Keown Family-Life in Belgium: Tuscany with the Hamlets.... part 1

Well, we made it to our Tuscan house without a GPS...but we had great directions from the owner, so it wasn't difficult. The road up the mountain to our house was pretty scary and I don't know what would happen if you met someone coming the other direction...two choices, cliff or mountain. Luckily we didn't have to make that decision... I thought after driving in crazy Paris that I'd drive anywhere but I had to put my foot down on this one, I was not even gonna attempt to drive up this mountain (or down) in our big van that was a manual shift! Nope, no way! I don' think we even left the house for the first few days other than the men going to get groceries...it was THAT scary.

Our house....it left a little to be desired but had some great qualities. The view was breathtaking, the pool was awesome, the house was plenty big for our two families, and the cleaning lady could cook and I mean she was amazing! It was hot, and there is not much air conditioning in Italy as far as I could tell, and the bugs...ugh, I could do without them! Poor Drake got bite after bite. I just started leaving the windows closed at night, so we sweat like crazy but not many more bug problems. I think he is a bug attractor...so we can put that on his list of things that he is...hahaha.

Mike making his famous egg sandwiches for breakfast

This is the town that was across the mountain from us, the view outside our kitchen window. It was cute and we explored it later in the week

It was so hot so I thought Emerson may like to cool off....she did not like it one bit! She'd scream as soon as her toes hit the water.

Didn't like it with Daddy either....

She just wanted to hang out with Mom

Yummy dinner!

The girls took a walk down to the village below our house...Roggio. Cute and tiny...suppose to have just a little over 100 people but we only saw like five!

Huge aloe plants, and you need it in this place!

Cute girls trekking down the mountain

Saw this on the back of a car...thought it was funny

The homes were so well kept and nice

This is the road we had to drive on to get to our house, not as scary as the one going up to our house, but not very wide. Sometimes there would even be cars parked a long the houses so it was a squeeze between that wall and the car...a squeeze and close your eyes to hope you don't hit something! At least that's what I did...

The village is Roggio and the commune is Pescaglia....I guess this was our address too, a little confusing when trying to put in the GPS...which we didn't have :)

Adorable little church

This was the small cemetery beside the church

A little sanctuary type place we saw heading into the town

Heading back up...it was a sweaty kinda day, well everyday has been! But great views!

Leave it to Mike...

Blurry pic... but this is Mike fishing up a soccer ball, that the boys had kicked down in between a concrete wall and a 12 foot gate that couldn't be opened, using a garden hose and plastic bag. I don't know how he did it and I think he even found another ball and got two out of the deal!

Yay! They got it back!

Amazing dinner night!!!

This is Lena and Michele...they clean the house when guests leave but they are also amazing chefs! We picked out somewhat of a menu and they cooked it all. It was sooo nice having someone in the house (so we didn't have to leave down that darn mountain again!) cooking dinner for you. They did so much in a short amount of time. Loved it!

Look at this table full of fresh pasta and spinach ravioli!!! Yum! Yum!

And then there's goofy Drake wrapping himself up in the curtain...always something

Ready to start our meal! Those are some kind of fried dough and meatballs (I know she told me the name but I can't remember) that were crunchy on the outside. They didn't last long and Lena made A LOT! And of course some bruschetta for the adults, but I'm not a tomato fan so I ate off the kids' plate....very tasty!

After dessert, and there are many clean plates there! We even had leftovers for the next day. We all said we wish we could have had her every night that week, and probably would have if she wasn't already busy!

LUCCA

Lucca was a great little city to explore. It's completely enclosed by huge red brick walls built in 1500s that were used to help defend the area. The town was flat and the streets narrow, which made it easy to walk around in, but you have to watch out for the bikers because they are everywhere.

Right behind the kids' behinds is a huge drop off the wall...so, quick pic and down they came. Drake just loves his picture taken. He is either grinning ear to ear or sour pussing the whole time.

San Martino tower

Gelato time!

Sitting on the great wall!

I thought this was a cute little indoor/outdoor cafe

One of the entrances (there are 4, north, south, east, and west) into the Anfiteatro Romano (Roman Amphitheater). These are where beasts and gladiators entered the arena.

These medieval houses were built up against the walls of the amphitheater to give this plaza an arena shape. Almost none of the actual amphitheater exists because the stones were stolen and taken to other locations. But it is still a reminder that Lucca was founded by the Romans in 180 B.C.

WINE TASTING DAY :))

Of course there has to be a story...we followed the Hamlets since they had a GPS, and it took us through some crazy places! On this mountain, Theresa had to get out of the car and lift a branch so we could get by! The she-woman that she is!!

Just an example of the tiny, scary mountain roads that we had to drive on. Now, what would you do if a car was coming from the other direction?? Two cars will not fit on this road when there is a drop off cliff on the right side...thank goodness that again we didn't have to make that decision.

View from the fabulous winery, Fattoria di Fubbiano!

GRAPE VINES WITH OLIVE TREES IN THE BACKGROUND

The winery was gorgeous! When we arrived we saw many cars, but soon figured out that they probably belonged to the people living in the apartments at the winery because no one would answer the bell when we kept ringing it. We saw a little kid on his bike and there was a guy with him, but they had no interest in knowing why we were there. Eventually, some one came to us and we discovered that they didn't open until two. Of course there are no signs that say this and we really didn't do any research, but we still got to taste some great olive oil (voted best in the world) and wines.