Sample text from Under the Olive Tree - Under the Olive Tree.

In the garden at Kailas is an old olive tree. It shades and frames a small terrace bounded by a low wall, which drops on its outer side some 4 meters to the road bellow. From this terrace you get the best view of the lake and the mountains beyond. So this is where the outside table and chairs shaded by the olive tree, are placed and where we eat whenever possible in the summer months.

This simple setting is the centre of the world of my memories and imagination. With my family around me it is, as the Italian saying goes, ‘A tavola non si invecchia’ - at the table you don’t grow old. On my first day back in Lugano, the sun is out and echoes of the warmth to come are already evident so, naturally, i have breakfast under the olive tree.

I am a light eater at breakfast - usually just coffee and nothing more. We plan the day and decide to have lunch and dinner at the house as various visitors will be dropping by. This means a trip into Lugano to the shops and stalls of the food markets to buy all the necessary ingredients. It is something I look forward to; the process of seeing and choosing food is very much part of the satisfaction to be had from the lunch and dinner itself...