Chianti, Italy

Tuscany was absolutely beautiful

A view from the patio

June 29-July 6, 2014

Kara rented this house in Chianti, we ate most
of our meals outside, the weather was perfection
the entire week!

Upstairs there was a baby grand piano and television room where
every night we had a talent show...one night it was Pepaw and
August singing, then Memaw, Grandad, Stella and Chloe playing cups,
Stella and Chloe performing "At the drive thru" then Chloe and
Stella performing "Jackson" by Johnny Cash and June Carter

I will let the photographs tell the story of the week in the house in Chianti, which is Tuscany.  Kara rented a house that could sleep 12 so we filled it up fast!  The week was spent cooking, visiting the Palio Trials in Siena, touring Florence, riding bikes and hiking, swimming, touring a goat farm and cooking class and eating and eating and drinking.  We had a good time even though at some points the coffee was gone, a bottle of yucky wine was purchased, burned pizza, taking turns for the washing machine, Chloe's cousins wiping out a single box of her Frosted Flakes in a single morning etc.  Oh the thrill of being in one house all together! But they did have wi-fi thank goodness and that washing machine and I had a date the first morning at 5 am, the three of us had been in a backpack for 9 days and I had some serious laundry to do.  I have more photos to share on posts about Siena and Florence to come.

Kara booked lunch at a goat farm and it
was really neat and delicious!  We had probably
6 different goat cheeses that, of course, were made
on site.  

A great photo at the goat farm

It's blurry but this is the owner of the goat farm and here he is
describing the cheeses.  

The same day, Kara booked a cooking class for her, her mom
Polly and I.  Here we learned how to make homemade pasta
and gnocci

Of course Chloe and Stella got in on the cooking

Down by the pool was a great place for reading....
Here's August, Memaw and Polly

One of our dinners outside

We rented bikes to take some of the Chianti trails back behind
our house...and of course, they were really rough hiking trails
see below :)

This reminded me of the Alpes de Suisi in Ortisie

That was a very steep mountain
(imagine riding down it on a bike...I don't think so)

Martino and Jackie trying to figure out if we were on a bike
trail or not....not was my vote :)

Here at the bottom of the bike trail (or lack
there of) was a vineyard 

Huge white bulls (not sure the breed) were right off the trail