Dad's Unsupervised Week

Five days of me and the girls doing our own thing in Tuscany. What could possibly go wrong? Fortunately for all involved there was a pool at our villa and a playground just down the street so during the days there wasn't much trouble to get into.

Of course we did have to find lunch every day which meant a trip into Lucca for some Pizza Margherita.

Which invariably lead to gelato.

We did make a trip into Vinci midway through the week to see the home of Leonard! The girls were pretty well done with museum's at this point but we were so close I felt it would still be worthwhile. Even if they didn't grasp the importance of Leonardo. Most of what they have at the museum dedicated to Leonardo are replicas of his work and none of the sights are very big so we managed to work our way through most of the site in about two hours.

I think the girls preferred the views from the town more than the engineering and artistic works.

But the drive home was quieter than the trip there so we must have done something right.

And the rest of the afternoon was rather quiet as well.

Ultimately most of the mischief that took place during my week with the kids occurred after their mother got off work. It started on Tuesday when we got to visit a local Tuscan family for a traditional dinner with hand made pasta. The girls of course loved the opportunity to really dig in and use their hands to make our dinner.

Olivia took it a step beyond dinner and decided to try her hand at photography as well.

I see a suspicious paw patrol shoe

The downside of the girls being so enthusiastic about making dinner was I ate way too much! But our host family was absolutely lovely and I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in staying in Tuscany.

A few nights later we decided to try our hand at team cycling along the great wall of Lucca. Renting a multi seat bike is a very popular excursion when visiting the walled city and it really was quite fun. We simply walked up to a bike rental shop in the evening, requested a four seater and after a 2 minute instructional/safety talk we were on our way.

Ready for our adventure!

Hey, eyes on the road!

Apparently "steering" a bike is tiring work

On our last day in Lucca we visited the local aqueduct. While no longer in operation their is a nice walkway that that runs alongside.

There's not much to see there at the moment but the "pump house" is currently being renovated and in a few years will be an interesting monument for people to visit.

And with that our time in Tuscany came to a close. We had an amazing three weeks managing to achieve all of our goals (most importantly pizza and gelato every day), visiting beautiful hilltop and seaside towns and eating wonderful meals. Can't wait to return!

Assisi

Assisi is the furthest out of Lucca that we traveled. It is a small hill town in Umbria (also one of the few times we left Tuscany this trip!) It is the birthplace of Francesco Bernardone who later became Saint Francis. Francis founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor and the women’s Order of Saint Clare. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis in 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment.

As you walk through Francesco’s home town, you find loving tributes (and tacky tourist traps) to his life everywhere…where he was baptized, a shirt he wore, a hill he prayed on, a church where a vision changed his life. You can see it all.

Not going to lie, the glow-in-the-dark rosaries and bobble-head friars made me giggle. But even more so, I loved walking through the lanes that offered little pockets of serenity (even with a 6 year old & 2 year old in tow!). I can understand how Francis developed his message of slowing down and enjoying life from seeing the city he lived in (even if he may not have had a gelato shop on every corner in his day).

We started in the cobbled lanes of the town.

Then walked to the old Roman Amphitheater.

Then back into the streets of town. Where someone tried to invite herself in to every house she saw by climbing on their steps and pointing at their doors.

We then stopped at the Cathedral of San Rufino where both Saints Francis and Clare were baptized in 1181 and 1194, respectively. Francis also became a teacher in the church where at one point he taught classes attended by Clare.

There is glass in the floor of the nave of the church showing the foundations preserved from the ninth-century church that once stood here. After an earthquake in 1997, they checked the structural integrity of the building by looking under the paving stones. It was then that they discovered graves previously undetected in the last century and under that level Roman foundations and animal bones which suggests there may have been a Roman temple here which had animal sacrifices.

We continued through town, stopping for pizza lunch (of course, could we eat anything other than pizza on this trip?)

you’ll have to take my word for it that there was pizza on this plate at one point

We finally made it to the Basilica of St. Francis

In the lower basilica is the tomb of Saint Francis.

His remains were buried secretly while the basilica was under construction, and over the next 500ish years people forgot exactly where they’d hidden them. In 1818 they decided to open the tomb to the public, but it then took them over a month to actually find his remains in the tomb.

From the lower basilica you can climb up two sets of winding stairs to the upper basilica. The two are almost completely separate buildings both in structure and style. This section started construction in 1228 and is considered the first Gothic church in Italy. A series of frescoes line the walls of the nave and act almost as wallpaper with scenes of Francis’ life.

A walk back to our car through the outer road led us through the views of the countryside.

And eventually off to dreamland

Siena

Italian hilltop towns are some of our favorite things! So for this installment of Our European Adventure 2.0 we share our time in Siena.

Like so many other Tuscan areas, Sienna was first settled by the Etruscans between 900-400 BC and was inhabited by a tribe know as the Saina. Then during Roman times a town called Saena Julia was founded on the same site as the current city. However there is also a local legend that claims the city was established by two sons of Remus, Senius and Aschius, who fled Rome when their uncle Romulus (fabled founder of Rome) murdered Remus. In this version of the Siena origin story the two brothers were responsible for the adoption of the Capitoline Wolf as the symbol of Siena after liberating the statue from Rome on their escape and also for the cities black and white coat of arms that reflect the color of horse each owned (one black, the other white). But whichever story you prefer Siena is very old!

Our journey to Siena was one of the last places we all visited together before Amanda had to go for her remote working week. So we abandoned the walking tours and Museums and just went "freestyle".

We arrived to Sienna, as we normally arrive in most places, around lunchtime so the first stop of the day involved more pizza. This marks the 14th day in a row the girls have had pizza for at least one of their meals. Definitely going for parents of the year status!

After lunch we let the kids run through the square while we walked around the Piazza del Campo admiring the architecture of the Palazzo Pubblico, the Fonte Gaia and the flags from one of the Contrada's all while wondering what it must be like to join in the festivities of the Palio di Siena. Our visit was just a scant 11 days before the second running of the medieval horse race and after seeing the size of the track in comparison to the square I'm rather amazed they can get 50,000+ spectators into the area.

Not my pic. Found it online ... 11 days later

From the Piazza del Campo we meandered our way through the winding, hilly streets in search of the Duomo.

I love a decorative medieval door

The Capitoline Wolf

We made it to the Duomo and I had forgotten how stunning it is, particularly considering that it was never "finished". The black and white exterior is representative of the city crest and there are a total of 35 statues that adorn the outside of the Duomo including works from Pisano, Donatello and Bernini.

Not exaggerating, I took 68 pictures of this shot. This is LITERALLY
the only one with everyone looking at the camera.

On our way back to the car it was time for ice cream. Unfortunately one of us didn't get to participate.

She'll never take another nap again if she finds out Amanda ate her ice cream.

Bonus pictures of the drive back. The sky was absolutely stunning!