Wahls...Wine and so much more!!!

First order of business...a tuscan winery!

What are two nice jewish girls like us doing in a place like this??

It has been a whirlwind of fun, laughter, travel, road trips but mostly, a wonderful time spent with dear friends.  We completely lucked out on the weather and the Wahl's arrived Thursday night to balmy (by Tuscan standards) spring weather.  We started out on Friday morning with a stop on our way to Lucca with a wine tasting at Maria Teresa.  After a brief visit to the winery it was on to Lucca.  Lynne and Joey loved the walled city and since it is one of our favorite places we decided to walk around, hike to the top of one of the many towers and have lunch there.

Top of one of Luccas many towers

Lunch fit for (2) Kings!

The views on this day were truly amazing so it was the perfect way to start our weekend. We visited San Michele in Foro church in Lucca which was built in the 8th century and renovation began in the 11th century.  Crazy how magnificent and well preserved the history is here!  On Saturday, we took advantage of the amazing weather and headed out to the beautiful towns of Cinque Terre, five seaside towns that are a national park and known for the natural beauty and amazing hiking!  Howard and I had been there many years ago but only did a limited amount of hiking since the kids were younger but rather took the ferry from one town to the next. This time however, we saw Cinque Terre as it was meant to be seen, by foot!  We hiked from one town to the next through the most amazing hillside paths, through forests, over rivers all while taking in the sea views.  The hike was largely uphill since we started off at sea level.  A bit daunting to look up at the hills and realize that you are hiking the entire way up...and down.  It took us close to three hours but we all loved it and were so thrilled to have had such a remarkable experience.  After a very long and tiring day we made it back to the villa in time for a nap and shower and headed out to a local restaurant for dinner.  On Monday, we woke up bright and early

Loving every second of our time in Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre on a perfect spring day!

to drive to two medieval "walled" cities, Volterra and San Gimignano.  Both were fascinating and quite different.  Volterra is a 13th century etruscan town ... there was no shortage of torture chambers and in fact there was a torture museum (pass!) and is also well known for Alabaster.  Volterra was the first fortress built in Tuscany and is considered very historic.  From there we drove through some of the most picturesque hillsides on our way to San Gimignano.  These hills were exactly as you would imagine tuscany to be.  San Gimignano was a bit larger than Volterra but had a similar feel.  We walked, shopped (a little) and just took everything in.  This area is known for their Pecorino cheese so of course we had to buy some of that and a bit of salumi for our dinner appies!  Heading back to the villa proved to be a bit more difficult than getting there as our 2 hour ride turned into a stressful 3 hour ride and to top things off when we got back we realized that we had locked ourselves out!  Luckily, Joey was quick to start a fire in the pizza oven and within an hour, our house manager had us in the house ready to start dinner!  A late (10pm) dinner wrapped up another fabulous day with the Wahls.  On Tuesday we decided to chill locally so Lynne and I took a beautiful hour long walk from the villa down the hill into town.  Nothing like scenic views and girl time to wrap up a perfect visit.  As we dropped Lynne and Joey off at the Florence airport, Howard surprised me and told me that he had packed an overnight bag and off we went for a fabulous overnight in Florence.  A dose of city energy sounded absolutely perfect to me!  That was a great surprise.  Today we visited a smaller museum San Marco Museo. It is a museum now but was originally a 12th century monestary.  So interesting to see the monks cells as well as the beautiful frescos on each of their walls.    As we were walking the city, we stumbled upon Mario Batali's,  Eataly.  That was a great find and I walked around for almost an hour! What fun.  Bought a few things to bring back to the villa and cook while we are here.  Wish I could have each of you over for a big feast!  Love and miss all of you!