At home in Tuscany

Though we went on road trips galore during our 12 day stay in Tuscany, we did spend a few days closer to home in and around our villa in the little town of Montespertoli. You've seen some of it already, but even with all its challenges, it was a good home base. Every morning we had breakfast at the house before setting out for the day on our many adventures. Somehow, we didn't manage to discover the amazing world of espresso until 3 or 4 days before we left. Largely, this was because I was intimated by the espresso machine, and Geoff, not being a huge coffee drinker himself, was mostly just unaware of it. And so that left me to make American coffee almost each morning. In Tuscany. Which is so wrong somehow. I mean....when in Rome... (or Tuscany)...

So we finally discovered espresso. Our lives may never be the same. Now, we'd had it served to us at various restaurants and cafes during the trip, but to make it for ourselves...? Fortunately, my husband is a brilliant engineer. Not that it takes an engineer to run an espresso machine, but Geoff is so good at knowing how things WORK. He is incredibly gifted in that way, which has proved extremely handy in every possible way, from installing things around the house to knowing the best way to wind up your iPod headphones so they don't get tangled, and the espresso machine was a walk in the park for him. AND, we discovered that he loves espresso - even more than regular coffee. AND espresso proved to be the best way to get a little caffeine in the morning before setting out. Coffee, you linger and chat over. Espresso gets you going quickly when you've got to get on the road to an amazing Tuscan destination.


We occasionally had lunch or dinner at the house too. Which usually consisted of: wine, bread with olive oil, caprese salad and some sort of pasta bolognese (Geoff's favorite).


We even spend one day at the house just chilling out. We'd tried to go to a pool cause we'd had so many road trips and it was hot and we just wanted a day to relax. We tried the fancy pool, which was closed for the season (in the summer??) and then the town pool, which was packed and at which Geoff had no cell service, which wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't needed to be on call for work (which is a whole other blog), so we were stuck. I took control and determined that our day of rest would not be ruined, since i knew we could go home, where food and wine and bathrooms were accessible, sit in the front yard with our books and use the hose if things got hot. Genius plan. And it finally caught on. This is how we came to recognize that, one of the many amazing things I bring to the table in this marriage is the ability to come up with a Strong Plan B.


So we sat out in the yard, listened to music, read, ate lunch, drank a bit too much wine (the only downfall of my Strong Plan B) and enjoyed the day.


(Don't worry mom, we didn't really drink this many. Not in one afternoon, anyway.)