About

Twenty years in the mountains — and counting

I came to the mountains of Northern Tuscany two decades ago and never left. This site is the home of everything I make, find, restore and think about. From paintings to planners, vintage prints to slow living videos — it’s all rooted in the same philosophy: less noise, more meaning.

I came to a tiny hamlet in the mountains of Northern Tuscany nearly twenty years ago. I wasn’t running away from anything — I was walking towards something. A slower pace. A more deliberate life. The kind of mornings where the only deadline is the light.

I stayed.

What followed was two decades of learning to live differently. Learning that a charity shop find can be more satisfying than anything bought new. That a hand painted canvas takes time and that’s precisely what makes it worth having. That a piece of restored vintage art carries a history no print-on-demand poster ever could. That knitting a row before bed is worth more than an hour of scrolling.

None of it is romantic. It’s muddy boots and slow internet and neighbours with washing lines in your photographs. It’s dogs who needs walking whatever the weather and projects that get abandoned and started again and abandoned again until I find the right path.

But it’s real. And after twenty years I wouldn’t swap a single muddy boot of it.

THE CHANNEL:

Janet In Italy on YouTube is where I share that life as it happens — the crafting, the thrifting, the seasonal rhythms of mountain living and the occasional quiet thought about why any of us do what we do. No nine to five. No keeping up. Just a fortnightly window into a different kind of pace.

Watch my latest video:

THE CREATIVE WORK:

Alongside the channel I paint, I restore and I create.

My original paintings come from the same place everything else does — a quiet studio, natural light and no particular hurry. Each one is unique and made entirely by hand.

The vintage poster restoration work began as a love of old things and became something more — giving beautiful forgotten images a second life, properly restored and ready to be loved again.

The digital downloads grew from a practical instinct — useful, beautiful things that people can have instantly without waiting for a parcel all the way from a Tuscan mountain hamlet. Which, I should mention, does exist on the postal system. Just about!

THE PHILOSOPHY:

Everything here — the videos, the paintings, the prints, the planners — comes from the same root belief:

That the best things in life aren’t trends. They’re habits. That making something is always more satisfying than buying something. That slowing down isn’t giving up — it’s paying attention. That a life built around what actually matters is available to anyone willing to stop chasing what doesn’t.

I’m not here to tell you how to live. I’m just showing you how I do. Come and have a look around.

FIND ME HERE: