Last Days of Tuscany, Gardaland and finally Lake Maggiore

Hello all back home...

500 year old Contucci Palace and Winery

For our final days in Tuscany we visit  the wine and pecorino cheese producing towns of Montepulciano and Pienza, two typical "hillside" Tuscan towns.  These wonderful old towns are built right into Tuscan hillsides which means you huff and puff as you work your way up narrow cobble stone roads, occasionally diving into random doorways to avoid being flattened by on-coming vehicles.  Montepulciano has a lovely main street but a really quiet main piazza, not quite what we were expecting after seeing the many hopping piazzas of all the other towns.  We tour a real 500 year old winery, Contucci Wines and taste some of their offerings..yum. After Montepulciano we head to the lovely town of Pienza.  However Luke and Serena can't stand the smell of the goat cheese wafting down the main street...so they cover their noses and shout out many protests of "how can people eat rotten cheese".  They are definitely getting disapproving stares from the Italians who love their "stinky" cheese.

BRAMASOLE!

On our last night in Cortona, Tuscany we search out the villa Bramasole, made famous in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.  After getting lost a few times we finally find it down a lovely cypress tree lined road.  It looks just as it does in the movie...right down to the fresh flowers in the vase.  Frances Mayes no longer lives there (tourists became too much) but you can rent it for $23,000 per week.  Any takers??  Another couple is there taking pictures as well.  When we stay for only 5 minutes or so and Luke chimes in, I mean complains..."all this driving and all we are going to do is stay for two minutes!!??".  The gentlemen of the other couple pipes up and says " I have my own psychology practice and your boy is one neat kid"...if only he knew.

We go into town for a lovely dinner (Furfuns Pizzeria) in Cortona and top off the evening with a free opera performance in the town's 400 year old theatre.  We have a private box for our family.  At one point I look over at Serena who has her eyes closed, arms in the air swaying back and forth and she is singing her own opera performance ...very cute.








To Gardaland and beyond!


Ok, so we have no where to stay on one night of our trip so Paul and I argue about how much we are going to pay for one nights accomodation (he thinks a $100 a night hotel located in a farmers field near Verona is acceptable...while I have learned what  $100 bucks gets you in Italy..so I say no way Jose).  I upgrade him to about $200 and we stay in a small resort town of Desenzano del Garda, on Lake Garda in Northern Italy.  Since we are here Paul suggests we take the kids to Gardaland for the evening. What's Gardaland you ask??  It is the Italian version of Calaway Park meets Disneyland with weird Italian characters (Italian type Mickey Mouse things...not sure what they are).

Drop of Doom!!

For five hours we walk the park, ride some rides (get wet on the Colarado river ride...smaller version of Splash mtn..more like Splish mtn) and play some games.

The "Magic" Tree

 At 10:30 pm I think  I have everyone convinced to go home to our $200 per night hotel...but they want to go up this "magic tree".  I am thinking it is this tall tree you walk up and look over the park to see the pretty lights...I am wrong!!  We go into this giant tree and about 40 people are loaded into this giant elevator...the lights go out and this creepy voice comes on and starts telling a story in Italian of course.  The kids seem fine so we are good.  Then we get out and I think now we get to see the pretty lights...nope wrong again.  We stand in this room and more stories are told and then we are herded into this room and told to sit on these old wooden benches, like church pews.  Ok now I think they are going to show us a movie...nope.  This lady says something in Italian and everyone raises both of their hands so we do the same and "Bam", a bar comes down and secures us in our seats.  Ok this is weird now.  We are in this weird story character room with kids scenery on the walls, kinda like Alice in Wonderlandesque.  How bad can it get?  Well if you suffer from motion sickness like I do (and sometime Luke does too) it is going to get real bad.   The whole floor starts to rock kind of like a giant cradle, we are looking down at the floor and then rocked back to look up at the ceiling (Serena is laughing) and then they spin the walls around while rocking us back and forth, instant nauseau sets in...must CLOSE EYES.  Serena is laughing, Luke is yelling this is so cool and I am chanting "I will not get sick, I will not get sick" and I think Paul is concerned I will get sick all over him.  .  No vomitting...good , and off down the giant elevator and finally at 11 pm we get to go home...yeah.

Lake Maggiore
We are now in Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, just a little north and west of Lake Como.  Finally we have escaped the intense heat of Tuscany (the day we left it was to be over 40 degrees).  We are staying in a wonderful little apartment and a large pool deck that overlooks the lake.  We are here for 6 days and will hook up with an old friend of Paul's...Romano.  After this it will be off to Bassano del Grappa for 2 more days of family visits, then off to Venice.


Stay Well and Ciao for now,
Denise, Paul, Luke an Serena