchen or an Italian grandmother’s home like in the movie Letters to Juliet.

If I ever made it as far as Italy, I wouldn’t limit it to Tuscany. I’d love to see Milan, too. Oh, the shopping I’d do there on my fantasy vacation, beginning with purchasing red Valentino boots. Hey, it’s my fantasy! The woman who proofed the Italian in my Bull Rider Series lived in Milan on and off in her life and talked about it so lovingly.

I’d make my way to Venice, which has been my fantasy vacation since way before I knew anything about a fantasy vacation. Greece would be my next stop on the way home.

As I grow older, which is happening on an hourly basis, I might have other ideas, or even limit it to my country and be happy with my choices.

As the year counts down, let’s go see what the Marketing for Romance Writers Blog Hoppers are planning for their fantasy vacation. We might get some new ideas for our next fantasy vacation.

Safe Travels!

All of the images came from Pixabay.

Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge | 9 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, blog hop, bull rider series, Europe, Fantasy trip, Ireland, Italy, Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Milan, Scotland, Tuscany, Vacations, Week 50: It's All About the Vacation, western romance

#AmWriting 52 Week Blog Challenge~ Coloring Outside of the Lines (What Else is New?)

Posted at 10:18 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on June 16, 2017

Ciao! This is week 24 in the #MFRWauthor 52 Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop. Welcome to another week.

This week’s topic is: If I Could Eat One Last Meal

Wow, this is a scary topic. I’m not sure I like it, either. For one thing, I don’t have what I’d call a “favorite meal,” so I’ll color outside of the lines a little this week.

If I have a choice of eating my last meal, it might mean I’m on death row or on my death bed. How depressing. Am I looking at this all wrong? On the flip side, maybe it means nothing more than I’d wake up one day and decide to eat my favorite meal because I could, but I’d pretend it was my last meal, so I’d choose something I’d like to eat. Hmm.

If I’m going to eat one last meal, I’m doing it up right. For this last meal, I picture myself in Italy. I love Italian food, so my last meal would begin with the real thing.

First Stop:
First stop would be a winery in Tuscany to sample a glass of Chianti Classico. At this winery, we’d share the food you see in this video. Of course, they’d gift me a bottle to accompany me on my journey. “Mmm, delizioso, I say,” licking my lips. “Grazie.” How kind, right?

Next stop:
I want an authentic Italian meal with an Italian family (who speaks a little English). I’m reminded of the movie Eat Pray Love or Under the Tuscan Sun. I don’t care if it’s risotto, spaghetti and meatballs, or a creamy pasta dish, and of course, bread. Or whatever the family comes up with for a full meal. As long as I have good company to help me enjoy the meal and the view with a glass of Prosecco before dinner and red or white wine with dinner, I’ll leave fat and sassy. But not before dessert. 🙂

Better yet, since I’m in my own dream here, I’d love to have dinner with, Velia Armano, my heroine in the Bull Rider Series, and her family. In three books, I’ve written enough family meals with the Armano/ McCutchen family, that I feel like I know them, and we’d all be comfortable with one another. We’d have fun together. Her Mamma Lidia can cook for me any time, but for fun we’ll invite my hero, Caulder, and his family, too. If I’m eating my last meal, I want some eye candy sitting across from me. Dolly McCutchen will of course bring her own delicious fare to the meal. Nothing is too good for her son, the professional bull rider. I know, I know. Mix a bull rider with a classy Italian? Yep! La vita è bella!

Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Bull Rider Series new cover, western romance

Bull Rider Series 3

Reality:
Oh, that was so much fun. Now, to jump back into reality. If I could, or had to eat my last meal, I’d probably eat a roast beef dinner with carrots and potatoes all roasted together. Then we’d have apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. With it would come memories of my growing up years with my grandma, parents, aunts and uncles, and brothers. I’d also have memories of Sunday dinners with my ex-husband and boys—my own family. In the end, the food would be a meal that left me with lasting memories with people I love.