Summer in Chicago (Donut Tour!)

Yes, we did our own donut tour. Yes it was awesome. Yes I love donuts. No the kids did not want a donut for the next 3 months!

At the end of the donut tour

Last Day of School

Do they look a little too happy?!

Spring Soccer

It's cold, it's wet, its spring soccer. But he loves it so we just bundle up!

Baseball & Shopping

Wiped!

The boys went to a game. The girls went shopping :)

Baby Birds

Grant's class hatched baby chicks and we got to go and visit and hold them. So fluffy, so cute! And to boot we have baby birds on our front door. We can go out and talk to them and they will raise their heads and open their mouths looking for their mama to feed them. So cute! (well it was until they finally left the nest and left mites behind...gross)

Italy

It is officially time for vacation! Just waiting for our plane.

I kept a journal as we traveled, so I have just copied my notes here. I added some extra details in the captions. So here is to celebrating Amber's 40th!! You guys pick some great trips!

Italy Summary:

Day 1, May 2

Arrived in Rome, car to the villa. Dinner at Villa Vianci. Sampled all of the villa’s digestives.

 

Fun to see Italy on the GPS

Villa Vianci

Somehow Brian and felt more obligated than the rest of the group to sample all of the local offerings. (They  were not good)

Real Italian lasagna

 

Day 2, May 3

-Sienna, walking tour with Costoanza, met at San Dominco church. Ended at cathedral. Lunch off of main square @ Logge (yellow tomato tortellini)

-San Gimigano, climbed the public tower

-Volterra, guided walking tour that met at the alabaster shop. Dinner in Volterra at Don Beta. Brian and I ate each other’s pizza

The twins nursing off the teats of the boar are  a frequent sight in Sienna

Sienna is divided into different "neighborhoods" as shown here on the plate. There is a horse race held in the town square amongst the neighborhoods. It sounds like quite the event!

Constanza, our tour guide

  

Tour guide in Volterra

The arched wall that was saved during WWII

We were pretty much down with our food when we realized we had been eating the pizza that the other had ordered!

We parked the car to walk into Volterra, and didn't even realize that on the other side of the parking lot was a historic sight from the Roman Empire times! Good thing we caught up with that tour! 

Day 3, May 4

Florence

 Food tour:

-Learned when to order what coffee. Cappuccino or latte in the AM, never in the PM. Espresso or macchiato OK in the PM. Also had a cream donut.

- 1875 Paninis and Chianti

- Medieval Church

- Cathedral of Florence

-Gelato, Artisan original only

-Piazza Vhciio, statues, outdoor museum

- Ponte Vehicho Bridge (no locks!!)

- Proseco, tour done!

Accademia (on the other side of town)

            Statue of David

Central Market

-      Purses!

-      Football jersey for Briggs

-      Café with chianti and free food

Shoe shopping for Amber

More walking

Lots of walking

Garden Boboli (orange trees – but park was closed)

Alison eats more chips

More walking

Repeat

Park of Despair (crappy dog park)

Give Sandy luggage instructions

Learn luggage has arrived

A little more walking to a wine bar, crostini vs crostone. Salute with eye contact ALWAYS

Walk more

…stairs

WORTH IT!! Piazza Michelangelo. Buy wine, plastic cups. Discover cashmere is wine resistant.

XZ (no idea what this means, just what I have written!)

It gets dark

Immature pics with David

Taxi

Toll booth, pull ticket. Lots of reversing

Roadside Pizza – we will be back!

It was a food tour, so why not take some pics of the local produce

A new friends we met on our food tour. His wife was in Florence for work.

Ponte Vehicho Bridge - lots of jewelry stores!

The leather market - a few purchases made :)

The statue of David

My dad bought my mom a Bridge purse when we lived in Switzerland - wow, nice job dad! 

We walked and walked to get to the park...I mean walked. Amber and I wanted to cry. We might have actually. We finally found a pretty shabby park, but there was a bench...thus the Park of Despair or respite as it was in our case really. Because we soldiered on!

Beautiful at sunset. As an added bonus, we learned red wine does come out of cashmere.

Roadside pizza truck...he might not have spoken English but the boys stood there for 20 minutes and conversed with him - about what, we don't know, but there was beer and laughing and at the end we had pizza with no weird toppings so it was a win win!

Day 4, May 5^th

Wine tasting/Tour day

1.    adventured up the road from our villa further. Very rough terrain.

2.    Wineries not open at 10

3.    Found the best darling village of Castellina, great market, olive tree products

4.    Poggio Amorelli vineyard, Lorenzo (5 Stars!) Great tour and tastings…truffle pasta

5.    Guispes, I Selvatici, ego, chef 6 months in USA. The Girl & Goat in Chicago, chef Stephanie Izoad, his military friends showed up, paid our 10 Euro and got out (after using the bathroom!)]

6.    Badia Coltibuono (monastery) tasting in gift shop, nice lady bought one bottle and a few chocolates

7.    Poggerino (New York Italian), large sloping vineyard, Rose, 60,000 bottles a year

8.    Went back to Castellina for dinner downstairs in the cave…lasagna and gnocchi

We were just elated when they brought us food - we needed it!!

Not exactly pool weather, but we took a minute to sit down and relax!

Tiny car!

Roadside pizza truck, round 2!

Hands down the best pasta I have ever had!

Roadside assistance wine - aka cheap and not good

Our own little blind wine taste testing

  

Day 5, May 6^th

1.    Coffee & croissants at Jolly (still aren’t ordering correctly)

2.    Bolgheri – winery visits begin

a.    Chippiani (father and daughters vineyard)

b.    Bastico – wooden cabin (aka Roadside Assistance), no English, big olive wood tables

c.    The city of Case Carducci

                                               i.     Lunch @ ??? (sat by the deli counter)

                                             ii.     Pasta (5 star), wine, bruschetta, espresso and tiramisu

                                            iii.    Excellent lunch!

d.    Wine tasting at Terre de M (fusseli family)

3.    Pizza truck!

4.    Ate pizza on the terrace of Villa Vianici, played cribbage, beat vs. ass kicking

Day 6, May 7^th

Cooking class a Avignonesi

            We arrived early and they served us coffee while we waited.

Chef Davido, new friends Valerie & Bob

Tiramisu, fresh eggs, meringue, yolk into mascarpone, lady fingers (1 second dip)

Pici, pasta - flour, egg water..half for pasta half for focaccia, special herbed salt

Sous Vide chicken lettuce roll

Tour of the grounds

            Biodynamic explained

            Black mold

            1882

            experimental circular field

Lunch

            Wine

            Tortellini, chef’s welcome with sheep cheese & tarragon sauce

            Un-pasta, pici with pancetta

            Pork Belly

Guinea

Dessert – chef’s plate: edelweiss friend flower, goat cheese in poppy seeds, caramel crème brulee, vin santo cream beignet, fig ice cream, chocolate

Thunder, hail, rain

Davido showed us the pizza oven. Leonardo Davinci machine designed in the 17^thcentury

Finished with 1 espresso and 3 cappuccinos 

Told Bob & Valerie goodbye and that we would se them in Maine and procured no wine

Drove to Montelpucino – parked, it was raining, went in to a copper shop and drove home.

Went to the local store (next to Jolly Bar) and got snacks, rosemary chips an played cribbage

We had to gather our own herbs

"Pasta!  get in my belly!

Some serious black mold - they said it was totally fine!

Do you spy the baby grapes?!

Sous vide chicken

Drying grapes? I don't know, I really can't remember!

The volcano...soon to be pasta dough!

Dessert! It was good! 

Leonardo DaVinci's time bake invention

Awe, aren't we cute

Vin Santo - the lady in our cooking class came just for this!

The food was so good!

 

Even on a rainy day, the street of Italy are quaint and beautiful

It's vacation, of course there was a little rain

Day 7, May 8

Cappuccino & croissants @ Jolly Bar

Headed to Lucca

Rented 4  person bike, biked around the wall. Amber and Alison in front. Almost died, but only once

WC in train station, would have gladly paid

Headed to Pisa

Parked at there was the tower! 5 degree lean

Walked to the tour, lots of pushing and holding up pictures.

Ticket for cathedral and baptistery

Short stroll through market

Walked until we found pizza

Back to the market for a suitcase and gifts for kids

Decided to drive to Tirrena, had gelato and saw the coast.

Headed back to Vianci to change and then went to Sienna for dinner

-      Dinner at Giuseppe’s Tavern – Michelin rated, couldn’t get a reservation but walked in and said we could have a table if were done by 9. Lasagna, pici, truffled gnocchi, red beat gnocchi.

-       

Because when they tell you where the brake is, it's also important to understand if it really works OR if it is possible to steer and brake at the same time... as we will later find out, the brake didn't really work that well. 

The time "my sister almost killed me in Italy"

Look! We are in Italy! On a 4 person bike! It's Amber's dream! All smiles before the near death experience.

You haven't really been to Europe until you have experienced this type of commode

When at the tower, all must pose to prop the tower up...everyone was doing it!

  

Day 8, May 9

-Last cappuccino and croissant and Jolly Bar

-Drove to Civita, city on the cliff

-Parked farther than necessary, but great walk and cool hilltop town. The stop at the yellow church across the valley was a great view.

-Roadside Panini shop @ lookout point of Orivieto, Paninis, rosemary chips, fizzy water

A drive through town – very narrow streets. We took a video!

Finally found the proper parking lot.

Guided ourselves through the town reading Rick Steve’s all the way!

Really cool duomo with the sculptures and stories out front.

Walked through some ceramic shops but never found the perfect thing

Did the Cava but the quarry guided tour was better. Even thought we had a know-it-all on board and an Asian family that ditched half way through bc of the rain. 

Walked back to the car in the rain.

Onto our beautiful country drive…in the rain.

Stopped in Pienza for our last dinner. We ate at LaBandita Townhouse. Small portions, food was cold

It was my vacation goal to order our coffee in Italian and get what we wanted from the local Jolly Roger.
#ithinkifinallygotitthelastday

City on the Cliff in the background - now to just get there!

Food truck in Italy. Refrigerating meat is not always necessary - maybe why I ate a lot of chips.

I played tour guide. Rick Steves knows his stuff, all you have to do is read it, point and smile!

Cave tour. For once the wise guy in the group wasn't Brandon. Holes in the walls for pigeons. 

Biblical stories on the doors of the cathedral 

Begning and End

And when in doubt, just say "Poggobignosi!" in your best Italian accent!