Day 16: Road Trip

This morning Justin and I went on a run to pick up two very tiny rental cars we secured for the next few days.  We had enough of the train when we went to Lucca.  After we picked up the car and some groceries we went to Sienna, Volterra and San Giminiano, which are all about an hour away from Florence, so not so far away.  Sienna had just had it's famous horse race in it's main piazza and when we arrived there we saw a parade going on for the winning horse racer.  People were wearing binkies and bottles, wearing clothes that looked like Jesters, playing drums, waving flags and I didn't envy their long sleeves and tight pants in the ultra hot weather.  All the kids, even Clementine, climbed up 400 stairs to the top of the tower in a very skinny stairwell and saw an amazing view of the Tuscan countryside.  We got two helpings of gelato because they had this really great flavor called Rustica that was basically yogurt with those dark cherries in syrup all mixed up together with pistacchios on top.  We all had two helpings because it was cheap and delicious.  As we were leaving we saw a place advertising porchetta, one of our favorite foods, and walked into this totally amazing shop with meat hanging everywhere.  It was totally picturesque.  Lucy started to take a photo, but the man took out his flashlight and shined it at Lucy’s camera and told her she couldn’t take a photo.  So werid.  Then this really horrible lady who looked like she hadn’t smiled in years told us that Clementine was a horrible baby because she touched something.  Italians have no patience for babies when they’re not perfect.  Then we ate lunch at Volterra and were called “Disperati”(desperate people) by an old Italian woman as if we were homeless people or something.  She had a point because all our kids were covered in gelato and were dirty from head to foot.  When we went into town, Henry and Bea kept getting in trouble because they would touch stuff that was outside on the sidewalks.  What do people think will happen if they leave their goods out on the street?  We spent the evening in San Giminiano eating the “world champion” winner of gelato.  It was very good for sure.  Then we sat in the piazza and the kids played with their whirly light up toys.  We let the baby crawl around because she hadn’t had one moment out of her car seat or baby carrier all day.  While she was crawling around, Bea and Clementine started to chase her, which made the baby laugh and drew the attention of everyone sitting in the piazza.  All was well until Clementine fell and smashed the baby’s head on the ground and, no kidding, the entire piazza gasped in horror.  The baby was totally fine and barely cried, but we couldn’t believe that my kids were entertaining the entire population of that city.  Leave it to my kids to make a scene.