Today started off much the same as every other one here in the Tuscan hills; we made a pot of crazy strong coffee (not sure how to make it any other way in those funny little pots) and used it to wash down toast with Nutella.  We added on a little juice and a (slightly out of place) slice or two of gouda and we were fully fortified and ready for the day.

The morning started out smoking hot and so Jeff took the girls to the pool while my mom and I got a little organized.  She needed to pack up as she was leaving today, and I tried to get a handle on what needed to be done before we leave tomorrow.  I think mostly I walked around in circles moving little piles from one place to the other and I'm not sure how much progress I made.  Mostly we'll be tossing everything into the suitcases in the morning as it's now after 11 pm and not a single thing has been packed aside from the dirty clothes.  But, with that being said, we don't have all that much because when traveling with only carry-on sized bags you don't have too many things to begin with!

Okay, on with the day…  We needed to have my mom at the airport in Florence by around 4:30 and we had a restaurant that we wanted to try out on the way.  We loved the sound of the place as it was well off the beaten path and came highly recommended from a fellow truffle lover.  We followed very twisty, narrow roads through vineyard after vineyard and finally ended up in the hamlet of Lamole perched high upon a hill.  It really makes one wonder how these little villages and hamlets survived through the last 400 - 500 years as they are so isolated.  It's hard enough to get to them by car, how about on foot, horseback or chariot??

The restaurant was well worth the drive as the staff was extremely friendly and the food was out of this world.  They must have truffles growing on trees around there with the liberal way they shave them on everything.  (Before people email me about how truffles grow I understand fully that they don't grow on trees.)  For example, check out this salad that my mom ordered - it was described to us as a 'delicate mushroom and truffle salad'.  Umm, yeah!  I ordered a stuffed crepe filled with ricotta and spinach and it was just like eating a puffy cloud of delicious heavenliness.  Jeff's truffle spaghetti was also divine as well as my mom's homemade spinach gnocchi.  The kids proclaimed their meal to be 'the best pasta ever' but I'll admit they've already said that a few times on this trip.  Apparently they've had a lot of good pasta - something about making it fresh as opposed to boiling up a pot of Catelli… spaghetti will never be the same in our house!

We ended the delicious meal with super strong coffee and amazing desserts.  I'm sorry if the food discussion has gone on for too long so I'll spare the dessert details aside from the fact that the two varieties of pannacotta were sublime and the puff pastry pear torte was completely out of this world.  Wow, my stomach just rumbled as I wrote that - I think it had some sort of Pavlovian response to the pear torte!  It was impossible not to indulge in the shot of ice cold limoncello they brought at the end of the meal and so we left with a big smile and a rosy glow.

We found our way to the airport and left my mom in a slightly depressing departure area where we hope she had a nice flight to London before heading back home tomorrow.  It was nice to have her here and we hope she enjoyed Tuscany as much as we did!  We hopped in the car and soon found ourselves completely lost.  Well, not completely lost because we knew exactly where we were on the map - we just happened to be heading to Rome instead of in the direction we wanted to be.  A few small towns later and a pit-stop for gelato and soon enough we found ourselves heading down to catch the last little bit of hot sun at the pool.  It was a gorgeous afternoon and a great way to spend our final afternoon here deep in the hills.

Tomorrow we pack up and head to Pisa where we'll stay for two nights.  We don't intend on staring at the Leaning Tower for two whole days so we're hoping to spend some time on the beach and perhaps eat a few more cones of gelato.  It's rough but I know we can persevere… this is what we train for!