Week 4 - Vaiano

We left Rome Saturday the 16th in a rented van

and headed north to a small town just up the valley from Florence.
Such a blissful place!

We've had a lovely week here.  Most of our days have been spent reading and playing cards.  Taking walks...which has provided some great work outs due to the hills.

 Of course there are always some jobs to do as well.

One day we drove north through the mountains to Modena to see the Ferrari museum.

  The boys are both very interested in cars.  

Jake nearly jumped out of the van when this thing passed us on the highway.  

Dino found his namesake car - the Dino - created in 1972 in fact.  Obviously he has to own one.  He has begun his penny jar and should have the hundred thousand collected in no time.

We experienced our first break down of the trip.  8 weeks of travel together - it had to happen

 sometime.  And guess what?  It happened to me.  The drive through the mountains was very pretty...teeny towns miraculously suspended to the sides of the mountains.  Narrow roads with hairpin turns.  A few very large trucks popping around the bend toward us.  A bit too much loud music in the van and me passengering rather than driving caused a very big cry once we arrived on level ground.  A very big cry and a lot of deep breathing.  And a different route on our way back.

To calm my nerves we had an IKEA visit.  

Nothing like some houseware gazing and comfort food to calm your nerves.

We spent a day in Florence which was a very quick trip by train.
Such a pretty city!

We wanted to purchase some house numbers as a souvenir from Italy.  I love the ceramic tiles that dot the cities numbering off each address.

Our hosts told us where to look and we found this sweet old family run store.  Our tile will arrive in Canada about the same time we do!

Vaiano is a small town with few tourists.  Not many people speak English.  We had a great adventure one night in a restaurant where the menu had no translations and the waitress spoke no English.  She wasn't joking when she showed us how big Jake's calzone would be.

I had "grilled fish" which turned out to be shrimp, calamari and branzino.

 Everything was eccellente!!

Tomorrow we will drive further north to a very small village just under Lake Garda.  We will miss our beautiful spot here on the Tuscan hills.  

It has been a wonderful week.