Friday, June 22nd
After we arrived at Ormanni, we started laundry and headed to the grocery store in the nearby town of Poggibonsi. We were gone about 2hrs with driving time, and when we returned, Dinah discovered that the 1000 revolution cycle on the washing machine equates to about a 4hr wash. Dinner was at 9pm, and I think we made it to bed sometime around 1am, sooooo we all slept in and weren’t even moving for breakfast until about 10am. This really is the good life when the young kids are even sleeping in!
We did some more laundry (selecting the shortest setting, 400 revolution cycle that still takes about 1.5hrs) after breakfast and discussed our plan for the week. The itinerary in Tuscany is fairly flexible, so we decided to head to San Gimignano and then over to Siena and then back here for dinner.
San Gimignano (Please don’t ever ask me to pronounce it. I can’t. I just can’t say it and now have a mental block!) is a medieval town that was originally home to 72 tower houses for all of the rival families and 14 towers still remain.
We had a lovely lunch at Locando di Sant’Agostino with incredibly fresh ingredients, friendly service and bohemian style.
Then we headed …wait for it…to get gelato. Off one of the squares are two gelato places, both claiming to have the best gelato in the world. We tucked into the insanely efficient Gelato DonDoli. This place was packed but they moved the people through like a fine oiled machine.
Deemed 2nd best gelato
Milania finished her cup and then headed to the other one. She got the exact same flavors – chocolate and stracciatella (basically vanilla with chocolate chips) and deemed our first stop the 2nd best. Milania has a running list of all of the gelato places we’ve been to so far. It is already certainly quite long, and miles to go before we sleep…
Cute town with nice views but only requires a couple of hours.
We piled back into the car for a quick Siena stop. Siena not only a town, but also the eldest daughter of our friends the Welshes, so we’ve built in a little extra time in her namesake. It also happens to be one of my favorite cities from my last trip. We just planned for a quick walk-around to get acquainted with the lay of the land for our return trip the following day. Here’s a quick preview…
Such a beautiful area of Italy, and somehow doesn’t seen quite as flooded with tourists (compared to places like Rome & Pompeii). So glad you’re all having such a good time together! Have you seen/had the “blue” ice cream yet? And how’s the glutenous/gluttonous diet going??
Lincoln had Blue Ice Cream. It was blue vanilla!
Gus says “hi” to Lincoln and can’t wait to see more pictures
Caio Gus! Lincoln has been playing football with the local kids while we stayed at an apartment in Tuscany. He loved it. Today we saw a football pitch on the beach where a group of kids were playing and he wanted to hop into their pick up match. Hope to see you guys when we get back!