My Travel Blog
Today started off much the same as every other one here in the Tuscan hills; we made a pot of crazy strong coffee (not sure how to make it any other way in those funny little pots) and used it to wash down toast with Nutella. We added on a little juice and a (slightly out of place) slice or two of gouda and we were fully fortified and ready for the day.
The morning started out smoking hot and so Jeff took the girls to the pool while my mom and I got a little organized. She needed to pack up as she was leaving today, and I tried to get a handle on what needed to be done before we leave tomorrow. I think mostly I walked around in circles moving little piles from one place to the other and I'm not sure how 
much progress I made. Mostly we'll be tossing everything into the suitcases in the morning as it's now after 11 pm and not a single thing has been packed aside from the dirty clothes. But, with that being said, we don't have all that much because when traveling with only carry-on sized bags you don't have too many things to begin with!
Okay, on with the day… We needed to have my mom at the airport in Florence by around 4:30 and we had a restaurant that we wanted to try out on the way. We loved the sound of the place as it was well off the beaten path and came highly recommended from a fellow truffle lover. We followed very twisty, narrow roads through vineyard after vineyard and finally ended up in the hamlet of Lamole perched high upon a hill. It really makes one wonder how these little villages and hamlets survived through the last 400 - 500 years as they are so isolated. It's hard enough to get to them by car, how about on foot, horseback or chariot??
The restaurant was well worth the drive as the staff was extremely friendly and the food was out of this world. They must have truffles growing on trees around there with the liberal way they shave them on everything. (Before people email me 
about how truffles grow I understand fully that they don't grow on trees.) For example, check out this salad that my mom ordered - it was described to us as a 'delicate mushroom and truffle salad'. Umm, yeah! I ordered a stuffed crepe filled with ricotta and spinach and it was just like eating a puffy cloud of delicious heavenliness. Jeff's truffle spaghetti was also divine as well as my mom's homemade spinach gnocchi. The kids proclaimed their meal to be 'the best pasta ever' but I'll admit they've already said that a few times on this trip. Apparently they've had a lot of good pasta - something about making it fresh as opposed to boiling up a pot of Catelli… spaghetti will never be the same in our house!
We ended the delicious meal with super strong coffee and amazing desserts. I'm sorry if the food discussion has gone on for too long so I'll spare the dessert details aside from the fact that the two varieties of pannacotta were sublime and the puff pastry pear torte was completely out of this world. Wow, my stomach just rumbled as I wrote that - I think it had some sort of Pavlovian response to the pear torte! It was impossible not to indulge in the shot of ice cold limoncello they brought at the end of the meal and so we left with a big smile and a rosy glow.
We found our way to the airport and left my mom in a slightly depressing departure area where we hope she had a nice flight to London before heading back home tomorrow. It was nice to have her here and we hope she enjoyed Tuscany as much as we did! We hopped in the car and soon found ourselves completely lost. Well, not completely lost because we knew exactly where we were on the map - we just happened to be heading to Rome instead of in the direction we wanted to be. A few small towns later and a pit-stop for gelato and soon enough we found ourselves heading down to catch the last little bit of hot sun at the pool. It was a gorgeous afternoon and a great way to spend our final afternoon here deep in the hills.
Tomorrow we pack up and head to Pisa where we'll stay for two nights. We don't intend on staring at the Leaning Tower for two whole days so we're hoping to spend some time on the beach and perhaps eat a few more cones of gelato. It's rough but I know we can persevere… this is what we train for!
What an interesting day this turned out to be! We woke up to a rainy, grey morning and our vision of a pool day quickly dissipated. We looked through a few guide books and decided to head to San Gimignano - a town famous for it's medieval towers. It looked very interesting and we were all keen on seeing it - that is until we were stuck in a huge traffic jam on the hill approaching the town center. It appeared as though every person in the entire country of Italy also thought it would be a nice town to visit today! We persevered for about 10 minutes until giving in to the fact that if we actually did find a parking spot we'd be elbowing off all the other tourists to find a place to eat. (And we were hungry - don't get in our way!).
We drove away from the lines and onto a back road… and happened upon an amazing place. Turning into a gravel driveway with a wooden 'Ristorante' sign was a fortuitous decision and led to one of the best meals of our entire life; 'Penne Carbonara with Truffles and Parmesan". Suffice it to say that we pretty much died upon tasting it. I'm not sure I have ever had a more delightful moment - amazing pasta, house Chianti, and a view of sunflowers and the towered town of San Gimignano that we didn't quite make it to. The weather was perfect and it felt like a scene from a movie. Upon reflection I'm not really sure if it was real or a figment or our imagination, that's how perfect it was. 
The picture doesn't do the meal justice - although those are actual truffle shavings on the top and the price was an amazing 10€. I have to say it again - it was unbelievably good. I'm hungry just thinking about it. We briefly considered driving all the way back tomorrow to experience it again but sometimes a meal like that is best left as a memory. I can guarantee that this will live on in our memories and we'll regale you (or anyone who'll listen) with tales of it over bottles of wine when we're old and prone to re-telling awesome stories.
We pit-stopped on the way home at an Italian Superstore. Fun! We didn't really need anything but it's always interesting to see what different items are for sale. The sun finally came out so we decided to head back to our place and spend the rest of the day at the pool. 
What an amazing afternoon - the weather was gorgeous and the pool was empty! We spent about 3 hours sunbathing and swimming and just soaking in the gorgeous environment. Such a perfect lunch followed by a perfect afternoon - sometimes you sit back and have to remind yourself to simply soak in the situation. It's so easy to pass the time without actually acknowledging the perfection of the moment and so I took a personal memory snapshot that I'll be sure to recall in the middle of a frozen Calgary winter.
Instead of driving into town for dinner we decided to make do with the meager supplies we had on hand. Olives, cheese, leftover pasta and half of my calzone from last night. We all felt sleepy after dinner and could've easily went for an early bedtime but rallied together for a gelato run. Until then we had gone gelato-less today which seemed blasphemous here in Italy. I chose half coconut half 'vanilla and coffee crisp' and it was well worth the drive.
Okay, so still no walk through the olive groves or into the neighboring vineyards… but we had a day that exceeded our expectations and could be considered a pretty much perfect day. Who knew that turning on to a random road in the middle of nowhere (that was literally not on our map) would lead to the perfect Tuscan experience? It just proves that you can't make something good happen, you just have to be open to it.
To end this gorgeous day the kids are cozily tucked into their beds and the adults are sitting on the veranda enjoying a final glass of chianti under a perfect Tuscan moon. Goodnight… I feel I can almost guarantee sweet dreams.
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