FourFirths

Tuscany with kids...

April 2, 2012

The kids have the week before Easter off from school, so we decided to do some exploring with them. Once again, the Back Roads of Italy book from Leigh Gillett came in handy. We drove to the city of Montesi which is about an hour north west of Perugia in Tuscany. Spring seems to be arriving and the views were amazing, but when we saw this yellow hillside, we just had to stop. Jason actually took the best pictures!

Jason enjoyed taking pics of Danika and making her laugh on the drive...

We arrived in Montesi, parked the car and started out on our (what the book was telling us was a ) 3 hour hike through Crete Senesi. As we started off down a dirt road, we passed by an olive grove where they had just finished pruning and were burning the branches. This is a typical scene all around Umbria and Tuscany this time of year.

It is so interesting to be able to hike around and see castles on the surrounding hillsides…

The fresh air was fabulous.

At one point, a man drove by in his car stopped to chat. He asked us where we were going and such, and wished us a good walk (buon passagiano). A little later, David was reading from the Back Roads book, and it spoke of Giuseppe, a local farm owner. We wondered if that was Giuseppe… As we walked further, we came upon the same man out feeding his donkeys. When we stopped to talk, I asked him if he was Giuseppe, and sure enough, he was. Such a nice man J

The hike actually skirted his farm, but he told us to go on through, so we did.

Our favorite part was visiting with the goats. All the goats seemed terribly interested in us too…

There was a new baby which was adorable, but kept hidden under the feed bin.

Our favorite was the goat at the far back right, because he was actually smiling at us J

We had to say goodbye to the beautiful farm, and of course the rooster too...

The path ran through lovely rolling hills…

Through a small forest…

We even found loads of porcupine quills…

We went past a bunch of grazing sheep who also found us very interesting…

The hike only took us two hours and we even got lost a bit… We ended our hike with a walk through town…

And lunch overlooking the valley…

Then it was off to Bagno Vignoni which was about 20 minutes away. Bagno Vignoni is a place with hot springs not much different from Yellowstone. However, we were surprised that the water was luke warm at the top…

and quite cool in the pool below.

The kids were the first to take off their shoes and venture in the water.

The water was clear blue, with white mud at the bottom. At first it looked like little plants were growing all over the bottom in little dark brown patches. However, on closer inspection, we found that it was really clusters of tadpoles. There were millions of them…

I waded around with the kids for a while…

Then just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery while the kids messed around…

Took a great picture of my honey as well…

By the time we got back home, we were exhausted, and David took a much needed break out on our balcony J

‘Til next time…

~Mary

Italian Racing...

March 31, 2012

Danika bought Jason a remote control car for his birthday, and she bought one for herself too, just so that they could race. Not having a house, and our apartment being too small to race them, we set out for our local parking lot… This is the walk down.

We call this the entrance to our own little castle...

Once in the lot, the races began… we had loads of fun.

Jason even built a ramp…

A nice thing to do on an evening with the kids…

~Mary

A Day with Danika...

March 30, 2021

We got so caught up in the wonders of our care package that I never wrote about our day with Danika. Jason went to school and was invited to a friend’s house afterward. When Danika and Jason are in school we usually go exploring, so rather than going somewhere and rushing back to pick up Danika at school, we decided to take her out of school so she could join us on our adventures. Since we had the entire day, we decided to visit three nearby cities. We have to thank the Gillett family because they gave us a Back Roads to Italy book that has given us so many ideas for places to visit. Spoletto, Trevi, and Spello are just a few.

The first city we went to was Spoletto. It is about an hour and a half south of Perugia. It took us a while to drive through town and find parking, but once we figured out where we were going, it was a beautiful walk up through town.

We ended up at the Basilica, or as David puts it, an ABC tour. (Another Bloomin’ Cathedral)

Danika loves the cathedrals, and took lots of pictures inside…

This crest of arms is to mark a grave in the floor of the church

Then we walked up through town to the top where there is a castle. We walked all the way around to the back side and saw this bridge. We decided not to walk it as we wanted to visit the other two cities too.

Then it was on to Trevi is a beautiful little town set up on a hill overlooking the green valleys below. Just driving towards it is wonderful because it looks so lovely.

We enjoyed walking around town particularly because of the nice spring weather.

Had to get at least one picture inside the cathedral…

Danika desperately wanted to go to the Museum of Olive Oil, but it was closed… have to do it another day. So it was a bit sad leaving Trevi, but beautiful none-the-less...

Then it was on to this park, Fonti del Clitunno, just outside of Trevi. Unfortunately we arrived just after it had closed. Still, we walked around and enjoyed the scenery.