What an interesting day this turned out to be!  We woke up to a rainy, grey morning and our vision of a pool day quickly dissipated.  We looked through a few guide books and decided to head to San Gimignano - a town famous for it's medieval towers.  It looked very interesting and we were all keen on seeing it - that is until we were stuck in a huge traffic jam on the hill approaching the town center.  It appeared as though every person in the entire country of Italy also thought it would be a nice town to visit today!  We persevered for about 10 minutes until giving in to the fact that if we actually did find a parking spot we'd be elbowing off all the other tourists to find a place to eat.  (And we were hungry - don't get in our way!).

We drove away from the lines and onto a back road… and happened upon an amazing place.  Turning into a gravel driveway with a wooden 'Ristorante' sign was a fortuitous decision and led to one of the best meals of our entire life;  'Penne Carbonara with Truffles and Parmesan".  Suffice it to say that we pretty much died upon tasting it.  I'm not sure I have ever had a more delightful moment - amazing pasta, house Chianti, and a view of sunflowers and the towered town of San Gimignano that we didn't quite make it to.  The weather was perfect and it felt like a scene from a movie.  Upon reflection I'm not really sure if it was real or a figment or our imagination, that's how perfect it was.  The picture doesn't do the meal justice - although those are actual truffle shavings on the top and the price was an amazing 10€.  I have to say it again - it was unbelievably good.  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  We briefly considered driving all the way back tomorrow to experience it again but sometimes a meal like that is best left as a memory.   I can guarantee that this will live on in our memories and we'll regale you (or anyone who'll listen) with tales of it over bottles of wine when we're old and prone to re-telling awesome stories.

We pit-stopped on the way home at an Italian Superstore.  Fun!  We didn't really need anything but it's always interesting to see what different items are for sale.  The sun finally came out so we decided to head back to our place and spend the rest of the day at the pool.  What an amazing afternoon - the weather was gorgeous and the pool was empty!  We spent about 3 hours sunbathing and swimming and just soaking in the gorgeous environment.  Such a perfect lunch followed by a perfect afternoon - sometimes you sit back and have to remind yourself to simply soak in the situation.  It's so easy to pass the time without actually acknowledging the perfection of the moment and so  I took a personal memory snapshot that I'll be sure to recall in the middle of a frozen Calgary winter.

Instead of driving into town for dinner we decided to make do with the meager supplies we had on hand.  Olives, cheese, leftover pasta and half of my calzone from last night.  We all felt sleepy after dinner and could've easily went for an early bedtime but rallied together for a gelato run.  Until then we had gone gelato-less today which seemed blasphemous here in Italy.  I chose half coconut half 'vanilla and coffee crisp' and it was well worth the drive.

Okay, so still no walk through the olive groves or into the neighboring vineyards… but we had a day that exceeded our expectations and could be considered a pretty much perfect day.  Who knew that turning on to a random road in the middle of nowhere (that was literally not on our map) would lead to the perfect Tuscan experience?  It just proves that you can't make something good happen, you just have to be open to it.

To end this gorgeous day the kids are cozily tucked into their beds and the adults are sitting on the veranda enjoying a final glass of chianti under a perfect Tuscan moon.  Goodnight…  I feel I can almost guarantee sweet dreams.