Tuscan Family Vacation - Part III

We spent our week exploring the Tuscan countryside visiting wonderful small towns, drinking plenty of great wine, and enjoying time with family.  During our vacation we saw a lot of great towns including; Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Cortona, San Gimgniano and more.  It was such a great week and we will always have so many special memories from our trip!  It was truly wonderful to spend time with family and enjoy our nieces and nephew.  Here is a bit of what we saw:

Part of our very large group

Gregorian chant mass at a 12th century Abbey

Familia!

Cousin love

Ice cream lovers unite!

The dog that lived at our villa

Hiking our way up to an ancient fort town

Heading down was much easier

Life is good!

Nothing like a liter and a half of limoncello to liven up the party!

Farewell Dinner

Dining alfresco







Tuscany Family Vacation - Part II

After leaving Milan we made the drive south to our Tuscan villa.  We wound up staying a few kilometers ourside of one of our favorite cities, Montepulciano.  The place was perfect for our large group of 18.  It was an old villa that was divided into a number of separate apartments and had a central courtyard in the middle.  The best parts about the villa were the amazing views of the Tuscan countryside.  Even the pool had an awesome view!

Our villa courtyard

The Birthday Boy

Our view for the week

The lavender smelled amazing!





Daisy the horse that lived on the villa property.  Estella was in love!

Estella

Ana Lucia

Cousin love

Tom enjoying life

Tuscany Family Vacation - Part I

Our dear brother in law, Mauricio, has a big birthday coming up next month.  And, in honor of this special occassion he had one request...for his whole family to gather in Tuscany for a week of fun this summer.  So, of course, we were happy to oblige.  This trip has been in the works since Christmas.  We started our trip with Tom's mom and headed to Milan to drop by the CH Robinson Milan office and make our way South.  We got to spend one day in Milan which was great because somehow we hadn't seen it when we were living in Italy years ago.  Milan in pictures:

The Milan Duomo

The famous shopping area