Week 2 of Italy

Wednesday we tried to go to the arms and armor museum in Monteriggioni, but they were filming a war movie there, and so we had to walk half way around the city to the other gate (it has a wall with two gates, one on either end). In the end, they wouldn't let us get to the town square, so we had to just leave without seeing the weapons and armor.

We saw a bunch of small lizards all over the place (rea counted 11 of them), and we picked some horrible olives while we were there as well. Most of the time in the city was spent at a weird place that we were not sure of the purpose of. It was a raised platform with a hedge all around it except for an entry ramp, and on the top it looked like it had a watering trough. Perhaps it was for washing clothing?

After going home disappointed and having lunch, we decided to go to the Bagni San Filippo, which is a natural hot spring that was not too far from the tenuta. We had a fun time in the hot water, but did not take too many pictures because of the hot water.

We had to share the springs with a bunch of other people, but that was ok - everyone was friendly. There were various pools of water of different temperatures, and if you got too hot, you moved to a cooler pool. Timmy found a pool that was unoccupied which we could all sit in, and we named it "Timmy's bath".

Thursday, despite the fact that they were still filming we actually got to go to the arms and armor museum in Monteriggioni, and the kids had a really fun time there dressing up as knights.

We also got to climb up to the walls, and buy toys at the gift shop. Timmy got three small knights, Rea, a flower tiara, and Sara, a bottle of magical glitter dust.

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In the evening we went around for out final visit to the tenuta, and got a picture of the piratical boar.

We also saw a bunch of bats as we watched the sun set in the secret garden.

The farmstay was very fun, but we had explored the largest nearby places that we wanted to see, so we began packing to go to our next place.

Friday we drove to the castle. We arrived in the afternoon, and played in the yard before making a dinner and going to bed. This is one old castle. It is first recorded in written history in the ten hundreds, however they don't have an exact date of building recorded. We are renting a room on the second floor, which has many modern conveniences including a flushing toilet, running cold water, good wifi, electricity that works most of the time, and also a hot plate and pot. It has been fun to try and get out meals created, however we are adventurous, and it isn't so bad.

While playing in the yard, Rea climbed up a police training wall that for some reason exists in the castle yard. She wanted a picture of it.

She also had a run inn with our ancient enemy - stinging nettle, which is all over Italy.

Saturday we went to Poppi castle, which was very well maintained, and was in a posh part of town. It was a beautiful old castle full of artwork and fun exhibits. The kids loved the prison that was below the castle. They had a skeleton in it, and a story on the walls of a guy who escaped from the prison some how.

The kids also climbed the bell tower, where you could see a magnificent view, and were very proud of it. Gideon loved all of the lion reliefs and statues that were everywhere, and had us take pictures of many of them.

Timmy really loved the tiny figurine battle that someone had set up. It had lots of plaques that told the story of many of the knights that fought in the historic battle that it was depicting. There were at least 500 figurines on the battle field, and it looked totally epic. Somehow we didn't take any pictures of it. Here are a ton of pictures of the castle:

After that, we went to a highly recommended restaurant, and had a fancy lunch. We had porcini mushrooms for the first time, which everyone but rea liked, and tortellini and ravioli, which everyone liked too. The cheese course was popular, as was the tomatoes on toast (though Gideon hated that one). We ended it with a dessert of panna cotta, and white truffle ice cream. Again, the truffle ice cream was a bit of a let down. Truffles just don't taste as good as they should most of the time.

After that, we went to a forest named Camadoli, and explored it for a few hours. The kids had fun finding the "heart of the forest" (a rock with a heart shaped stain on it), mushrooms, chestnuts, a lean-to that someone had built, a river, more stinging nettle, and an old troll cave.

On Sunday we attended the Florence ward in the morning, and then in the evening we went on a chestnut hike, and picked a pocketful of chestnuts, which we then roasted and ate. They were pretty good (the kids really loved them, but they were also the only chestnuts they had ever eaten, and Alison and I had amazing chestnuts in Japan, so we were less impressed.) We will probably pick some more chestnuts tomorrow as well because it was fun.

During the hike, Timmy had a run in with a blackberry bush, that left him scratched. It was really his fault. The bush was minding its own business, and he started thwacking it with his sword for no real reason. What followed was perhaps a lesson?

Monday we went to Pisa in the morning, and part of the afternoon. Pisa was so touristy that Mike did not like the parts of it that were near the tower. We did have a fun time walking around the other parts of the city, and we had some decent pizza, and some excellent gelato while we were there.

The pizzas that we had were anchovy, porcini mushroom, sausage, and bacon and eggs. The flavors of gelato that we ate were: raspberry, chocolate mousse, lemon, meringue, mediterranean (which was almond, pistachio, and fruit flavored), and pine nut.

 The lemon and meringue when ate together tasted like the pie of that name.

After Pisa, we hit the beach, which was surprisingly covered in smooth white rocks. We have no idea what type they were, but they were sure stunning. It was warm enough that Rea and Sara got wet, but the rest of us stayed out of the water. We built rock towers, searched for the perfect rock, and had a palio which ended when Timmy fell off of a boulder and got sad.

It was a fun day, but left Mike wondering if we want to go to Florence tomorrow, which was our original plan, or just pal around the castle for a while. The temperature outside when we wake up in the morning will probably help us decide.

Finally, here is a picture of the kids eating gelato.