San Gimignano and Siena

Hanging out in Piazza del Campo in Siena


Piazza della Cisterna in San Gimignano

Wine Tasting in Tuscany

Jeff, Noah, Fede and our close friends Matt and Jenny all headed out to the countryside one afternoon for some spur of the moment wine tasting. We found a winery villa and had a fantastic time picnic-ing and tasting. Matt and Jenny live next door to us in Athens and they came to visit us in Florence. We had a really great time and loved showing them Florence and the countryside.

Cappuccino Time

VIVA IL CAPPUCCIO FIORENTINO

L'ORA DI CAFE

San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo

VIEW FROM PIAZZALE MICHELANGELO

VIEW FROM SAN MINIATO AL MONTE

CHIESA DI SAN MINIATO AL MONTE

Visit to the Certosa

The Certosa is a monastery outside of Florence where the monks live in silence. They are only allowed to speak for one hour each week. Fede, Jeff, Noah and I took a guided tour and Noah stayed quiet the entire time! After the Certosa we drove to a nearby town in the countryside for a glass of wine before heading back to Florence.

OUTSIDE THE CERTOSA

INSIDE THE COURTYARD

COLLE DI VAL D'ELSA

Noah at the Florence Pool

Saturnia Thermal Baths

We have been wanting to go to Saturnia for years (in southern Tuscany) and so we stopped on the way from Piacenza to Tuscania. Saturnia is famous for its thermal baths one of which is a cascading waterfall of flowing warm pools. It is now one of my favorite places in Italy! The cool thing is that it's free and completely tourist-free since you can't get there without a car. You just pull up and find a parking spot in a field and then walk down to the baths. It was so relaxing and fun and Noah LOVED it. He was enthralled by the water flowing over the edge of each pool and then the bubbles that the water created. He kept trying to grab them.