white Christmas ! A roaring fire and a ponche al mandarino beckons. The local drink taken at Lucca Villa Rental consists of a sweet liquor made of mandarin fruit served in short glasses with hot water and a twist of lemon YUM ! For those enjoying villa rentals in Tuscany this festive season, the area around La Collina del Sole is full of surprises, first up on the 15th of December there is the Presepe Vivente a particularly Italian tradition done in the areas where you also find villas for rent in Tuscany where all the inhabitants of a particular village, in this case Trepignana enact the birth of Jesus. Trepignana is one of the Places of interest near Lucca Villa Rental and for those who enjoy the Excitement of opening up Christmas presents left by Santa if you rent a villa in Tuscany you can genuinely have 2 shots at this delight because on the 6th of January the Befana hands out toys and sweets to each child in the village and to those staying in holiday villas in Lucca However you had best be well behaved as you will get nice surprises rather than coal that gets handed out to the naughty children. A special kind of “Coal” is found in sweet shops and it is a block of Fluffed sugar in a hard lump and in Black, remarkably coal-like.If you would like to have a stress free Christmas experience our lovely Maria would be only too happy to prepare a Christmas feast from the suggested menu of a Christmas special which will include Roast Turkey, and Panetone a very light bread like sponge cake with candied fruit and raisins or Pan d’Oro which is very similar but without the raisins. The menu will also include Turrón with candied fruit, Torrone otherwise known as Nougat is either a very chewy or very hard sweet mixture of heated sugar and beaten egg white with almonds and candied fruit pieces. Vin Brulée will also be prepared with the organic wine of La Collina del Sole heated with orange, cloves, juniper berries, bay leaves, star anise, and cinnamon. To find all the requisite food and shops for presents in Castelnuovo have no fear ! Most of the shops will be open until midnight during the week before Christmas, don't forget to ENJOY the experience by checking out the best Ponche al mandarino in the various bars or the ice rink that is set up especially for these festivities and the cuisine at the truly fabulous restaurants that abound around Lucca Villa Rental. In Italy Christmas is mainly celebrated during Christmas eve, so make sure you get most of the shopping done before 5pm, as people start going “home to Mamma” to start celebrating. The church service for the young is midnight mass which starts at 10.30 pm in the church of our Santuario near Migliano it ends at midnight, if you miss that you can join the older crowd at 11 am also at Santuario on the 25th Start preparing for a BUON NATALE !