Blogs from Vinci, Tuscany, Italy, Europe

Day 12 & 13 Da Vinci No sleeping in this morning, Kirsten was up made breakfast gathering everything and telling me to move or get swept up with the rest of the crumbs. Breakfast was over before it even started where’s my soft-boiled egg? Not today bubba were packing up and leaving… well I am if you want to come you might be packed and in the car when I pull out. I guess my birthday in over? YEA! After cleaning and straightening everything back to where it was when we arrived we said good by to our Air B&B. It was fun and we’ll do it again. I walked over the butcher shop and said goodbye to Lorenzo and invited him to Orlando. As we pulled out of Gaiole all the old folks sitting around ... read more

My family and I have just returned from a week in Tuscany. One of my great passions is food so it’s not particularly surprising that we plonked ourselves in one of Italy's many great gastronomic centres. We ate in the same restaurant three times during the week. It serves simple but delicious food using fresh and locally sourced ingredients. The added bonus is that with sterling at an 18 month high against the Euro, it was also fantastic value. I took a photograph of the bill just to illustrate the point. Let me talk you through it. Firstly the setting. I honestly don’t know of a finer setting. You can see the spectacular view from the terrace restaurant in the picture on the right. And so to the meal…. 2 glasses of milk for the kids ... read more