Under the Tuscan Sun

 














As I sit here in my warm home, delicious dinner smells filling the air, the first of the snow falling outside, dreading the long, cold, winter months ahead, I am gently reminded (thanks Valerie!!) that I am seriously lacking in my blog duties ... so now I will reminisce about our scorching hot, blue sky, sensational food & wine, vineyard and olive tree filled, trip to Tuscany in August.

It is about a 7 hour drive from Munich to our quaint bed and breakfast in Tuscany. We leave Munich in the early hours of the morning to avoid traffic and I am relieved we are arriving in daylight as the 2km rough, dirt driveway takes its toll on our little VW Golf as we bounce and bump our way to the gorgeous bed and breakfast that we will call home for 5 nights, in the stunning Chianti region of Tuscany.

I could post a bunch of photos of this gorgeous region although if you've seen the movie 'Under the Tuscan Sun' .... then that is exactly what our views were like for this week. Our accommodation was an 800 year old country house that the owner restored beautifully...similar to that out of the movie - we stayed in two rooms of the main house although there are some separate cottages available to rent too. Our closest village was Panzano in Chianti - a quaint little village with a fine collection of wine stores, restaurants and bakeries. This region of Tuscany was full of vibrant colors of the trees and vines over rolling hills, the blue cloudless sky, the deep red of the grapes amongst the dry grass - it was absolutely gorgeous!! We spent our days visiting vineyards, nearby villages, swimming and relaxing by the pool at our accommodation and eating and drinking the spectacular food and wine from this divine region.

We came home well rested with sun kissed skin from the warm Tuscan sun, with several boxes full of our favorite Chianti wines to enjoy through our hibernation during the long, cold months ahead.

For those of you who haven't seen "Under the Tuscan Sun", here are a few snaps of our trip - a region that I could enjoy revisiting over and over again.

The remainder of our Summer we were hosting the Fitton Bed & Breakfast. My wonderful Californian friend, Sandi,chose Munich for her first European adventure - we travelled to Salzburg in Austria and also to Lago di Garda in Italy. We had perfect, warm weather and we spent her 10 day visit laughing, talking, swimming, eating and drinking ... and laughing ... did I say laughing?! We did lots of laughing!! It was so fabulous to see her and show her a tiny part of this gorgeous part of the world. I miss her!!

Our next visitor at our bed & breakfast was my Dad for a few days. The kids adore my Dad. We walked around the English Gardens, saw the crazy Germans surfing in the icy water, spent a day at BMW world and enjoyed a fun bike ride to Nymphenberg Palace. We always enjoy having Pa here - his trips are only ever a few days but it means so much to the kids and for me to be able to spend some quality time together.

Our last visitors for the Summer were Nick's parents, John and Julia. They had already enjoyed an extensive trip through England and Scotland and we were their last stop before heading back to Australia. Polly and Henry love spending time with Nana and Grandad. Many games were played, knitting, sewing, trips to the park, a day spent in the ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and  time spent wandering around Munich. We love catching up with family - it helps close the gap in the tremendous distance between Australia and Germany - same time next year, right??

School is back in full swing now. Polly is in Grade 5 which is the first year of Middle School. Her after school activities this year are Mandarin, violin, guitar, tae kwon do and orchestra. As part of Polly's study on Bavaria, she has already been on a 5 day school trip to Berchtesgaden, near the Austrian border, that she loved. Henry is loving school too; he has an awesome Australian teacher and is thriving this year. His after school activities are drums (!!) and doing tae kwon do. The kids' school days are long and exhausting but they are both so happy at school; it means the world to me to see their smiling faces at the end of the day; happy kids = happy mum ;-)

Our current project is to get Polly's American citizenship and passport. She is the only one in our family without it so we are working hard to make this happen. It has been a huge task but we are almost there now. Once she has her American passport then we will start planning the next trip ... so stay tuned ... I am not sure where our next vacation will be yet but you can be sure that it will be worth writing about!!