Day 1 in Tuscany (post dated 6/11/13)

Well, we have made it to Tuscany.  We are staying in a castle built as early as as 1100 A.D..  We are thoroughly enjoying the scenery, weather, swimming pool and peaceful seclusion of it all.  After spending two very full days in Rome, it is a welcome change. 

The path to the swimming pool

Our view from the castle

Bryton in the window of the room we stayed in

The main courtyard

Bryton feeling especially tall

We did take a couple of pit stops on our way out of Rome this morning.  We first went to the oldest road in Rome.

An astonishingly colorful if not accurate portrayal of how the Roman soldiers must have looked 

as they marched down this very road.

Then we took another stop to see the Mormon Temple going up in Rome.  Neither ancient nor nearly as ornate as any of the Catholic Cathedrals but highly significant to us none the less.

We ate lunch in the car while on the road.  Being in Europe gives you license to eat Nutella pretty much around the clock.  And here you can buy the generic version.  Generic anything is good when you have 6 mouths to feed.  We did find a little jar of skippy peanut butter not at the Carrefour but at one of the lesser grocery stores.  I made John a quadruple decker peanut butter/jelly/nutella sandwich since the bread we got came in little, tiny, almost cracker-like slices.  I was less adventurous and essentially made myself a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup sandwich by including just the Nutella and Peanut butter.  I’m going to have to remember that one.

John and I ended the day by going out to dinner at the castle's restaurant and leaving the kids up in the tallest tower where they could not escape except by growing their hair really long and throwing it out the window.  This is the first time we've gone out to a fancy dinner since we left the cruise ship.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.