Having spent time in Austria and Germany, Stu Larsen’s third European location was Tuscany, Italy. Spending each month of 2024 in a different place, Stu was engaged on a year-long pursuit of Solitude.

September 2024

His home for September was a cottage known as Casalino, buried in a forested area of eastern Tuscany, close to the Emilia-Romagna region.

The song Stu wrote while there was a harmonica-driven blues titled If I Get It Right. The song dreams of a simple life hidden among the hills. Indeed, Stu’s cottage was off-grid in the wilderness where nature was threatening to reclaim his idyllic cabin at any moment.

While comfortable, everything seemed to be vintage, recycled and homemade. Located in Italy, but (again) drawing heavily on the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi the setting finds beauty in imperfection. Individually, things might be broken or incomplete but collectively they are perfection.

Here’s a two-line haiku I wrote in response to the song:

blue sky, blue jeans
. . . . . . . . at home with the blues

You can find the lyrics to If I Get It Right by clicking on the top line of this YouTube link and then clicking on ‘more’.