Ultra Runner Widow: May 2011

After much deliberation (and when I say much, I mean MUCH), Duke and I decided to take the kids to Italy for the first week of spring break. I found a villa in the Tuscany region, nestled below the two hilltop towns of Monte San Savino and Lucignano. These two towns are just 40 minutes from the now extremely famous town of Cortona. (More on that later.)

We decided that it was cheaper to drive than to take the train so after having consulted a handful of resources, we decided that we should leave earlier than we thought so as to avoid the major traffic in the tunnel that allows for easy passage through the Alps. Our first stop was Genova where we stayed for two nights.

This is a city that I never got around to visiting while I was spending various semesters and summers in Italy. It is a very old (duh, everything is old in Italy) seaside town that has its own flavor. We spent the day exploring downtown and of course began our culinary tour of this gastronomically gratifying country. Among other things we sampled, we were able to try the farinata, the local pesto and the fresh seafood. After checking out the Duomo, seeing the various fountains and doing a little shopping, we stopped for lunch. After we had gorged ourselves in pizza, lasagna, and simple pasta pomodoro, we left the restaurant to slowly waddle back to the hotel. When one does the "waddle" it leaves more time to discover hidden gems as you can't walk past them too fast and miss them. Low and behold, there was the house that Chrisopher Columbus lived in with his parents! What a cool way to have a history lesson and I think the kids were impressed! The biggest hit though, was the tall ship that was open for tours that had been made by a movie company, although it was quite authentic.

Cool boat!

The lady of the ship.

I wish I had some cool quote from "Pirates of the Caribbean" for this picture, but alas, I am not that cool. I can only quote Spaceballs.

This is where Ross gave us is lecture on how the tall ship is laid out. Impressively, he was correct on about 99% of it!

The "belle" of the boat.

After doing the cursory tour of Genova, we headed to our main place of residence for the week. I happened to find a beautiful little villa that would suit us just fine for the week. (Never mind that the shower sucked and the heat roasted you in the attic and you froze on the main living floor. This IS Italy after all.)

It has been photo shopped for color, but other than that, this is what it really looked like!

We spent Easter at the villa with the highlight being a gourmet, home cooked Tuscan meal at the main residence. This meal was to die for! It started with usual antipasti made up of cured meats, olives, bread and cheese. It continued with homemade spinach and ricotta raviolli with a lemon zest and olive oil on top. The secondi course was Florentine Bistecca (steak) with rosemary and olive. Dessert was a creme with rasberry topping. We finished eating at the fashionably late hour of 10:00pm.

Monday morning we started for Cortona. Cortona is the main geographic focus of the book and movie "Under the Tuscan Sun". I was aware of this town before this book ever came out. As a matter of fact, I found out about the book while I was in Cortona singing opera in the opera house that is situated in the Piazza Signorelli of Cortona. I was blessed to have been able to sing there two summers in a row.

The walk up.

Santa Margherita

Having vivid and very fond memories if this place, I thought it would be wonderful to take my husband and children to visit this beautiful, sleepy historical hilltop village. Well, it's still up on that very steep hill, it's still beautiful, but sleepy? NO. Unfortunately, after the advent of the movie, that little sleepy town will never be sleepy again, I fear. But, we did walk up to the top to see the Santa Margerita Chiesa (which was closed!) and we had a wonderful at a restaurant just off the Piazza Signorelli.

Unfortunately, it rained.

The next big trek was to the Coliseum in Rome. This was a marvel to all of us. Truly an amazing accomplishment, but one always has the question in the back of one's mind, accomplishment at what cost?

We spent the rest of the week exploring various small towns in the area. I will give you a pictoral tour with captions, rather than try and describe it all!

Kim ordered clam pasta in Rome. I have never seen a child love their food THAT much!

A little boy from Germany was at the table next to us. He obviously was happy to have ANYBODY to talk to besides his parents! Of course, the fact that they all had iPods in common didn't hurt things.

Duke climbing down the path in Cortona.

The view behind Kim is of the Tuscan valley and part of Cortona.

In true Kim form, she liked the flower above her head and wanted a picture with it.

Keeping himself entertained before dinner.

Keeping herself entertained before dinner. FYI, that dinner was FANTASTIC!!!! It was in Sienna.

Can you tell that my allergies decided it was time to make an appearance? My eyes were a MESS! But Kimmy sure is cute!

Nothing like a playground to keep the kids entertained!

After our return from Italy, the kids and I spent the week at home doing various activities like sitting by our pool and visiting castles. Pictures are below!

Kyburg Castle was a great place to take the kids as it was quite interactive, including period clothes for them to try on. Of course, they were WAY too big for them, but it was fun anyway. The above picture is the sundial on the outside of the castle wall. Except for daylight savings time, it was right on the money!