Tavarnelle Val di Pesa and San Gimignano

Actually before getting to Tavarnelle, I missed a few pictures from our last day in Forte dei Marmi. So here they are:

We travelled by train from Forte dei Marmi to Siena, picked up a rental car, visited our apartment and packed up more supplies, then drove for 30 minutes to Tavarnelle Val di Pesa.

It's a beautiful place out in the Tuscan countryside. We are renting a suite in this villa and it's gorgeous.

This is the view that greeted me when I opened the window on our first morning.

We drove over to San Gimignano but there were so many people we couldn't find parking. It's a holiday long weekend in Italy.

So we drove back to Tavarnelle and had lunch at a restaurant near our house.

I wanted to recreate a painting I'd seen of an old Italian man digging into a pile of tagliatelle pasta. Mitzi did a great job taking the photo! This makes me laugh each time I look at it.

In the afternoon we took a walk. It's so beautiful here. Lot's of very old olive trees. Lots of vineyards. Lots of flowers. So deeply green everywhere.

When I saw the no horn sign at first I thought it meant "no trumpet playing" or "no trombone playing". Eventually I realized it meant no car horns haha.

There is a tiny cemetary nearby and they keep is so neatly manicured and cared for.

The next day we went to La Fattoria for lunch. Sure glad we did, it was excellent.

The reason we went is that they grill their stakes on wood coal. So I ordered their best steak and went in and took a picture of it as they started grilling it.

They brought it to the table on a cutting board.

The aroma was incredible!

I ate about half of it. And had to tear off a small bone and gnaw on it.

Mitzi got Ravioli in Truffle Sauce. It was one of the best Ravioli she's ever had. Perfect in every way.

The chef strutted through the dining area several times so I snapped a picture.

We had fruit cheesecake for dessert. We like how they don't use too much sweetener. Just right.

When we got to the car we were a little concerned we might be blocked in. We are in Italy after all. We were able to maneuver the car around and made a clean break.

Back at home Mitzi decided it was time to redo her nails.

We took a walk in the evening. It's just so beautiful here.

I got hungry around dinner time and ate more of the steak.

This old G-Wagon was parked out on the lane.

And for desert at 9:30p, finishing it off down to the bone. It was a special moment :)

On our last day in Tavarnelle we drove over to San Gimignano. We couldn't believe how crowded it was at 10:30a. We thought we were getting their early to avoid the crowds. Nope :)

Look how close these car park together. Everything is such a tight fit here.

We went to the world's most famous gelato store (so they say). There is a huge line out front. Mitzi elbowed her way in, caught the eye of one of the attendants, and got our ice cream. I was the in corner getting pictures!

We did a fair amount of shopping. We found these orange italian shoes.

I thought they were pretty cool, but wasn't going to buy them – not practical.

After we left and were walking along Mitzi said, "Those orange shoes would make you the coolest person at the ship fancy dinners (for context, we are going to be travelling on the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary II soon). I was sold.

We trucked back to the store. I tried them on, and bought them!

Our rental car had the low oil light come on. I mean, come on! The tire pressure light has been on the whole time which is annoying since the tires aren't low.

The car was literally out of oil and it was giving me dire warning messages in Italian to pull over and stop the car and put oil in it – or else.

We pulled into a gas station. They had just closed at 12:30 and wouldn't reopen until 3p!

I pleaded my case – please, my car is yelling at me about the oil being low and I've got to put some in there.

This nice man who managed the store chose to help us out. He put a liter of oil in even though they were closed. The kindness of strangers is a wonderful gift.

We drove over to a new place near Sienna. It's a beautiful place called Borgo Scopeto, a Country Retreat.

It's beautiful! We get to stay here for the next 4 days and I have a feeling we will be sad to leave. But that's for the next post :)