Going Back To Tavernelle

We're back! We are finally back in Tavernelle after five years to visit our friends Cesare, Adelasia, Giovanni, and Annamarie. It was also great to see the world's fattest cat Romena who always visited us every morning.

 

When we arrived in Livorno, we were supposed to have a Fiat for our rental car but Dad said it was too big so we got a Ford instead. When we drove through Tavernelle in our FORD, it was like driving around back home. We knew where we wanted to go and how to get there. There were also alot of people driving Fiats through the 'narrow' streets (not too big for them). It was fun to drive through the countryside to Siena, Florence, San Gimignano and many other small villages and towns in our FORD but it would have been better in a Fiat. I enjoyed revisiting old sights like the Piazza del Campo in Siena, the Duomo in Florence, the towers of San Gimignano, and the ruins of Volterra.

My favourite day was when we went for a walk with Annamarie and her family. Our walk took us through several vineyards to a pond where Cesare would sometimes go fishing. Afterwards we went back to their house for an Italian lunch that was delicious. Annamarie also took us to an old monastery called Badia a Passignano where we got a tour from one of the monks. My favourite part was when we went to the garden because it had big walls along it that made it look like a castle. There were also a couple of cats wandering around the garden which reminded me of Lucky back home.

On our last day Mom and I went to get haircuts. The person who cut my hair was also named Matteo. I met lots of other people like the family from the Netherlands who joined me in swimming in the freezing cold pool.

I really enjoyed our time in Tavernelle and I will miss Cesare, Adelasia, Giovanni, and Annamarie. I hope to be able to go back and see them again some day.

A Jewel Named Corsica

I was excited that we were going to Corsica because it was some place new and I'd never heard of it before. We took an overnight ferry ride from Toulon to get to Corsica so we arrived early in the morning and slept until the afternoon. There were many beaches to swim at and the water was so blue and clear you could see everything! Dad and I went to the house where young Napoleon Bonaparte lived. It was big and full of old furniture and paintings. We saw the most incredible cars in the city square because they were on a car rally all around Corsica. I've never seen so many Porsches in one place before.

We traveled to the mountains in the middle of the island and stayed in another amazing Airbnb near Corte. Our host Isabelle had a heated pool that we swam in every day. I loved the view and Isabelle's delicious breakfasts. We went driving through the mountains on a very windy road where we were close to the edge almost all the time. Dad went for a hike while Mom and I stayed in the valley and I climbed around the rocks a bit.

Our next stop was Calvi and we stayed at an amazing resort. It had a heated pool too and there were cats everywhere! One morning Dad and I went for a drive through the mountains to see towns hanging off the mountainsides and then we picked up Mom and went to a small beach we had seen the previous day. It was at the bottom of a hill and we had to walk down. There were lots of fish in the water and we stayed there until supper. On the morning we left, all the kittens came and sat on our table and watched us.

We drove to Bastia where we stayed in a nice hotel by the port. We walked through the narrow streets in the evening and found a small harbour where you could see the church above all the buildings. The ferry we left on was covered with Looney Toons characters and there were plastic models of them throughout the ship. I enjoyed Corsica a lot but I can't wait to go to Tuscany to see our friends in Tavernelle!