More Shmitally

we spotted these folks on the way to Siena.
I thought my dad would get a kick out of this photo.

Don't worry, I'm not going to regale you with every single detail of every minute of our time in Italy, though I can't promise I won't inundate you with photos.  This is Monday-Wednesday.

Sam and the monkeys in Siena

Monday the whole family went to Siena, yet another gorgeous city on a hill. It has a great central plaza where they run a horse race every year. It's a thing. You may even remember that from a Bond movie.Most of these cities we're going to are at the very top of steep hills or small mountains so you have to keep in mind that getting into them is always like a very steep drive up and then more walking up and up.

Hop in the Plaza del Campo

gelato in the Piazza del Campo

One thing Siena has going for it (other than it's gorgeousness and it's abundant gelato shops) is that they don't try to kill you on the walk into town. There was parking and then BAM: Escalators going what seemed like a quarter mile up (I think I counted like 7 up escalators we rode). Seriously,  Immediately won me over. I know it will shock you to learn that the boys think that gelato is the bomb diggity. We went through a lot of gelato. And wipes.  



It doesn't really matter what flavor, they're all sticky

Tuesday was...not my favorite day. The weather was not great--It poured and poured. We went to Cortona and it poured some more. I would tell you about Cortona, but I only saw about a 15 foot radius of it as we spent most of our time trying to keep the boys out of the torrential rain because Rowan would scream every time we ventured out in it. On our way down the hill back to our car, our lovely time was capped off by me slipping and falling down rainslicked cobblestones on my knees while holding Rowan in my arms. Yeah, that felt about as good as one would think. Then when we got home that evening, Hopper busted his head open on the stone patio after falling on a minibike-blood everywhere. Not good. We didn't really have any ice to make an icepack for him so Nonna (the Italian Grandmother of the family farm who did not speak a word of English) suggested through elaborate hand signals that we use some frozen pesto. But I seriously thought for a minute or two that she was suggesting I apply pesto to my son's head wound. If you're wondering, "No dumbass, use the JAR because it's FROZEN" is pretty easily translated from the Italian by one properly arched eyebrow. In short, we are opting to forget most of Tuesday. It's ok, even when it's a bad day in Tuscany, it's still a day in Tuscany..

Boy in Plastic, rain in Cortona

  Wednesday made up for it . We went to a lunch at the Falvo family's house right outside Montepulciano.   The family owns the Masseria Li Veli winery (and used to own others). They invited us to their home for  lunch with wines from their current offerings and it was beyond yum. Not to mention their house and grounds were incredible. If you're friends with me on Facebook, the cover photo that's on my profile is their backyard. They're good peeps and it was lovely.

Another view

On the road to Montepulciano.

Tomorrow--Almost done!