Under The Tuscan Sun

The cute white train chugged up the hill past the olive groves, vineyards and Tuscan stone houses to the center on the very top that has more restaurants and a fantastic pool complex and water park. Mozart and I jumped off and wandered about taking it all in. What a perfect place for a family on a hot day...beautiful and wet!

We spent the morning doing home school and going thru endless rigamarole trying to get the blog up. The last train leaves at noon, so we had to leave DaVinci behind to deal with that. There was a firewall block on all their public computers and it took a while to figure a way around it and the right man to help us with the problem. Internet connection continues to be a real annoyance on the road in Europe and expensive.

DaVinci eventually got it done and trudged up the hill by himself lugging the laptop with him. For some Italian reason, there were no trains between noon and five. Mozart and I, meanwhile, had bought her a pink jumbo inner tube and found the place to fill it after traipsing all over. She actually picked a green one first as it was on top, but then she saw a girl with a pink one, so we had to go back and exchange it for one in that fave girl shade.

She was having a blast on a smaller run and in the pools, but was glad to see her daddy as I insisted that she wait for him to go with her on the big “river” ride. He hardly had time to catch his breath before she was dragging him into tubing with her. I don’t know if he would go on these kinds of things without her (and imagine he would not bother), but thanks to this little girl, he does end up having a load of  fun too. I went into the big pool, but skipped the tubing thus far, although it does look fun.

Mozart is crazy about it and could do it all day. She is so fast getting out and back in line again that I can hardly get a picture of her. I prefer hanging out in the shade taking in the beauty of the surroundings and snapping a few pictures. They probably make a fortune on just inner tubes alone, especially in high season in July and August when the place is packed. Thankfully it was not very crowded now, so there was less to worry about with a six year old. We started out with one tube and later added another.

There is a nice restaurant on top where we had a great lunch. We could have eaten outside, but it was kind of cozy to be inside with a view. It is good to take a little break from the ever present sun and we were the only ones eating there so it was relaxing and quiet. Mozart also got some reading in as she usually does while waiting for the food. She went thru a new book that she just started this morning.

We noticed that most of the European girls around ten and under do not wear bathing suit tops and usually just have on bikini bottoms. Of course, many places have women of every age not wearing tops, but lately we seem to just see the ten and under set in pools dressed this way. Mozart has not gone with this trend yet, but says she might try it in the morning. This is not something one would do normally in the U.S., so it is interesting to see this difference.

The other trend that is VERY popular all over Europe is pedal pushers for EVERYONE. Whole families regularly have on their capri pants for touring or hanging out. I do not think I have ever seen an American male wearing pedal pushers or capri style below the knee, although there are some long shorts these days. No, these are male capri pants which I do not think even sell in the U.S., but are very much the thing for males in the summer here.

When I first saw it on an Italian male in our first campground in Amsterdam, I thought it strange, but now I am quite used to the look. However, DaVinci still would not be caught dead in them which is probably true of most American males.

Most American males would also not be caught dead in the bikini briefs that many males wear here for bathing trunks. There are more trunks now than years ago, but still a whole lot of male bikini bottoms and many on men with beer bellies which do not too flatter this style. It seems the younger teen males like similar long trunks like their counterparts in the States. Maybe it is like briefs and boxer underwear,
when you are used to one, the other looks odd.

I wonder why some things are popular here like these things and not at home. So much is one-western-culture now in clothes and such that it is curious how some things go across countries
and some just don’t. It is amazing what the mind will conjure up to ponder when lazing around a pool.