We drove to San Gimignano which is a walled city high on a mountain,which is very popular with tourists. We got their just in time and got one of the last few car parks. It was OK but mainly tourist shopping and we bought a few things. After that we decided at the last moment to go to another similar town called Volterra. This was magnificent, lots of long narrow streets and very old buildings. The shops also seemed more interesting with less tourists. Select the...

The boys went for a swim in the pool, even though it was quite cold in the water. Overall it was the warmest day so far. In the afternoon we went through the Leonardo da Vinci museum in Vinci. For dinner we cooked pizza in the pizza oven in the villa.

Did not do a lot today we just stayed around the villa most of the morning. In the afternoon we went into Vinci and had lunch and a little bit of a look around. For dinner we had a local cook come in and prepare a typical Tuscan meal which was bruschetta, artichoke pasta, rabbit and chicken main course and tiramasu for dessert. The owner of the villa joined us for the meal even though he does not speak English and brought a couple of bottles of wine.

We got up early and drove to Pisa and climbed the Leaning Tower. The tower and the church and square around it are very impressive, but the rest of Pisa is not. It seems to be a very industrial town and suburbs. After that we went to Lucca which is an old walled city north of Pisa. It is very interesting with many old buildings being restored. We rode bikes around the wall around the city and had Gelati inside the city. In the evening we had a barbecue back at th...

Today we spent the day at the villa. We slept in a bit and also played some tennis on the tennis court that is here. Peter and I went for a walk to the nearest village At the village the local church was having a fundraiser and so we had some local wine and food. The wine was 0,50 euro a glass.