Rubin Trek: Toscana!

My father had this fantastic idea to celebrate his 85th birthday by bringing the whole family to Tuscany for a week. Well, it actually happened! My parents rented a villa (large, beautiful, newly renovated farmhouse) in Guamo, a small village 6 kilometers from Lucca. We were 11 strong: Mom, Dad, Miles, me, Adam, Daniel, my brother Doug, sister-in-law Gwen, daughters Cora, Amy and our newest member of our family, her husband Jonathan. We all converged from points around the globe: California, Israel, Zurich and Italy.

Daniel, Dad and Adam in front of our villa

Great pool area, but the water was too cold to swim--boo-hoo

There was a lot to explore walking right from the house. For example, here's a shot of a "waterfall" which is part of an aqua-duct system.

After some of us catching up on jet lag, our first big outing was to Pisa, about 40 minutes away. Well, the tower doesn't disappoint: it is indeed leaning! The entire square is filled with numerous church buildings, all a beautiful white (after lots of cleaning).

A dorky tourist am I!

Adam and Daniel in front of the Duomo (cathedral)

Of course, we had to walk up to the top of the tower. It's a windy, slanted staircase and I felt a little dizzy going up.

Doug, me and Gwen partway up the tower climb

The cousins at the top: Jonathan, Cora, Amy, Adam and Daniel

See that little yellow spot? That's Mom (Dad sitting on the step above) looking up at us on top of the tower. (Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of Mom. There were so many of us taking pictures during the week, we missed a good one of her! Sorry!)

Another day, off we went to Cinque Terre. This is a most picturesque place and we had glorious weather to boot. (Remember, these shots have NOT been Photo Shopped!)

Five sea-side and hill top villages are accessible by foot path, train or boat. While Mom and Dad stayed in the first village enjoying the sun and reading, we 9 trudged off on the hike to see how many villages we could walk to.

We were able to hike from Riomaggiore to Corniglia along the coast route. Recent mudslides closed the coast route to the 4th and 5th villages, but we found an inland trail and got to Vernazza #4. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get to the 5th village Monterosso. We took the train back to Riomaggiore from Vernazza.

Riomaggiore--#1

Manarola--#2

Spectacular! See the footpath at upper right?

Can't get enough of these views!

Corniglia--#3

Wonderful rocks along the trail

Corniglia...ahhh....

Vernazza--#4--from the inland trail

A closer shot of Vernazza

Eating much-deserved ice cream in Vernazza at the end of our hike

The next day we explored Lucca. The Old Town is surrounded by a fortification wall. We had fun just meandering around the small streets--just beautiful. Dad, Cora and I rented bikes one day and rode on top of the wall. There is a wide path perfect for biking, jogging and walking--about 4 1/2 kilometers (6 miles) around.

View of Lucca from a bell tower

Daniel in the "amphitheater"--a large circular public area with shops and cafes

Courtyard

The next day, the 4 of us decided to visit Viareggio, a nearby sea-side resort town. Boy, were we lucky--great weather and we were there BEFORE the season started. There were hardly any people and the umbrella vendors were getting ready for the onslaught of visitors that start coming in June.