DO'S & DON'T'S

Clothes to wear. In summer, light clothing, from Easter till October, but please, not skimpy shorts and tops in town; we aren’t a seaside resort. November to April can be bitterly cold so bring various layers. Very few shops or offices have any form of heating and most staff will spend all day in coats, scarves and hats; some restaurants even bring braziers of glowing coals to put under the tables to try and keep the patrons warm. The cities, medieval and stone built with narrow streets, can be so cold that it is difficult to concentrate on anything except scurrying to the next bar for a cup of hot thick chocolate.

DON’T bring your Panama hat: these are the badges of the dispossessed British wandering around Chiantishire accompanied by their BHS crimplene wives in their Marx and Sparx cardies, ostentatiously clutching hard bound copies of the most recent “Tuscan” work...

DON’T keep late hours in restaurants, start earlier; you're not on the Costa Lotta swigging sangria and Newcastle Brown and dancing till dawn. Try also not to be the only drunks in town. Drinking is OK if you can hold your booze; if you can't, you shouldn't. It is perfectly acceptable to drink your wine 50:50 with fizzy water. Tasty, refreshing and not too deadly.

DO relax, go with the flow and enjoy the easy and gracious company of the people you meet. They will restore to your memory the long lost good manners and courtesy of a long ago Britain and renew your faith in the inherent goodness of your fellow man.