Italy: Day 8 - Bed and Breakfast in Umbria

We spent last night in a Agritourismo (bed and breakfast based on a working family farm). We had a wonderful meal. The rooms were small - and pretty cold. In the morning - I got some great shots before we left for Firenze. Peter, Jenn, Jo and I took a walk to see some of the countryside. It was really nice. We left all 6 kids in the rooms where they had a good time together.
This is a picture of the farmhouse. Most of the rooms and the dining room is in this building. The setting was most beautiful. This is taken in the early morning. There was a slight rainstorm over night - but it is not raining at this time.

Some of the views of nearby.

Here is a picture of Jennifer and JoEllyn on our hike.

After our wonderful day in Umbria, we drove through the rain to Tuscany. We arrived in Firenze around 2:00 - but could not get into our villa until 4:00 that afternoon. The kids were hungry (when are they not?). We got off the autostrada in the town of Scandicci. Driving around attempting to locate where we were on the map - we came upon a pizzeria. We decided to stop for a meal. They were happy to see us (it was amazing that they had not yet closed for riposo). We had pasta, pizza and Jo had this monster steak (traditional Tuscan style - which means rare). This was a bit more than she was expecting - and we were able to all enjoy the steak! We then decided that it was close enough to 4:00 and decided to drive to our villa - our home for the next week. It took us a bit of time to find out where we were. The owner of the villa had provided a fairly good map that I had printed before we left the US. When we finally found it - it was pouring rain. They let us in the gate and showed us around. Very nice. I was really pleased with the grounds and the shape of the house. We could not enjoy the view at the moment because of the rain. The owners were not concerned about the money - nice - they welcomed us and showed us around and explained how things worked. They provided keys and a remote to open the gate. Here are some pictures of where we stayed and what we saw around this area.


This was our villa for the week. It was a single house - but broken up into 4 complete living quarters. Our friends were on the left - they had sleeping room for 6. The owners were on site, as well has his parents. Our apartment was on the back side.

The views from the villa were spectacular. We spent many hours just gazing at the sites of Firenze in the distance. The grounds of the villa were very well maintained. We had to watch that the little ones did not get too near the pool. Caleb tried to swim in the (unheated) pool and got out after about 2 minutes.

This was the view from the back of our villa. This is looking into Firenze. Center Right - you can see the Firenze Duomo. What a great view!