Italy Trip--Part 3

Leaving my cousins' home in Italy wasn't easy--I missed them all as soon as we got on the road. But I was also very excited to visit Tuscany. My fascination with that region began after reading Under the Tuscan Sun, at least 12 years ago.  The drive to Tuscany was beautiful. I had no idea that Italy was as mountainous as it is.  When we originally planned the trip, I booked a room at an old Tuscan farmhouse for us for five nights.  It had a pool and a  restaurant on site.  Sounded wonderfully relaxing in theory.  Upon arrival, we discovered it wasn't so in reality!  The scenery was beautiful, and the house was very pretty, just like in the photos online.  But the owners didn't speak English at all, and I thought they did because we had communicated by email back and forth. I guess they use Google translate!  They were nice and welcoming, but as soon as we walked into our room, we knew that we hadn't chosen wisely.  There was no air-conditioning, no fans, and no window screens.  It was close to 100 degrees outside, even at 8:00 at night.  The owner opened the windows for us to let a breeze in, but there was not enough of one to make sleeping comfortable. We like to be cool, even cold, when we sleep, so I knew nobody was going to get a good night's rest. 

After tossing and turning, I fell asleep, but woke up four hours later sweating, and the only way I could cool off was by lying down on the tile floor by the window with the most air circulating.  Needless to say, everyone was very grumpy and on edge the next morning.  We tried to communicate with the owners by writing, but that didn't work. We wanted to leave and just pay for one night.  Eventually, I had to get my cousins to talk to the owner on the phone.  They graciously defended us and even got into an argument with the owner, who wanted us to pay for all five nights before we left.  My cousin talked him down to half of that.  We felt like we flushed money down the toilette, but at this point we were desperate to leave. The confrontation with the owners wasn't fun--in fact they were downright mean.

So we left by lunchtime with no idea of where we would sleep that night.  I found a signal on my phone strong enough to look up the caravan park we had tried to book originally.  The lady on the phone was so helpful and booked us a caravan for four nights--with A/C!!!  We drove for an hour, towards Florence, and arrived to the most spectacular views and amazing family "resort," just 30 miles south of Firenze.   This is Norcenni Girasole Caravan Park:

The pics don't do it any justice

Waterslides galore

Relaxation and fun!

Truly, this was a kids' paradise. We could have spent the entire time at the pool complexes and on-site restaurants, but we wanted to venture out of course. We had booked a winery tour online before we traveled, and discovered that our caravan park happened to be only 15 minutes away. The drive to the winery took us on the Strada del Chianti Classico, so we were surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, and wineries. Our tour was at Castello di Verrazzano, and every detail was just perfect.

 The grounds of the winery

Beautifully manicured grounds

One of my favorite shots

Olive groves again

The views were unbelievable

Our family

A barrel--see the door shape at the bottom?  Men crawl in through there to get inside the barrel!

Old barrels

Wine tasting! :)

After purchasing a Chianti Classico, we headed to our next desination--Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo himself. We ate lunch (pizza) at a lovely outdoor restaurant and made our way down the street to the Museo Leonardiano. There are no paintings of his housed there--it is dedicated to his inventions. It was an amazing display of his genius. We were all fascinated by each invention that we didn't realize came from his magnificent mind.

One of many inventions. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside.

Vinci

 

Walking to Leo's place of birth

Inside his birth home

His childhood home

The next day we relaxed at the caravan park again. The pools and activities there are enough to keep you occupied all day!  The kids were in heaven going up and down the waterslides and playing in the shallow pools.  The attention to detail at the park was impressive.  I would go back in a heartbeat, but there is so much more of Italy I want to explore.  When Thursday rolled around, I started to get sad.  We had to fly home at 7 p.m. that day, but I wanted to make the most of our time on the way to the airport. Siena was high on my list of must-see towns, so my wonderful husband made that wish come true also.  We stopped for only two hours, and it was just enough to see the highlights--Piazza del Campo and the Duomo, and get a panini and gelato one last time. 

Tristan and me in front of the Duomo, with some random people :)

Driving to the airport was heartwrenching for me.  Tears flowed as I told Drew I didn't want to leave and already couldn't wait to come back.  My heart was so full after meeting my family and experiencing some of the best parts of Italy, and it was breaking at the thought of leaving all of that behind.  I know we will go back, and that Italy will still be there in all of its splendor.  We are so blessed to come home to England--it takes the sting out of going back to "reality"--our reality is we get to live in another country with its own endearing charm.  But Italy is in my blood, my heart,and my soul.  I am forever grateful to my husband for giving us this opportunity.  And forever thankful that God would allow us the experience.  There really are no words to describe what it meant to me. 

Until our next adventure, Ciao!