Tuscany - Bed #3

After the bustling and congested cities of Rome and Sorrento, Tuscany has felt a bit more like home. Space and fresh air! We have stayed a week and it has been lovely to unpack the bags and pack the fridge full. The food is so amazing. The pastas, the cheeses, the wines – oh my! And of course more gelati.

The scenery is breathtaking. It would be even more so in summer with all the vineyards in their glory, but even now it’s fantastic. Driving around in the countryside is just a treat as there is a new vista around every corner. Vineyard, olive grove, cute farmhouse, hill town, repeat. However, it’s not for those that suffer from motion sickness. I’m not sure there’s much more than a few hundred yards of straight road for any length of time.

A typical day for us in Tuscany was to enjoy a long and leisurely breakfast, lingering over coffee until the chill had left the early spring air, and then to head out to explore a hill town or 2 in the afternoon. We spent afternoons in San Gimignano, Volterra, Pisa and Siena, and one afternoon hiking in a nearby nature reserve. Each town was unique and had a story to tell.

Sipping our Cafe Americano

Our house in Tuscany - a restored barn

The towers and narrow streets of San Gimignano

It should be noted that we NEVER buy $16 ice cream at home, but somehow here it's just a must. Licking our gelati at the well in San Gimignano

After 218 stairs to the top of San Gimignano's tallest tower, we were rewarded with a great view.

Pisa was an unexpected gem. You hear about the leaning tower and you see it in so many pictures, but to see it was spectacular. That thing is really crooked! It’s amazing that someone’s mistake has become the success of a city. We climbed to the top for a great view and of course to feel the lean. It was a balmy 23C so that was also a treat. Plus, it was the most grass we’ve seen in a really long time so we reveled in it.

Look at that thing - it's ridiculous!

We’d often end our outing with a trip to the grocery store, which is a cultural experience in it’s own right. Choosing a cheese for the next day’s lunch can be a long discussion about which one to try next and arguing about which ones we’ve already tried.

A bit more than just mozza and cheddar.

Unfortunately we have not enjoyed the meats. We’re all a little faint of heart when it comes to meat. We balk at the slightest hint of “animal-ish-ness” and there’s something in the prosciutto here that smacks of “wet dog.” That’s the closest description we can think of. There’s a skunkiness to it that we can’t get over. It’s a shame because all the research we did said that it was the thing to try, and we did, and now we’re done. However, we have made up for it in the in the dairy department. I think we are quite a spectacle in the grocery store when we buy multiple 1-litre cartons of milk at a time and many blocks of cheese in various shapes and colours. (FYI, don’t wear a baseball cap in the grocery store or you will be mistaken for an employee and spoken to rudely when you won’t help.)

This does not exist at our Coop! Fresh gnocchi!!! Colleen Loewen, it wasn't as good as yours, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Where there are critters, our girls are there also!

Now, back to the hill towns. The quaintness of the old buildings, the towers and the piazzas don’t get old, but the cathedrals have now lost their charm for one member of team HM. Filled with cryptic paintings, mosaics depicting violent scenes and Latin plaques, they need too much deciphering for Aria’s taste. A prerequisite for a trip to Europe should really be a couple of degrees in history and art. I’m constantly looking at paintings and sculptures with my head cocked to the side and my brows furrowed, unable to make heads or tails of it. Today we tried to pick Michelangelo’s work out of 4 sculptures. It was supposed to be “obvious” said the guidebook as it was SO much better than the others. I didn’t pass the test. Maybe we should have chosen Australia after all. A land born of criminals is perhaps more my territory than the land of culture and art.

Aria has a severe case of C.F.: Cathedral Fatigue

Sadly, Aria is not content to sit in a pew until we’re finished, so I get the lucky mother’s award of a limp, protesting body hanging off my arm, her big brown eyes pleading to go back outside. Truthfully, by now I’m on her side. That’s enough of Jesus on the cross already, and what’s with various and assorted popes nearby? I don’t believe they were present at his birth or death. My ‘favourites’ are the paintings of absolute terror with some being condemned and some floating up toward bliss. Yeesh! “Yes Aria, let’s go and sit in the sunshine.”

One important side benefit of the cathedral visits has been many dinner discussions about what we believe and why. We’ve drawn timelines and charts to map out the history of the church, why some groups have gone in different directions and why we express our faith differently than what we’re seeing in the cathedrals. It’s been eye-opening for the girls to understand a bit more about the story of the faith they’ve been born into, and also for us to see what their perspective is when they hear how it all began. I think it’s interesting that our trip will in some ways follow a lot of church history as we started in Rome where Peter was crucified and will end up in Germany near where the Anabaptists first began. It’s a good history lesson at the very least, but more importantly, a cause to stop and reflect on what it means to live out one’s faith, past and present.

But maybe that’s enough of cathedrals for now. Oops, not quite yet as we’re off to Venice tomorrow and I don’t think you can visit Venice without a trip to St. Mark’s. Maybe we’ll sneak the ipad in for Aria.