Chris and I were lucky enough to spend a fabulous week in Tuscany with my family. It was a family reunion of sorts. My parents organized trip as a wonderful Christmas present and a way to spend time with their three kids: globe-trotting Mike & Hanna, study abroad students Pat & Amy and boring old Jodi & Chris.
I'm posting just a few of the many pics from the week here. Mike and Hanna were much more timely and thorough travel bloggers. If you want to see lots more photos (including some snazzy ones of me), head over to 80 Liters and work your way through the week.
Let's start by saying this was home for the week:
Romitorio di Serelle was an amazingly restored villa set on a hilltop in the middle of a vineyard in the heart of Chianti country. If you can handle driving serpentine mountain roads, I'd highly recommend it. Al fresco meals on the terrace, great rooms, spectacular views, pool, bocce court, 2 friendly cats and great wireless which enabled us to Skype with the girls every night.
(The girls stayed behind this time with Aunt Kathy and Grandma & Grandpa...thank you, thank you, thank you!)
We did quite a bit of sight seeing: small villages like Castellina in Chiante & Radda, the medieval town of San Giminiano, Florence, Sienna. Favorite memories for me are climbing the Duomo in Florence, the Sienna cathedral and gelato everywhere.
On top of the Duomo
"Little car" is the girls' favorite pic from the trip
Zebra cathedral in Siena
Gelato in San G
Chris finds his favorite Euro candy in a market
Amazing art
We also did a lot of relaxing. We slept in almost everyday (have we not slept past 7:30 since 2007?!?!), ate well, had some fierce bocce competition, went through a lot of wine and enjoyed the time together.
Taking a break from the stress of backpacking
Lunch
My twin and one of the 3 best friends that anyone ever had
Thanks Mom and Dad!
See you soon Tuscany!
