Italy!

As many of you know, Catherine and I have been planning a special vacation to Italy for some time now. It's special because we invited her family to come stay with us. We didn't deliberately choose Mother's Day weekend, but I know it was a special one for Nancy.

Nancy came early and stayed with us in Germany for a couple of weeks, then we all drove to Italy last Friday. We slept on the Swiss-Italian border (Switzerland is drop-dead gorgeous mountainous countryside), then drove to Pisa to pick up Christina. From there we made our way into Pisa, which is waaayyyy smaller than I would have thought. Basically a decent sized town, not even a city.

Below is a shot of the Cathedral and the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa poking out from behind it. It was a pretty nice day while the sun was shining, cool when it hid behind some clouds.

We then drove on to our villa which is in the Chianti region of Tuscany between Florence and Siena. I've probably burnt about 3-4 hours stitching together photos in Photoshop, it's just a country that lends itself well to panoramic style photos. Beautifully dramatic. There really isn't a straight road in the region, which is fun for me while I drive but not so much for Catherine and Christina who tend for the car/motion sickness thing.

Anyways, here is a photo of the villa where we are staying. Smack in the middle of some olive groves and Chianti vineyards. Yummy!

For Mother's Day, we had reserved a table at the Enoteca Fortezza in Montalcino, of "Brunello di Montalcino" (wine) fame. Amazing wines, good food. And a beautiful hilltop city. The photo below is through a little alley off a main road looking down over part of the city and into the Chianti countryside beyond.

This is another panoramic (I told you the countryside lends itself to this type of photo), but this time of the city of Montalcino taken from the Fortezza (a partially ruined castle).

Could anyone go to Italy and not try the gelato? I guess so, but that wouldn't be any fun. So here are Ian and Leah finishing up their delicious gelatos.

I'll post again later today from our second day in Tuscany. I hope everyone is doing well out there.

Ciao!

Marc