Tuscany, Day Three: Luco, Montereggiano, and Siena

Josh was anxious to get started with filming for his next song in the children's literature genre, so we offered to spend the morning around the castle in Luco. That would give us the chance to explore and give him the opportunity to capture the beautiful scenery for his music video. The kids and I enjoyed walking in the vineyards and playing in the gardens and Josh jammed in the background!

Our apartment was in the tower!  Lucas STILL thinks it's our new house...I don't think any of us would mind, but it would be a long commute to Duke next year.

Since we were enjoying the quiet morning at "home" - we ended up having lunch in and getting everyone down for rests, too.  After naps we headed towards Siena...but first, a detour to the town of Montereggiano...for some yummy gelato and a walk around it's charming cobbled streets.

Montereggiano is a fortified city once allied with Siena and used as a military outpost during struggles for regional power with Florence.  We climbed up to the top of the walls and walked around the city for a birds' eye view.  Could have stayed all day!

On to Siena!  We ended up with a little picnic dinner in the piazza, so we finished it off with gelato numero due of the day!

Piazza del Campo - one of our favorites in all of Europe.

If you notice the fences and sand "track" around the outside of the piazza it was there for the famous Il Palio horse race that is run each year on July 2nd.  We missed it by a week!

Beautiful Siena at dusk.  We miss you Bryan and Aida!!