Day 22 and Day 23 - Porto Ercole

Porto Ercole is a town located in the municipality of Monte Argentario in the Province of Grosetto. A few people recommended that we stay at Il Pelicano, a beautiful hotel in a spectacular spot. The hotel was built by lovers in the 1960's. During the day we would swim, ski , snorkel etc...and at night we would go into town and walk around the Marina, shop, eat dinner and people watch..

We all loved our time at Il Pelicano. The people watching was great but it was too exclusive to even attempt to "Maxine". We all loved the oatmeal at breakfast!!!

view from my lounge

elevator up to hotel

cutest man ever!!

view from my balcony

Day 21- Volterra

The medieval towns in Tuscany are all very similar in architecture and layout. Most have a tower ( San Gimignano has many!), most have narrow cobblestone streets lined with quaint homes with wood shutters with clotheslines heavy with hanging clothes. Every town has at least one church. Half of the pleasure of exploring these towns is the beautiful journey of getting there. Windy country roads through lush green mountains (if you have ever driven through the notch you know what I'm talking about) followed by breathtaking views of patchwork valleys of olive groves and vineyards. On the way to Volterra we saw our first cow of the trip!

The coolest sight in Volterra was the Roman Theatre (1st century BC), it was excavated in the 1950's.

Ryan's photos of our villa

pool house kitchen

pool house apartment

view from pool house

livingroom

kitchen

master bedroom

terrace off master bedroom

dressing room

ryan's room

girls' bathroom

al fresco dining

our pizza oven

Day 20 - Prada Outlet and Panzano the butcher

Yippee! What a fun day for me . First we stopped at the Prada outlet (Space). It was huge ! It was filled with tons of stuff and there were tremendous deals!!! My kids came prepared with their books so when they got bored they went to the cafe and read. They were very patient. Upon entering the store you are given a number and as you leave each department you simply give the salesperson your number and your stuff and it goes on reserve. When you are done shopping all your stuff is waiting for you at the cash! Just saying...cashmere sweater 70 Euros!!!

Next we went to another outlet about 20 minutes from the first. It's called the Mall. The Mall had all sorts of designers: YSL, Balenciaga, Prada, Armani, Pucci, Gucci.... 2 amusement parks in 1 day!!! Lucky gal!!

Before we left Montreal, I bumped into Stacy Gurman at Metro and she told me that her family's most memorable night in Italy was at the Restaurant SOLOCICCIA, owned by the famous butcher of Panzano. It is located in Greve in Chianti in the town of Panzano. You sit family style with other travellers and and the butcher decides what you eat. The other guests at our table lived in Norway. They were a group of late 20 somethings travelling together, 2 were originally from Sweden. 3 of the 5 Norwegians were sommeliers who worked in an Italian restaurant. They took their wine very seriously and swished between each sip. The first course was mullet...PASS. 2nd course was tartar...PASS. 3rd course roast beef...looked familiar so I ate that. The night was fun and interesting as we spoke of politics etc. in our respective countries. These guys were socialists, bordering on communists. Needless to say I omitted to divulge where we spent our day before coming to dinner.

Day 19 - Bunk Day

It was a national holiday in Italy so we decided to take the day off  and spend it lounging and reading....
For dinner we went to La Speranza, a local restaurant that grills their steak and chicken in a wood burning oven...yummy and fun to be amongst the locals!!