Playing at the park

So Addison has gotten to the age where she's scared of dogs. So while she stayed at my parents, they couldn't get her to go outside for anything. So just to play outside my mom had to drive her to town to the park!

When she did go outside at the farm, my dad had to carry her the whole time. He was trying to plant the pumpkins with her, but it was hard to hold her and try to work the ground - ha!

This was her first time on a merry-go-round and she discovered she loved them. We found one at a park in Altoona so we took her there a few times this summer.

Florence then San Gimignano

Florence had some bridges that had shops and housing on the bridge. Kinda crazy. 

Many of the streets were walking streets and not wide enough for cars. They did have a lot of traffic in Florence, but just in certain areas. 

Next, we moved onto San Gimignano. It was a beautiful little town that we spent a couple hours in. 

This was another town with a wall around it and an entrance. 

Mid-Evil look-out towers built high above the rest of the town. 

It wouldn't be right without a stop at the Gelato store. Apparently this store has won many awards, our tour guide gave us all coupons for free gelato. Couldn't afford not to! 

We bought our souvenirs in this town. We looked and looked throughout all the towns but couldn't find anything that screamed our name. Leather is a popular souvenir but we just didn't have the desire for anything leather. I looked at the purses, but they were still $200 (although I'm told it would have been $400-$500 in the US). I've used the same coach purse for probably 8 years.....so I figured I shouldn't buy a purse I probably won't use. Ha! 

I bought two unique, funky rings that were inexpensive. I had been wanting some fun jewelry and found the perfect ones there. We also bought some alabaster eggs, apparently they are known for their alabaster and the eggs are pretty popular. 

Amazing view! Great weather too. The rolling highs and cottages made a great landscape. 

Florence

Happy Hour from our Tuscany Villa. And the picture on the right is the wild boar pasta they served us one night. These Italians love them some wild boar!!

 Ugh, this picture was on our way to downtown Florence and I felt AWFUL. I had a fever this day and it was a struggle! 

Being the art-lover I am (HA! yea right).... but for real, I was actually super excited to go to this museum. I'm not really sure why, but I was super excited to the Statue of David and Michelangelo's work. I mean, these are things I NEVER thought I would ever see in real life. And it's amazing how long they have been preserved. Apparently, Michelangelo had tons of unfinished statues. 

David is HUGE. And the area was pretty packed. The detail was phenomenal. Pretty cool site! AND, we found some fellow Cyclones admiring David, a few students from ISU who were studying aboard in Rome and took a few days to travel.

You can't tell in this photo, but that dark wall in the back is a wall of a chocolate fountain. They love their chocolate! 

Tuscany wine

We learned the Chianti is the wine made in Tuscany. This was the only kind served to us at the Villa. All the other places we stayed served us a red and white. Ryan and I were pretty disappointed at first as we are partial to white, but we soon learned the chianti is delicious and we didn't need any other choices. We did agree though, the waiters were sometimes a bit slow on bringing us more bottles..... ha! We had group dinners every night in Tuscany, it was a lot of fun. 

We of course toured a winery while in Tuscany. Just one though, we all would have gone to a few if time permitted.

We had a wine tasting and this was the plate of food they fed us. Some of us could have used some more substantial items after all the wine..... good thing we got back on a tour bus! 

So many wine barrels! 

And of course we had to buy a bottle back at the hotel and had a little happy hour prior to dinner that night. It was a gorgeous afternoon and they had a beautiful patio to relax on! 

We did also ship some wine home for us and Nicole. Nicole sent her order with us - ha! We didn't find a wine we didn't like in Italy (we were shocked). It was great! 

Tuscany Villa

Tuscany was by far the most interesting lodging we encounter. It was a little villa with only about 50 rooms. We had the most unique room, not because we were hosts, but because we were the youngest. Ha! There were lots of stairs in our room. Here is the view when we unlocked our room. 

This was the view from the top. There were stairs down to the exit, and stairs down to the bathroom. And the stairs curved too. I think Ryan tripped or stubbed his toe at least once a day. 

The view was beautiful! We had two windows, this was just one side. 

It was definitely the least-nice of all the places we stayed. It wasn't too bad though, we have been in worse (haha). 

This was the view from our happy hour at this villa, the windows on top of the building are the tower where our room was. And this villa was literally in the middle of no where. No walking to get a Coke zero from a grocery store at this villa, good thing we bought a couple extra at the stop before (it's the important things ya know).

Sienna

Tried taking a panoramic picture of the square in Sienna, doesn't show up well here. 

 Sienna has this big common square surrounded by big buildings and shops. Once a year, I think in August, they have a big horse race around the square. I can't remember the specific details now since it's been 6 months, but I think the jockey's figure out what horse they get the day before the race. And, the horse can still win the race even if they jockey falls off. Ha!

It was a stop in Sienna on our way to Tuscany, but it was a cool little town. I was having a rough day in Sienna, I picked up the nasty cold that everyone else on the trip had. I was so glad I packed a variety of medications "just in case". A number of our guests stayed back for the day or parts of a day throughout the trip, but there was no way I was going to miss out on anything. Especially because I will probably never be back! You didn't see any pictures from Assissi because I had a fever that day and felt postively awful.....It was a struggle just to get through that stop let alone take any photos! 

Ricciarelli is a famous little pastry item from Sienna. Ryan and I were not usually buying the traditional items from the cities as many of them didn't sound good to us. We stuck to gelato. But in Sienna, we decided to give this one a shot. They were delicious! And our tour guide bought a big box to share with everyone too. Yum!

Orvieto

Orveito was one of our favorite stops. Ah who am I kidding, we loved them all! Orveito was a hill-top town. Views were to die for. 

We saw many castles and castle-like buildings. I'm dying to go in a castle, we saw so many in Germany and Italy. Haven't gotten to yet though. 

Our bus had to drop us off at one location, then we walked a little bit, then took an elevator up to get to the town. Best part about going with a tour group.... we never had to transport our luggage. It was so nice! We saw many people taking their suitcases down the cobblestone streets. Ours just showed up in our rooms :) 

There is a wall that surrounds the city. There is a path that goes all the way around the outside of the city. Ryan and I decided to walk it in our free time one day. It was pretty cool. I'm in the picture on the left and Ryan's in the picture on the right.

This was a super cool part about the city that we had no idea even existed. There are underground tunnels that go under the whole city. We  got to go on a tour one afternoon. If you buy a house in Orvieto, you also get a section of the underground area. It's cold enough to work as refrigeration. The restaurants in town all have a section for storage. 

Okay we all got a kick out of this part. All these holes in the wall, were used for pigeon-breeding. They don't do it anymore (thankfully, they didn't need any more pigeons). Then there were little holes that lead outside, so the birds could come and go as they pleased. So bizarre!