Fabulous Firenze.....

Going back to our Tuscan Adventure's last Summer we had the most wonderful trips to Florence on several evenings whist we were there. It was so hot (42 C) when we arrived in the afternoon I could barely walk from the car park top the city and it wasn't any cooler to walk back to the car at the end of the evening. Luckily there were gelato and drink shops on the way or I may have passed out and there was no way Chris could carry me back!!!! The Ponte Vecchio was even beautiful at night when the wooden covers were over the shop fronts. We managed to see the Cathedral,
and do a little bit of shopping at some wonderful markets. We had some lovely meals and crammed in seeing as much as we possibly could in the short time we spent there. Definately a place for a city break sometime in the future for Chris and I.                

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I will be going back to our Tuscan Adventure in future posts but right now Christmas is almost upon us. I collected Anastasia last Friday, it's Xenia's last day at college and Chris' last day at work until the new year. The presents are bought, food shop done just one more on Monday for fresh produce. Now just wrapping, tidying, cleaning and best of all baking!!!! Merry Christmas everyone!

 

 

I love my tree!

I love my decorations!

I love my tree collection!

An Evening or Two in Siena

I honestly didn't think we would find anywhere to park when we got to the beautiful hill-top city of Siena. Having travelled there and circled round a bit at last Chris found a space and we spend a wonderful evening wandering the streets. We ate in the main square where there always seems to be some excitment the first evening there was a sort of 'Battle of the Bands' going on with marching/dancing bands coming in off the various streets that lead to the square. The beautiful square which is so familiar from so many films, unfortunately Daniel Craig did not emerge from any of the man-holes. We also re-visited the following week to take even more photos and soak up more Tuscan atmosphere. This time there was a huge parade with a lot of flag waving, it was an amazing spectacle

 

The Duomo



Beautiful building

Every street is a picture!

Xenia and Anastasia



Anastasia being a glamorous Italian

Xenia also

A scene from Letters to Juliet was filmed here



Il Campo without the horses or Daniel Craig

The red t-shirts are a band

We bought some beautiful ties from this shop

They marched all the way round Il Campo then waved and threw flags. Very exciting!

Are we or are we not in Italy!!!!!

We visit Belforte and Radicondoli

So, our village was Belforte and the one on the next hill over was Radicondoli. We went over to try and have dinner there but the three places to eat were all fully booked so we came back to our own village for a great meal and nice service. Both villages are so beautiful and especially when there were few people about it was like going back in time or walking through your own film-set.

 

Radicondoli Street

We ARE in Italy right?

The Church at Radicondoli

Out door film screen

My paparazzi

The story of the girls on holiday! This is ALL they do.

Beautiful Tuscany

These buildings surround the main car park.

Chris and I

Our village Belforte

The Church

Begging to be sat on

One of my best photos

Hello Tuscany!

This pot is so late as I have been having trouble adding photo's but it is all sorted now so I can catch up. A week after the wedding and after Alexander and Kelly had flown back to Indiana we headed to Heathrow Airport ourselves as our Tuscan adventure began. Neither Chris or I had been to Tuscany before so it was exciting to be going somewhere new. We flew to Rome and picked up a hire car and drove 3 hours or so to the small village of Belforte. The last hour of the journey was an incredibly winding road so we were all glad to arrive. We were so tired we just got everything into the house and collapsed.




Our holiday home

Our pool