Let’s start by wishing a very happy Father’s Day to all of you dads… especially to B-pa, Granddaddy, and Uncle Pete. We love you all very much!
It seems fitting that we are finally posting our Italy video on Father’s Day, too. We were lucky to spend the week with a few of the best dads we know, and their terrific families, of course.
Here’s our family in San Gimignano, a beautiful small city in Tuscany. We climbed MANY steps and then a ladder to get to this spot, at the top of a tower, where we had fantastic views of the town and the surrounding countryside.
We had perfect weather for our visit there. And we had our one-and-only celebrity sighting of the trip… Minnie Driver was starting the hike up this tower at the same time we were finishing. Her comment… She looked up a bit skeptically and said, “Well, when in San Gimignano….” 
She must have been in Italy filming something– she was with a group of about 20 and we guessed it was a bunch of people from the cast and crew. All of you EW readers out there, any word on movies being filmed in Tuscany these days?
Also in San G… hail to another great dad– Todd! And of course, Christine and sweet baby D.
The third excellent dad of the trip– Kent, in Florence with Jenn, and J and C on their shoulders. We had a great quick visit to Florence, but it poured while we were at lunch there. Christine & Todd had scouted out an outdoor cafe with a canopy, however, and the rain cleared up just as we finished lunch. Perfect setting, perfect timing!
The week was full of great friends and excellent food. While our friend, Oreo, was not with us the whole week, he and Alwin came from the Netherlands to join us for the first few days. It was wonderful to see them.
We were also lucky that other friends who were not staying at the house stopped by to see us. Our friend Benedetta and her boyfriend, Luca, came up from Rome for the day. And Christine’s cousin, Suzy, and her husband, John, were visiting Italy from Scotland, so they were able to come, too. All in all, lots of friends, lots of fun.
And a beautiful setting. The house was situated on a hill overlooking the Mugello valley. Our views from all directions were just truly spectacular. We felt so lucky.
Not only did the house have amazing views, but you can see that the grounds are just beautiful, too. Too bad it wasn’t hot enough for us to enjoy the pool much. We went swimming twice and that was out of love for our children…. Cold! But the cooler temps did make it more pleasant to walk around in the cities we visited.
While we saw lots of beautiful things on our trip, the highlight was sharing this experience with some great friends. It was also just incredible to experience this with the “next generation” of friends. The kids had a lot of fun together.
Michael made a long video of our trip. (It’s big, so it will take a while to download. Right click and do “save target as.”) You can access the video here. We hope you enjoy it. We had a wonderful time.
