Going to Gambettola

La Baia e La Spiaggia

2After lunch we went for a little walk. The girls were being a bit naughty doing monkey see monkey do, they decided they wanted a shoulder ride and stole their daddy's glasses.

This is the port area

The girls played in the sand at the beach.

Speaking of monkeys...

That evening we went to a fabulous restaurant where they serve la Florentina (a large juicy cut of steak, but don't ask me what part of the cow, all I know is that it is the best part). That big grey thing on the plate is a heated stone. The Florentina is just seared, but it still moos in the middle and then served sliced. If you want it heated up you put it on the stone. Cool huh?

La Baia

The reason for going to Gambettola is that my friend Geraldine and her family live there. For the last 5 years I've been saying that we will come and visit. Being the procrastinator that I am, we had yet to go. Max had 2 days off in a row and so I called up Deen and we made a last minute invasion on the VegaraMarchis. They took us to a fab restaurant La BaiaI hope this is just a phase, Sophia always has to make a funny face when having her foto taken.

Geraldine and Vivienne.

Carolina

Me and Viv
(Mom bought us a car seat that snaps into our hardly used old stroller we got for Sophia,
and but we hardly ever use it. Just like her big sister, Vivienne lives in the BabyBjorn)

Nicola and Geraldine.

All in the Family

auto-family portrait. good thing for max's long arm (we had the gorilla grip, we're just too lazy to use it!)

Feeding Vivienne

Ant Wars

Crap!! We have ants again. It's so gross, they all clump up and gather in masses and then after you spray them, they just keep coming out of the walls leaving the surrounded area littered with their nasty little corpses.

The Rock Star!

When ever Vivienne starts to cry, Sophia will drag her little chair to where ever she is at the moment and start rocking her, no matter what she is doing at the time, even playing computer games.

First Bath

Okay it's not really, I've actually given her a whole body bath a couple of times, but Max is never home and I can't take the pictures by myself, so we are just going to pretend that this is her first bath. Just play along.

Splish Splash!

All swaddled up in the towel with Daddy.

From the Hotel

view from hotel

The sisters taking over our bed

Zia Laura

We havent seen Max's Zia Laura since Willie was here and Lili and Salvo got married, so we popped in for an impromptu visit to show off the girls.

Poggibonsi

Max's mom is from Poggibonsi. (and despite that being the reason it should hold near and dear to our hearts, I think of it as the city where Shelly Pollock made the bus stop so it could drop her off and she could throw up. And we weren't even with her! To get to Siena you pass Poggibonsi, and you have to drive through a series of narrow winding roads, so every time I get carsick I think about how lucky I am to be in the car and not on a bus, in a country where I don't speak the language, only to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere. I get carsick just saying the name Poggibonsi!) Anyhoo it is a cute little city that flourished during the time of fascism and you can totally see that in it's architecture. I wish I took better pictures, but I was carsick and lazy.

Sophia pushing her sister through the wobbly streets

Max found a cute little restaurant, but it was freezing inside. Life is so different with Vivienne, we actually sit down and eat. For the first few months of Sophia's life, Max and I never sat down to eat together-one of us was always walking around, desperately trying to console her.

Lili and Salvo

My friends Lili and Salvo live in the town right next to my Ale and Paola and they were really sweet and invited us over for dinner.

Lili and Viv

Salvo, Lili and Viv
(Sophia was tired and not in a very picture taking mood).

Goodbye Grandma

Usurping Max

Grandma is has taken over Max's favorite nap position/blanket.

The Gandioli's

karol invited us for dinner. its been crazy busy so i havent had a chance to show vivienne off to them yet, so the gandiolis got a chance to cuddle.