Exploring the hills of Tuscany

On our last afternoon in Tuscany, the hosts at our agriturismo loaned us their two young sons, Nicola and Alessandro, both university students, who kindly drove us up to those hills we had been admiring from down below. We were left to explore for a bit, and they came back for us at an appointed time. As we explored the town, Alex and I looked down the hill and could see La Pietriccia from a different perspective. (It's near the top in this photo.)

Spring is such a lovely time to visit with all the lush greenery and flowering trees.

We decided to stop for a bite to eat at this place, the Bar Centro Storico Pasticceria. It was shortly after noon on Sunday, and we noticed a lot of very well-dressed people coming from church. The men wore suits and the women wore suits or dresses and high heels. I loved the fashions I saw in Italy, partly because the women there dressed very femininely and apparently love florals as much as I do!

Inside this restaurant, I almost decided to camp out here at the glass case full of sweets. Yum! I have realized that Europeans take their sweets very, very seriously. It is perhaps a good thing I don't live there.

As we read over our menus, I was surprised to find I was sitting in a ... "tea-room." Who knew? But I wasn't in the mood for tea. I wanted something Italian, and what's more Italian than …

Pizza! Mmm. That Pizza Margherita is sooooo good. One thing I noticed about the Italian food we ate was that it tasted cheesier but less greasy than Italian food in America. I really must explore Italian cooking.

Whether I'm having it at the moment or not, tea is never far from my mind, so during our wanderings I was tickled to find these pretty lace curtains with teacups and kitchenwares hanging from one of the windows in Chianciano!

Bright red geraniums were all over the town, spilling off ledges and out of window boxes everywhere you looked.

The other feature I absolutely loved about the old part of town was all the intimate little alleyways. I loved seeing the bricks and cracks and weathered metals. So, so charming.

And did I mention all the window boxes? Yes. I believe I did.

This was a pretty church we had passed on our trip up into the hills.

And all too soon, we were back at La Pietriccia having our final dinner, and this was the scene as we prepared to say goodbye to lovely, lovely Tuscany.

Tomorrow: Winding up the trip in Rome … and another small giveaway!