Thanksgiving in Tuscany

Thanksgiving in Tuscany has become a tradition in the short time that we have been here. Last year Megan found us a great renovated farmhouse near Scansano in southern Tuscany. This year she bested last year's performance and found us a huge villa just south of Florence with 38 acres of land on the rolling, olive orchard-covered hills of the Chianti region.

Are you kidding me? This is the kind of thing you see on Rick Steeves or Anthony Bourdain TV shows. Or, if you live here, this is your Thanksgiving house. This year our group included our family, Megan, Greg, Verna, Yorba, Ben, Charlotte, Luca, Steve, Kate, Brennan, and Ashley. What a fantastic bunch.

This place was amazing in November, so it must be mind-blowing in the spring and summer.

Juliet with Ben and Luca in the swing chair hanging from one of the many oak trees. The cat of the house, with the unoriginal moniker "Gattina", ran up this tree to get away from Yorba and Verna. And there she stayed despite the best efforts of multiple adults and children on a huge ladder. Once we ignored her and started eating dinner, she came down on her own. Of course. Cats.

There were two kitchens, and here are Ben, Megan, Greg, and Ashley in the first and most functional one. I made it a goal this year to not be a total mooch, so Ben and I did a literal mountain of dishes both before and after the meal.

When you are in Tuscany, the pre-dinner appetizer must consist of a variety of Italian cheeses.

And here is Isaac preparing, under Megan's supervision, the all-important M&M casserole.

Georgie helping Kate with the potatoes. Kate was wonderful with Georgie, and this is the beginning of a weekend-long practice for G.

Here Steve is putting the finishing touches on the Turkey in the suvee. You wrap the meat in plastic and the cooker circulates hot water around it until it is perfectly cooked.

And the end result. Enough to make a vegetarian weak in the gullet.

The formal presentation of the turkey. Our host, Francesco, whose family owns the villa, came to Thanksgiving dinner with us. He could not stop taking pictures of the turkey or commenting on how fantastic it was. Coming from an artistic Italian foody, that was a huge complement to Kate & Steve, who slaved over the turkey for a week.

The set table. Oh man, I can't wait.

The food starting to be piled on the table. We had way too much food. I about died throwing away all those leftovers on Sunday.

Friday morning, after a ridiculously slow start, we piled into cars and headed to Siena. Siena is sort of a mini, less crowded Florence. The two Tuscan cities have an insane soccer rivalry that takes its venom from the Battle of Monteparti between the republics of Siena and Florence on September 4, 1260. Siena won that battle, but Florence has won the tourist war.

Here we are in the Piazza del Campo, the main town square, with the Torre del Mangia in the background. We ate lunch at a small tavern just outside the square.

Every year on July 2 and August 16 there is a huge horse race, the Palio, here in the Piazza del Campo. There is a jockey and horse representing nearly every neighborhood in Siena and the stakes are very high. You can sort of appreciate how large the Piazza is and how the race must somewhat resemble the old Roman chariot races. We are debating if coming back for the Palio is a good idea or not.

The duomo is even more impressive than the one in Florence, in my opinion, especially the interior. But even the facade is so ornate and varied, rivaling Notre Dame.

This is the interior. I love the black & white motif, which mimics the black & white flag of Siena. There are two works by Donatello and one small sculpture by Michelangelo here.

This is the ceiling of the Piccolomini Library inside the duomo. The art in the library depicts the life of Pope Pius II, a native of Siena. The colors and the gold are overwhelming. Apparently Raffaelo designed this library but died before he could paint it.

The walls of the library.

These are the "books" in the library, which I presume contain the lyrics and music of the liturgies that were performed here. Again, the artwork in the books was incredible.

You can see the size of the books in comparison to the kids, who are hanging out in a little cubby hole in the corner of the library.

The kids were very well behaved the whole weekend. They have become excellent European travelers.

Great view of one of the many churches of Siena.

Saturday the ladies went to an antique market in Arezzo while the men took care of the kids, went on a hike to Montegonzi, a small town on a huge hill just above the villa, and played petanque, the French version of bocce ball. Huge regret that I don't have any pictures of our epic petanque games. Maybe Ben has some.

Saturday night we had a meal prepared by the villa's private chef, Maria, and we were joined by Francesco's parents, Paolo and Anna (the owners), as well as Anna's father Amadeo. None of them spoke any English, but we still had a fantastic time thanks to the Merback Family Translators.

This is where Georige was all night. I thought she hovered in the kitchen at home because her mom is in there, but no, even with a complete stranger who spoke zero English Georgie wanted to be in the kitchen with her, talking, watching and learning. Maria even let her cut some of the fresh-picked herbs with the double handled mezzaluna knife.

When I apologized to Maria for Georgie possibly being a nuisance, she told me "Nonsense!" (in Italiano) and that she loved having her there. She commented that Georgie was a perfect surrogate granddaughter and that she spoke Italian very well. Way to go, Gigi!

Great pre-dinner conversation. You can see some of the art decor of the house.

Our kids don't like Ben and Charlotte. They love them. I won't comment on the baby bottle. Or maybe I just did.

This is Amadeo, Anna's father and Franceso's grandfather. He was hilarious! Me was a mechanic in the Italian Air Force and had visited Aviano many years ago. We couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but that didn't stop him from telling us.

Anna serving us the primo piatto di pasta.

Isaac is thoroughly enjoying it. It really was fantastic pasta al pomodoro.

Georgie in the cinghiale hat that Megan and Greg gave us to commemorate our dead chickens that were eaten, we think, by a wild boar.

Greg and Megan! The master Thanksgiving planner. What will she come up with next year to top this?

We weren't having a good time at all.

Anna with Ashley and the girls. Ashley understands so much Italian that I rarely have to translate for her. And even Juliet is becoming brave and spouting out things that she has heard at Asilo.

How best to cap a fantastic evening in a Tuscan villa? With a turtle headstand, of course! All 240 pounds of Ben's frame supported on that noggin on the hard tile floor. We played the Envelope Game on Friday night, introduced to us by Angela Jones, and it was a huge hit with an encore performance on Saturday. We also had some great conversations about the forbidden topics: religion, morality, politics, etc. With this group anything is free game. Thank you to Megan for finding the place, to everyone who worked so hard getting the food ready, to the kids for being so well-behaved, and to the US Air Force for allowing us the privilege of living here. Until next year.

Lucca, Cinque Terre, Vinci, and Pisa with the Joneses

Over Veterans Day weekend we went on our first major outing with the Joneses. We decided to do as much of the best of Italy as possible given the good weather. We stayed in Lucca, an old walled city in Toscana. Tann took Friday off and they were able to explore the town a little before we arrived that night.

We had a room on the ground floor of the hotel and the Joneses were just above us. A cat that lives on the property followed us into the room and spent the night on the bed with the kids. Which was great until 2:00 am when it wanted to be let out. We heard Landon and Jacquelyn crying almost all night long, which I was able to tune out no problem but Tann and Angela not so much. Landon was freaking out about Payton's Lego Chima mini-figures the whole weekend. Tann was ready to chuck the Chima out the window on multiple occasions.

Saturday morning was bright and warm, a perfect day to see Le Cinque Terre. "The Five Lands" are five small fishing villages on the Sardinian Sea in the southern part of Liguria. They were discovered by tourists a couple of decades ago and have been transformed into tourist traps, but that doesn't detract from their natural and man-made beauty.

This is the town of Vernazza, Ashley's favorite city from her college backpacking trip and also the place where she met Valentino. Great story, but not for this forum. This is nearly the whole clan, minus Juliet and me. We drove to La Spezia and parked at the train station. The train ride to Vernazza was very quick with breathtaking ocean views.

Here we are.

In Vernazza Ashley gave us a tour. The best place to get fresh focaccia, the place where she met Valentino, the best place to get gelato, the place where Chelsea met Rafaello, etc. Pretty much food and Italian guys. No wonder she loved it so much.

Georgie and Samantha hanging out at the cove. You can see the train tunnel in the background.

The main square in Vernazza in November, crowded with boats.

The hiking trail between the towns is the main attraction. The area is a national park and there is an entry fee to hike the crowded trail during peak season. But in November the trail is nearly empty and the fee booth is vacant. This is the view as you hike up out of Vernazza. You can see the castle and duomo of Vernazza as well as the distant town of Monterosso al Mare, the northern most of the five villages.

We live here! Well, not here, but close.

These kids have no idea how good they have it.

This is one of the many olive orchards on the trail. 

This is the town of Corniglia, 4 km from Vernazza. And in the background on the left you can see the town of Manarola. The setting is unreal.

Georgie and Samantha, together again.

The trails are meticulously maintained. Guardrails and pavestones are regular features, which made hiking with the kids very safe. As we started the hike from Vernazza to Corniglia, an older gentleman looked at our seven children and said, "Quattro chilometri!", meaning four kilometers. We said, "Va bene!", meaning okay, no problem. I'm sure that they have to rescue unprepared tourists all the time.

Juliet and Georgie wore matching outfits. Ashley and I had to take turns carrying Juliet, but all of the older kids were great hikers.

Love this picture.

Isaac with his buddy Payton. They have become great friends and act like the older/younger brothers they don't have. And Jubie, of course. In the background is Corniglia.

I have no idea what is going on in this picture. 

That's better.

Ashley with the girls. Practically sisters.

This is the narrow walkway leading in to Corniglia. Ashley wanted a honeymoon shot of just the two of us. 

The kids were great hikers and they earned the late lunch and gelato we got in Cornigila. Plus they got the chance to do a funny face picture. Which for Isaac just means a regular face.

After lunch we split up and the weak ones (Ashley, Isaac, Landon, Payton, Juliet, and I) took the train to Rio Maggiore while the intrepid crew (Tann, Angela, Samantha, Georgie, and Jacquelyn) hiked the crazy mountain trail from Corniglia to Manarola. It was dark before they reached the town and we were a little worried about them for a while. We had a great time in Rio Maggiore, the kids playing "blind tag" in the town square with Isaac's hat pulled down over the eyes of whoever was "it." We walked down to the dock where the evening waves were crashing against the rock barrier and sending spray high into the air. A magical evening. Finally, we reunited with the insane hikers on the train and headed back to our hotel in Lucca.

The next day, Sunday, it was raining off & on so we decided to spend most of the day at the Leonardo museum in Vinci, the town where Leonardo was born and raised.

Tuscany, baby! The olive orchards, the hills, the houses, the rainbow, and of course, Jubie.

She's mine. You can't have her.

Georgie and Samantha looking at some of the computer exhibits inside the museum. Outside you can see an enormous wooden sculpture with Leonardo's Vitruvian Man in the center.

Engineers have studied Leonardo's drawings and built many of the machines and devices that were never built in his lifetime. On the ceiling you can see the glider wings he desiged.

The girls taking refuge from the rain and Juliet pouting about something.

I told you, she's all mine.

Next stop was the town of Lucca, where we were staying. It is the home of Giacomo Puccini, the famous Italian opera composer, second only to Giuseppe Verdi (and maybe Rossini). He composed "Madame Butterfly" and "La Boheme." 

Here is the stature of Puccini in Lucca with his house in the background.

Lucca is also famous for it's well-preserved ancient walls. There is a huge mound of earth behind the walls that encircles the entire city and on which there is a walking path. Here are Samantha and Georgie trying to stay out of the rain on the path.

And a couple of 30-somethings, one a little goofy and the other one too hot for her own britches.

Finally, on Monday we drove the short distance from Lucca to Pisa for the obligatory leaning tower trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Pisa.

Seeing the tower just knocked me over. Just like seeing the Mona Lisa. You know what's coming, but you still can't believe you are looking at it. The baptistry is in the foreground and the duomo is in the middle.

The doors to the duomo, engraved with different religious scenes.

This is the view from inside the tower. The tour cost 18 euro, so only the select group of Isaac, Georgie, Samantha, and I went in. You sit down at the base of the tower first while you listen to a tour guide and wait for the group ahead of you to come down.

Then you head up the winding staircase that takes you all the way to the second uppermost level.

Then you go up an even smaller staircase to the very top, where you see this.

TUSCANY BABY!!!

The kids loved it. Worth every euro cent we spent.

Displayed on the top floor are the various bells that were hung & rung in the tower over the years.

Georgie's excited about sumthin'.

Samantha took this shot and did a great job!

A fellow tourist snapped this one for us. The Leaning Tower group.

If Galileo truly did do his experiments on gravitational mechanics here, then this is where he would have stood to drop the objects. The kids are pretending to drop something off the edge as an homage to our man G.G.

Don't let it fall, Isaac!

Hold it, Georgie, stay strong!

Way to go, Jubie!

The one souvenir I wanted from Pisa was a Leaning Tower mug. Just the right combination of kitschy and cool. We bought five of them and after we got home we celebrated with a Leaning Tower mug of hot chocolate.

Unfortunately they come from China and are probably painted with lead-based paint because a sticker on the bottom warns that they are not meant to be used to consume liquids and are for decoration only. Crap! If only I had seen that before I bought FIVE of them. Don't be surprised if you receive a Leaning Tower mug as a present in the mail.

Overall a fantastic trip to Tuscany and Liguria, hopefully one of many trips we take with the Joneses in the future.