Tuscany - and the horrific event that inspired my trilogy

People often ask me where I get ideas for my books from and sometimes it amazes me what instigates that initial spark. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll blog some of the experiences that inspired my 'Treasured' series of book. 

In 2011 my husband surprised me with a trip to Tuscany for our 20th anniversary. We had 10 wonderful days exploring this fabulous region and we stayed in a 700 year old villa called Villa Pandolfini in Signa, a little village just a fifteen minute train ride from Florence. Our spectacular historic villa with extremely high ceilings, magnificent frescoes and original antique furniture was surrounded by vineyards and olive-groves and offered an extensive view over Arno Valley. This incredible villa was the perfect place to set my author brain into action and consequently features prominently in  Treasured Secrets.

Our rooms were overflowing with antiques.

Villa Pandolfini Signa Tuscany Italy

It was a visit to a little church in the medieval area of Florence that catapulted my creative writing ideas into overdrive. The Church of St Apostoli was built in the 11th century and is very insignificant compared to the many more grand churches in this historic city. This church is located in the Piazza Del Limbo, a nondescript concrete plaza, so named as it was once the cemetery for unbaptized babies.

The floor inside the church is inlaid with a beautiful marble mosaic, but the aspect that caught my interest was an oval door in the mosaic floor. Our guide informed us that this was where they threw the bodies during the plague of 1348. (Whether or not this was true, I still don't know). But I do know that there were so many bodies that they didn’t have time to give the deceased proper burials. Of course, in doing this, they actually contributed to the spread of the disease, by literally feeding the rats. Sixty percent of Europe’s population died from The Black Death - some fifty million people.

"Die Pest in Epiros" ("The Plague in Epirus") a copper engraving by Pierre Mignard (1610-1665) depicts a bubonic plague epidemic.

As soon as our guide mentioned this horrific event, my head was spinning with ideas of entire families being wiped out and long buried secrets. Then I began to wonder what happened to all their precious possessions. By the time we were on the plane home, I was drafting the bones of a story.

That idea has blossomed into a trilogy with the first book Treasured Secrets available to pre-order now.

TREASURED SECRETS...
Some secrets should remain hidden forever.

One of my favourite highlights of Tuscany was the food and wine. So much so, that Rosalina, my character in Treasured Secrets is a chef and throughout this series she tantalizes the reader with many fabulous meals.

I like to consider myself as a method writer, so consequently, I cooked, photographed, wrote about and of course, devoured every one of these delicious meals too. I loved this aspect of these books so much that I've created Rosalina's Treasured Treats cookbook.

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