Tuscany to Umbria

We loved staying the past 5 days at our hotel in the rolling hills of Tuscany, but Marshall was really craving some beach time. We asked the owner of the hotel where a good beach was in Tuscany and she suggested Follonica which was a two hour drive away on the west coast of Italy. We packed our bags, enjoyed the amazing views over breakfast, then hopped in the car and headed that way. Tyson and I slept the entire way so we were raring to go when we got there. We first strolled along the beachfront and came in contact with our first American restaurant (which was basically a McDonald's knock off called MacTony, LOL- they even use the double arched M and the same colors…no idea how they got away with that). Marshall had been craving a burger for weeks so he was ecstatic. It was also the first time I was able to get chicken (*even if it was in burger form), since Italians apparently do not eat the dirty bird. The hotel we ended up going to was right on the water and had its own private beach. We spent a lot of time playing in the sand with Tyson. The water was very shallow on this beach which allowed Tyson to walk with Dada out about 30 yards and splash in the cold water (which is a new word he loves. If you say ‘Spash Spash’ he gets all excited and smiles moving his hands up and down like he’s splashing). He loves throwing the sand all over himself and us. He also likes tasting the sand for some reason, can't imagine it takes very good.

The next morning was cloudy and the weather was supposed to be drizzly for the next two days so we decided to drive three hours east to a town called Assissi in the Umbria region. The Austrian friends we met in Tuscany highly recommended it and we really wanted to check it out. On the way there we saw a sign for an aquarium/dinosaur exhibit. We figured it would be a good excuse to stretch our legs and for Tyson to learn about some new animals. It looked kinda sketchy from the outside, but we walked in to see what it was all about. It ended up being more like a large personal fish collection in tiny fish tanks, a smell of -well fish-, and a few plastic dinosaurs covered in snails outside. Tyson seemed to have fun and loved the seahorses. There was a little girl there who kept giving him little toys they sold in the gift shop area. He enjoyed playing with her a bit and gave her a flower he had been carrying around since we got back in from the dinosaurs. After that we jumped back in the car and headed to Assissi.

We generally choose hotels a few minutes outside the main cities we stay in but this time we wanted to be right downtown in the old city. This way we would be walking distance to all the shops and restaurants and be able to see all the sights and hear the sounds both in the day and night. This time, the night sounds were full of 120 teenagers staying at the same hotel and smoking cigarettes below our window. Oh well, can’t win them all. It was a nice hotel and very affordable (61 Euros).

As always, we strolled the streets for a few hours taking random alleys to see where we'd end up. We did a full circle of the town finding random bakeries to stop for yummy snacks along the way. Tyson absolutely has to go into every single shop when he is not in his stroller. We let him take a few steps in and realize he has had enough of that place, then walk out and go into the next one. Each block takes a good 30 mins so we pick and choose the best ones for him to walk around.

Before we called in a night we stopped into our hotel café for a drink. We were enjoying people watching, especially a man playing the one and only slot machine inside the cafe. He only played for five minutes, but won around 15 Euros. When he cashed out we were curious if the machine was still a winner. We put one Euro in and spun. 4 wilds came on the screen and it gave us 10 free spins! We spun 10 times and on the 8th spin 5 wilds came up and it gave us 20 free spins!! We ended up winning 35 Euros on the one Euro we spent in about 3 minutes. We don’t really gamble so we cashed out right away and paid for our drinks (with the money we just won). It also ended up paying for half of our hotel room that night. Pretty sweet!!

This morning we headed to a town called Gubbio which is 45 minutes East of Assissi and still in the Umbria region. Actually reminds us of Assissi, but we haven’t gone in the old town yet. We found a bed and breakfast in the countryside that has a great view of the hills and the old city. We didn’t venture out too much today because we just wanted to have a relax day and make sure Tyson had plenty of play time. Our room has a kitchen area so we made our own pasta and broccoli, then made a fort out of a bed sheet, chairs, and the couch. It was Tyson's first fort so he was all smiles as he crawled all over the couch and played with his toys in there. Now that Tyson is in bed we are out in the living area catching up on Survivor on our iPad as we write this post. (Side note: The past two weeks we’ve been in Italy the only English channel we’ve had was MTV music videos. Haven’t watched those since the summer of 6th grade when I waited all day for Hanson’s MMMbop to come on.) Tomorrow we will be staying the night in a castle for my 30th birthday and Marshall has a surprise for me (as I just learned when he grabbed the computer out of my hands to type that). Can’t wait!!!