Tuscan Pics

We spent the long weekend in Tuscany with my mom, staying at a farmhouse hotel outside of Siena. Using this as our base, we managed to visit five Tuscan towns and one monastery...and still fit in a lazy evening on the hotel terrace eating meats, cheeses, olives and fruit with prosecco and local wine. A Tuscan idyll indeed. My mom and I are preparing to drive up to Rome, so my time is limited to do a big write-up of our trip, but I wanted to post just a few pictures. These are all from our hotel, Fullino Nero, a beautiful, stone farmhouse. Our apartment had a full kitchen with dining table, living room with pull-out sofa bed and bathroom, plus a bedroom with 2nd bathroom. It worked perfectly for us except for our landlady's consternation with Scully.

Dogs are allowed, and I'd included him on our reservation as a pet. And yet...when we arrived, she informed us the dog would always need to go with us when we left the room so she could come in for the trash and towel switch-out. We'd booked a place in the country that allowed pets specifically so we could leave Scully in his crate to rest (broken foot, remember?).  We explained we had a crate, so there would be no problem with anyone coming in while he was there. She was confused. We set up the crate. She was confused. Then she said he might bark. We said he would not. Then she said the crate might scratch the tile floor. We said it would not. Lots of staring at one another in silence until Nathan finally put Scully's dog blanket underneath the crate. Then she said he might "pee-pee" on the floor (all of this discussion was in Italian). We said he would not. We finally seemed to reach an agreement, and we went off to dinner, but the dog seemed to be an issue the entire time we were there and it left us feeling on edge for the duration. Regardless, the hotel, room, and landscaping were just gorgeous, and it was a wonderful, Tuscan retreat.

View from our apartment window