I wanted to steal this off the wall

On the Blog:

I feel like we’ve been doing a lot lately.  No major trips, but plenty of little stuff.  Which has been good, but also contributing to August feeling weird.  (And hoping I didn’t make a mistake on our decision for school for the kiddos.)

I’ve taken my love of agriturismi to a whole new level.  Now instead of using them for overnight stays only, I’m treating them like destinations.  We did dinner at Agriturismo La Cerra outside of Tivoli before hitting the fountains at night at Villa d’Este.  HIGHLY recommend La Cerra.  We may hit up dinner again there some other night.  They have an awesome playground and animals to see with some darn tasty food from Cinta Senese pigs.  Molto affordable as well.

Meh on the Villa d’Este fountains at night.  We didn’t get home until midnight; it was a lot of hassle with the kids.  It could have been a romantical styles date night, but I think I like the fountains by day even more.  I think I expected colored lights, music, something.  Nope.

I also keep trying to make Abruzzo happen.  We enjoyed our weekend there, but the weather threw us.  Undeterred, we headed out for lunch at Il Timo, an agriturismo in Abruzzo, on a Saturday.  I thought the mountains would be cooler.  Nope.  Direct sun.  Very hot.  The grilled meats were pretty tasty though.  This place had pretty adorable cabins for anyone considering an overnight.

Last weekend we finally tried Podere Spedalone, a very highly recommend agriturismo outside of Pienza.  It is on the pricey side, but it did live up to the hype.   Picture sipping prosecco watching the Tuscan sunset before a fantastic four course dinner.  These guys have the creature comforts down.  Water bottles by the pool, soft towels, fancy wine gifted on departure.  They are also super friendly and helpful.  If it wasn’t more of a splurge, we’d be back there on the reg.

We picked that weekend to catch the Bravio delle Botti in Montepulciano.  Amazing.  We saw a bit of the medieval procession.  Then we got to see teams of two running barrels up the hill.  Incredible.  I couldn’t help but just laugh at the wonder that something like this exists.  (You can see a video on my Instagram.)

On the local front, we enjoyed the Banksy exhibit.  Highly recommend if you can squeeze it in before it closes September 4.  We squeezed in another lake day at Martignano.  Not too shabby.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin is dunskies!  Into Clear and Present Danger.  The Summer of Clancy continues.  I’ve settled into a new routine on this.  I have to at least touch the Clancy book each day.  Maybe only for two pages.  But it is enough to keep me interested in the story and not forget what is happening.  I usually read a few books at once so this works for me.

The kids are still funny.  And talk about vino.

On the Internets:

Could ride-on suitcases by the answer to travel with young kids?  I’m skeptical with the two yahoos, but I’m definitely curious.

So much for a link post.  I’ll get on this.  What have you been up to in August?