San Gimignano, Italy

A perfect medieval hilltop town. It's known for it's towers, 14 in all. This was one of my favorite days in Italy (although, if you asked me, I might say they were all my favorite.) It was sunny, we had a great little town to explore, and we got to climb to the top of a tower for some stunning views.


This town is also where we got to buy L1 a new pair of shoes. We had searched in vain all morning for one shoe that had mysteriously disappeared. Carrying him on our backs could only work for so long...



The Palazzo Comunale, built in the 1300's, contains a museum and the tallest tower. We climbed the many steps to the top. I may have seen R1 hugging the wall a bit when we got there, but don't tell him I told you.



Beautiful, no?

On the ground floor of the building is a courtyard dating from 1323, decorated with the coats of arms of those who held public office there.


And a well, for convenience. And for little boys to yell into to hear the echo.


Oh, and the shoe? We found it later that night, wedged between the mattress and bed frame of our bed, covered with the comforter. Apparently that is where you put things if you don't want anyone to find them.

In fact, that's where I'll be hiding the Christmas presents next year.

Family Pictures from October 2010

High time I shared these, eh? This was the first time we had professionally taken family photos, and I am so very very glad that we did.

As you can see, H1 was, and continues to be, the star of the show.

...exactly what I was thinking.

Before heading downstairs this morning for breakfast:


K1: Should we have cereal for breakfast? Or make some oatmeal?

W1: Let's have ice cream!


Tempting. Very tempting.

Badia a Passignano, Italy

While in Tuscany, we rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom converted stone barn for a week. It was perfect. Centrally located between Florence and Siena, on the outskirts of a tiny village.


The couple who own it are from Australia originally, but they have lived in Italy since the 1970's.


The farmhouse and barn are right next to each other, bordered on one side by the road and on three sides by an olive grove.


It had everything we needed; a kitchen for creating tasty meals,


steps for H1 to practice on,


flowers for W1 to pick and tuck behind his ear...



It was olive pressing season while we were staying there, and the owner brought us some freshly pressed olive oil. Delicious.

R1 took W1 and L1 walking through the grove and found them each a pruned olivewood branch to carve into a walking stick. Did it fit in our suitcase for the airplane ride home? No. Did we fold up our stroller and shove the sticks into the middle to sneak them on the airplane? Yep.

One lazy day, we took a walk around the countryside.


We were following some vague directions to a lake. It was rainy, muddy, and beautiful.



Somewhere we missed a turn, but followed some dirt (mud) tracks down to a pond that we think was above the lake we intended to reach.


We decided to call that good, and headed back up the hill. By the time we arrived back at the farmhouse, we were wet and muddy up to our knees.

W1 and L1 declared it a fantastic hike.

Like fish to water.

Today was a gorgeous day. Sunny, with at least a foot of fresh snow on the ground. R1 skipped out of work early and we all headed up to our favorite sledding hill. I say favorite, but we have only been there once before. Perhaps I should say nearest?


When we were almost through (i.e. H1 was turning into an icicle), W1 declared that he wanted to go highest and fastest. Partway down the highest and fastest run on this hill someone braver than us had built a jump. W1 plopped right down on the sled and took off. We assume he didn't know what he was getting into.



Sometimes, having no fear for your own safety really pays off.