No Longer Little Kids...

Tuscany July 2012

When we were together in the Loire Valley in 2005, the kids (plus cousins Johnny and Jimmy) climbed onto some giant hay bales. When we saw some in Tuscany, we couldn’t resist trying to recreate the photos. Of course, we forgot that the kids had grown a lot in the last seven years and it wasn’t so easy for them to balance on top of the giant wheels of hay.

Loire Valley June 2005

Beautiful Sunflowers...

While we weren’t impressed with our private tour, we were impressed with the Tuscan sunflowers. This field definitely made for a great photo op. 

Minimizing Sightseeing?

Much to our dismay, Simon minimized how much sightseeing we’d do on our all-day tour. Rather than taking us to a winery, we stopped for a tasting at a wine distributor. Then we went to San Galgano Abbey. This Cistercian church was finished in 1268. The roof collapsed due to a fire in the 16th century and it has been in ruins ever since.

The abbey is now used to host operas during the summer, which is a fantastic setting. We tried to sneak the kids onto the stage for a photo, but got caught. Steve also caught them when they posed for this photo.

Unfortunately, Simon wasn’t aware that the church on the hill above housed the original Sword in the Stone, so we missed seeing it. Sadly, despite a variety of walled cities and castles in the vicinity, we missed seeing anything else in the area. Simon was a nice guy, but he was clueless as a tour guide.

A Crazy Tour of Tuscany...

For our final day together, Carolyn suggested that we do a private tour of the Tuscan countryside. We figured there would be little risk in hiring the British partner of the Italian chef who’d given a wonderful cooking class the previous week. When Simon arrived in his old VW van without air conditioning, we knew we were in trouble.

While the countryside was lovely, we spent a lot longer then necessary circling around when Simon got lost and refused to pull over to consult his navigation system. Luckily he finally managed to find the restaurant that he’d booked for lunch and the food was very good.

Unusual Statues and Vending Machines...

Not far from the main gate of San Gimignano, we came across this statue, which Carolyn couldn’t resist posing with.

Apparently, the rusted naked guy statue was quite popular and showed up in several different places including the top of this tower.

This statue was in the main square. We couldn’t help but notice that he was within sight of the condom vending machine. Steve calls this photo Mother-Daughter Time in San Gimignano: Learning the Ways of the World.

San Gimignano...

We took a bus ride to one of Carolyn’s favorite Tuscan towns, San Gimignano, a medieval walled city which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We roamed the quaint town for hours and had lunch at a restaurant with this lovely view.

While Steve took Samantha and Zach to the Torture Museum, we visited an old convent that is now a music school and went shopping.

Dinner with the Locals...

When we were at Zest, the British waiter mentioned that his neighborhood was hosting a dinner in the streets to celebrate winning the il Palio, a horse race dating back to 1656. Two weeks earlier, 10 riders from 17 of the contradas (districts of Siena), rode bareback around the  main square of Siena 3 times in the 90-second dangerous race in front of huge crowds.

It might be hard to tell in this photo, but this woman is sucking on a pacifier. The theory is if your contrada wins il Palio and you manage to touch the jockey, that it is like being reborn.

For €10 each, we were able to join in for the dinner. This was clearly not the usual tourist destination. Dinner was served family-style with large bowls of pasta bolognese, platters of burgers and potatoes, and bottles of wine passed around. Despite the fact that we couldn’t communicate with anyone around us and I had potatoes and bread for dinner, this was definitely one of the most memorable things we did all week.

Each contrada has its own flag; the winner was Onda (wave) with a symbol of the dolphin on its flag and lights. As the winner, their flag was hung all over the city.