Saturday March 31st

Ok, I think we are back in business. For the last few days we have had problems getting the pictures to upload in to blogger, I seem to have that sorted, for now....

We left off with our arrival in Tuscany late at night. Wow, what a crazy adventure at that turned out to be. At one point we were on a very windy, not guardrail, a point very steep dirt road. Our car was not equipped for those conditions and at one point it actually stalled on one of the steep portions of the road. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and we were able to get out of there.

As I mentioned last post the house that we arrived at is amazing. The owners bought an old run down farmhouse in 2004, and in 2009 they opened up as a Vacation Rental By Owner property. They basically run it like a B&B without the breakfast. Super welcoming people.

We had altered our plans to give us one more night in Tuscany, so the room that we had rented of our stay was not available until the original arrival date, so they set us up in one of the other apartments for the first night. Here are some pics of that apartment.

How can you tell I made the bed for the photo?

After a good nights sleep, we were ready to get outside and actually see where the heck we were. But we had a slight problem. There was SOMETHING in between our outside door and the interior gas doors. The size of the space we are talking about is maybe 3.5 feet X 4 feet. Both Bronwyn and I had seen movement, but because the exterior doors were solid wood and there was a bucket in the space, we couldn't see anything.

In the picture below you can see above the fireplace some drawings. These were painted on to the wall by the owner, and they depict all of the critters that can be seen in the areas. There is the usual list of characters: mice, fox, porcupine, birds, , deer etc. The list goes on to include more unusual stuff for us like hedge hogs, badgers, wild boar and SNAKES!...

Well of course our minds start racing about what savage beast is hiding in our entrance way. Right away Bronwyn says "I heard hissing". That is all I needed to hear. I was out. I wanted nothing more to do with the situation. I was resigning my self to spending my last days in the apartment. I quickly glanced to make sure that whatever it was couldn't slither under the inside glass doors and attack us.

With the situation getting out of control we glanced through the glass doors to the exterior wood doors to see how we could open them. They were like doors from a castle, there was about 8 different latches on the inside. Being a good inner city girl, before going to bed Bronwyn had ensured that every latch from the top of the door, to the bottom of the door had been locked up. Meaning of course that the elected family member that would have to go into the cube of death to unlock the doors, would be in there for some time unlocking all of the latches. I immediately took myself out of the running. The cube of death was not for me. It is already well documented that I don't get along with most critters. I was out.

After a lengthy debate that was more focused on what IT was, Stacey finally got pissed off, put on her shoes and went in. The kids and I, with our hearts beating wildly, held our breath as we closed the glass door locking stacey in the cube. It seemed like hours passed as she began un latching the 47 locks. Finally sunlight broke through and the door swung open revealing the beast!

After a little prodding with one of Fintan's sneakers the killer bunny was chased out of our pathway to freedom. As he ran away Brownyn talked about how cute he was and wanted to keep him. I on the the other hand am older and wiser and know that the rabbit was up to no good and could not be trusted.

With the drama over we walked out side to this view.

We didn't get very far out the door when were greeted by the owner Piergiorgio, and his 4 month old bull terrier, Dante.

Dante and his new BFF's

Dante poses on the steps.

The other full time resident of the house is a cat by the name of BeeChe. She hung out our window sill the entire stay.

The rest of our day was spent in a small village about 25 mins away called Montalcino. It's a cute little hillside town that is home to a number of vineyards and wineshops.

Montalcino as seen from the road.

A couple of handsome fellas with the vista from Montalcino in the background.

A little village, but long, steep walkways.

There was a small fortress in town, so the kids posed for a few pics.

A couple of the older gentlemen in town enjoying the day.

When we arrived back at the farmhouse our new apartment was ready.

Before making dinner we went on walk so we could enjoy the Tuscan sunset.

The dog whisper meets another BFF.

There is a bit of repetition in these final pictures, but quite frak