In front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.

It was another scorcher of a day in Italy. I believe it was 95 but, Sienna offered more shade and less crowds. A lot of hills. Whew, another city that wore me out early. We did tour the cathedral and lit some candles for some friends who need it. Then we headed to lunch.

We had lunch in this amazing restaurant in Sienna. You feel like you are in a cave. Antica Osteria Divo. Food was delicious and ambiance was divine.

After lunch we headed back to our room to enjoy the pool and take a nap before our next adventure. I must say the heat is so exhausting and the pool really refreshes you. So do the naps. I am not a nap person. I never want to take a nap but, this heat has been draining me like there is no tomorrow. Like the kids said, I am too old for this. Our next adventure took us to the town of San Gimignano. This town was adorable. It’s like the entire town is inside a castle or what once was a castle. Lots of hills again. While there we met up the Brandt’s and then headed to a Attoria Poggo Allura a Farmhouse for dinner. It was amazing. It was family style and they just brought out the food and drinks. The view was so amazing.

FYI no edit on that last picture

This year we haven’t been able to go camping because John had shoulder surgery so we accepted an invitation from our daughter to go to Italy on a ten day cruise. Four days in Florence and 10 days at sea, then one day in Rome before heading home.

This will be our first cruise so we are very excited. We are staying at Frattoria LaLoggia, a vineyard and olive grove in Tuscanny.

I am going to go back to leaving ATL and arriving in Paris and finally Florence. Whew what a trip.

‘This is us finally in our seats. We got lucky that there was an empty seat next to me. It gave us a tad bit more room but, leaving at 4:30 in the afternoon put us in Paris at 6:30 am or 12:00 am our time. Not good because I usually stay up that late. We had a 2 hour layover in Paris and then on to Italy. We arrived in Italy about 11:30 and our bags were some of the last ones off the plane. Oh and they are building a new airport in Florence so we literally had to walk down the steps onto the tarmac and take a bus to the airport. It was brutal but I remember those days.

This was waiting for the luggage and then the rental car.

We drove to a small town on the way to the vineyard we were staying. It was hard to find parking so we ended up just heading to Fattoria Laloggia. It is beautiful here and our rooms are magnificent.

I was too exhausted to go to dinner. John, Christy and Leeman went out and I stayed home with the kids who had already fallen asleep. Woke up at 1:00 ready to go. Ugh!