Italy photo marathon!

1. Su (David's Mum) and I in the village park on the last day of our holiday

I thought I get the Italy photos all done in one go.....there's lots to look at...we were in Italy from 7th-16th October, it was the very start of Autumn for them and Castania season (chesnuts) so we ate roasted chesnuts, chesnut pasta and other chesnut related things, went to a chesnut festival and brough chesnut flour back home with us. They were everywhere you looked on the trees and on the ground and were a devil to collect without getting spiked!

2. Castania (chesnuts) on the tree

As is the tradition on holiday and especially in Italy, we stopped for lots of coffee in cafes. I don't drink coffee so went for hot chocolate instead. Hot chocolate in Italy is like hot, thick chocolate mousse in a cup, you have to eat it with a spoon, it is amazing!!

3. Amazing Hot Chocolate

We were staying in a village called Veruccole in Tuscany, in the mountais above Pisa and Luca. Some of the area was made up of ski resorts. We headed out there for a drive one day and it got very cold so high up, we managed to find a sheltered spot for a picnic though...

4. Picnic on the side of a mountain

The largest town to us was Catell Nuovo (sp?), this is where we went to get amazing ices creams and browse the shops.

5. A kiss on a cobbled street

6. The best ice creams ever. Walnut, blue berry, pistashio and nutella!!! to name a few flavours.

Having Ada with us on her first holiday abroard was great for us too as she broke the ice with everyone we met in shops and cafes. They thought she was adorable and always got a conversation started!

7. Ada making friends!

We ate out quite a bit in the afternoons and David tended to cook in the evenings, which was great. Lots of local produce to choose from at the markets and supermarkets. Dave enjoyed sampling the local meat!

8. Some of Dave's meat!

One day we got back from a day trip to find a farmer grazing a heard of goats in the village. Ada had great fun feeding them with the local chidren and spotting all of the baby goats.

9. Italian goats

There were lots of castels and churches to see in the local towns and villages.

10. Castell Nuova city gate & walls

David was happy to see lots of towers like the ones in Assasins Creed...he just couldn't manage the climbing part!

11. David trying a climb a tower.

12. Ada

13. The beautiful weather we had all week

14. Family photo

15. Ada exploting the village

16. The mountains that surrounded us

17. The fort in our village

18. The park in our village - Ada loved the swing even more than me!

All in all a very successful holiday with the in-laws and driving cars in europe for the first time, we had Fiat 500s and it was great fun driving round all of the hair-pin bends up and down the mountain roads! Here's to our next holida...in Southern Italy!