Tuscany (Italy)

Our last stop of the trip was Tuscany. We stayed at a place recommended by one of dad’s coworkers, Casali di Bibbiano (a Casali is what I would consider the Italian equivalent of what a Mexican hacienda, and Bibbiano is the village). The Casali grounds consisted of a few buildings with guest rooms, a tennis court, basketball court, soccer field, pool, and vineyards. It would be a great place to have a family reunion or rent out the whole thing for a small wedding. An option for guests is to have dinner in the kitchen every night, and since it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we did this for the three nights we were there. The Casali is run by a small staff, and Italo was our chef (and personal chef at that, considering we were the only guests there those four days). He made us amazing, home cooked meals every night. Most of the time when we asked him what was in something, he told us it was only grown in that region and it was picked from the garden earlier that day. I wish I could take Italo and his cooking with me every place I live.

Our time in Italy was a mix of rain and cloudy skies, with a few specs of sunshine here and there. I really wanted to go on a bike ride, but there wasn’t ever a dad clear enough to do so. Oh well, it’s an excuse to go back! We spend time in Siena, the largest town in the region, and Montpulciano, a smaller town that sits on one of the highest hills in the region and had beautiful views of the rolling hills. We also went to an old, abandoned Abbey called Abbezia di San Galgano. It was one of my favorite places of the trip. It has the walls and stonework of a decent sized cathedral, but the floor is dirt and grass and there is no ceiling. It used to be part of a large monastery of monks but it was abandoned in the 1400s when the plague wiped out most of the monk population. In a smaller chapel above the abbey is literally a sword in a stone. Supposedly the knight who founded the order of monks plunged his sword into the stone to renounce the worldly life and to vow to live as a hermit for the rest of his days. I have no idea how he got that sword into the stone without cracking it. Must have been divine intervention.
Our trip ended with a day and night in Florence, because dad had never been there before. Florence is filled with young American girls studying abroad. You can always pick out the Americans by the Uggs and North Face logos. We walked around the city in the rain, and saw all the major sites there are to see.

The next day we hopped on our plane and flew to London. Now I’m here, settling in and loving it!

Pictures: Dad walking though the Abbezia; the view out of my window in the Casali