Christmas in Tuscany, part 1

I haven't written a blog in a month! December is a busy month here as it is everywhere else. Mostly in December I was doing the same things everyone in the US was doing - shopping, wrapping and mailing gifts, attending Christmas parties, doing end-of-year stuff at the kids' school, waiting for the kids to finish Christmas pageant practice, etc. One thing that was different for me than people in the US is that Carter and Haley's school was out on December 11! So they were home with me while I tried to accomplish all the Christmas tasks.

A visit from the McKearnans, a Missoula
family now living in Doha, Qatar

Christmas market: what's not to love about cotton candy
as big as your head?

Carter as one of the 3 wise men

We went ice skating on one of our holidays
in Berlin

The spread of yummy stuff when we hosted
Dan's boss's family for a Christmas tea

Now we have just returned from a lovely and long vacation in Italy. I will write about it in parts like I did for our France trip so it isn't as overwhelming for you to read and for me to write! Here are some initial observations:

• Everyone should visit Tuscany in wintertime! The landscape is beautiful, the weather was nice, and the crowds were very light. There were very few foreigners traveling; it was just us with a lot of Italians. In fact, one night on our way to dinner a man walking near us heard us speaking English and stopped us and said "You're American and you're visiting Italy in December??" It was definitely our preference to visit off-season. I'm pretty sure we would go insane with the summer crowds. 
• We got very lucky with the weather. I knew when I booked the trip that there was a chance that it could be chilly and raining much of the time, but the vacation was so long that I figured even if the weather was bad part of the time that it couldn't be bad the whole time. I figured we would hang out in our room and have family time and play board games, and we were staying in an area known for its thermal spas so I figured we would visit them a lot. As it turns out, the weather was a little cloudy the first couple of days, but was really beautiful after that. There was some fog that made for interesting pictures and we always climbed above it to visit the little hill towns. It was cool and even cold, especially in the evenings, but with the bright sunshine we were able to sit outside and eat afternoon lunches in the sun on a couple of days and we spent lots and lots of time outside touring and recreating. It didn't rain until the day we flew home. That day was cold and rainy and completely socked in with fog. We would have had a very different trip if our weather had been like that the whole time.
• Italian food is so delicious. I never got tired of it and in fact was sad to leave because I felt like I hadn't had enough pasta, and I never once got to try a risotto. I don't think I have ever had a vacation before where I ate the same type of food for so many days in a row. 
• Spending Christmas abroad turned out okay. We have always spent Christmas either at home or at the home of family, and Carter wasn't happy about leaving our tree, our presents, our pets, and our house behind. About a week before our trip I pressed him to tell me exactly what was bothering him. In tears he told me that to him, Christmas is sleeping in your own bed and coming downstairs Christmas morning in your PJs to see what Santa brought. And where will Santa put the presents if there's no tree? My heart broke, and I wondered if I was depriving my kids of precious moments in their lives. As it turned out though, it seems that what was important about Christmas was that we were together. There was still excitement even though the pile of presents was very small. We found an English church service and sang carols Christmas morning. We spent the day together. A couple of times the kids said "It doesn't really feel like Christmas", but not really in a sad way. I think next year we'll stay in Berlin for Christmas, but I think this experiment worked out fine.

Presents under the tree; Haley eats breakfast

Now for the trip. On December 22 we flew to Florence, Italy. About a week before the trip and after my conversation with Carter I had called the small bed and breakfast where we would be staying for Christmas and asked if there was enough space in our room to put a Christmas tree, thinking Florence would be like Berlin where there are Christmas tree stands everywhere and we could buy a small tree and set it up in our room. I was surprised and delighted when Francesco told me that he would get a tree for us and he would set it up in the room! He also said that they weren't fully booked and for just a little more money he would allow us to have two rooms instead of one so we could have extra room for the tree and the gifts and the luggage and to relax on Christmas day. Wonderful! So when we arrived in Florence and saw the rooms, not only had they bought a tree for us but they had also decorated it with festive red ornaments! It was perfect.

I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Florence - Soggiorno Battistero. The location was perfect - literally right next to the Duomo in the main square. I had ordered a view room that looks out on the square but Dan couldn't sleep the first night because of the noise. So they allowed us to switch to a larger, quieter room on the other side. Breakfast each morning was brought to us in the room, a simple meal of packaged foods - brioche, yogurt, a hard-boiled egg if you asked for it, and coffee, tea or hot chocolate. We got sick of the same thing each morning, but you couldn't beat the convenience and Florence doesn't really have bakeries and breakfast on every corner the way Berlin and Paris seem to. We wondered why the hotel didn't at least go out and get fresh pastries in the morning instead of serving the packages, but the owner of our B&B in southern Tuscany told us that it's actually the law that B&Bs have to serve food that is pre-packaged. (She didn't follow this law - she made us amazing fresh cakes each morning, but told us that if anyone ever came to check on it then she would get in trouble.)

A modern ad next to an ancient arch

On our first day in Florence we saw the sights right nearby: the magnificent Duomo, the huge tree and nativity scene set up in the square, the beautiful bronze doors of the baptistery. We wandered over to the Ponte Vechhio and then strolled through the Medici's Boboli Gardens. We took a lot of pictures because everything was so pretty - the old stone buildings, the Arno River, the soft winter light. The weather was fine: cloudy but not very cold. The city was decorated beautifully for Christmas - lighted bells or stars or curtains of lights were strung from wall to wall on the narrow streets.  In fact, everywhere we went in Italy was decorated like this and it made it feel very festive.

A panel from Ghiberti's bronze door of the Florence baptistery

Pretty bells hang overhead

Taking a shower in front of the big "bathtub" in the Boboli Gardens

Dan and Carter atop the staircase as the sun peeked out

On the Ponte Vecchio

A gorgeous gown in the costume museum
at the Medici's palace/gardens

L to r: Baptistery, cathedral, tower

After the gardens we told the kids we had a 4:00 appointment to tour one of the famous old theaters in town. This brought Carter to tears. "Touring" is a bad word in our house, and he felt like he had already withstood all the touring he could manage for the day. He whined and snuffled all the way to the Odeon Cinema where we surprised the kids with tickets to the new Star Wars movie. Gotcha! The movie was in English with Italian subtitles, and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. After the last three Star Wars movies I had very low expectations, but I thought this movie was really great and it stirred up a lot of nostalgia for the good old days of Star Wars.

Relief!

We finished this great day with what was perhaps our best meal in Italy. I had made a reservation at a highly recommended restaurant, La Giostra, and it did not disappoint. Pear and pecorino salad, Florentine steak, and a bunch of other yumminess. Everyone went to bed happy, full and tired and we awoke to Christmas Eve the next morning.