Tuscany!!!

I cannot say enough good things about Southern Tuscany, LOVED it there. Wish I could live there.  We stayed in a hotel called Sevens Resort, looked really nice on the internet and was SUPER cheap.  When we got there, we found out why it was cheap, they were still in the process of building.  They had their main building done, which was 12 rooms, the restaurant, tennis courts and Olympic sized swimming pool were also done….that’s all we needed.  Even with the construction going on, it wasn’t very noisy, it was such a nice place to stay.  I’m glad we stayed there before they are finished building, because once done, they will have 100 rooms. It’s nice when you go to smaller places, much more personable. The staff was excellent, we were a little nervous about the restaurant, but it was amazing!  Sevens Resort is located just below the town of Cortona, which is where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed.

Our Hotel

The first day we got there we went up into Cortona to check it out. It was a neat little town, with some great views overlooking the area.

The receptionist at the hotel told us of this beautiful church up in Cortina. When said “up” she really meant it.  Many long stretches of the picture below, took us about 30 minutes to get up there, maybe a little longer.

The beautiful Church

This is one of the main squares in Cortona

Looking up at Cortona from our hotel

My dinner at the hotel restaurant.  It was one of the best meals I have had in Italy!

Looking up at Cortona after dinner

The next day, our chef from the hotel restaurant met us in a nearby town to show us around the area. Nice, right?  First, he took us up to a castle and a beautiful garden.

View from the castle

Mom and Scott with our Chef, Andre

The garden

The guard dog…LOL. Sleeping in the back of a Land Rover

Then, he took us to a tree.  That’s right, I said a tree.  He said it’s a very famous tree and is well known to many of Italians for it’s size.

Driving through Southern Tuscany, on our way to Montepulciano

Montepulciano, in a lot of ways, reminded me of Cortona, or even Assisi.  It’s another town up on a hill. It’s a very neat little town.  It was in this town where they filmed a scene from the Twilight Saga, New Moon.

Walking up into the town

Looking into a cute store

Once again, some beautiful views

This is where the scene from New Moon was filmed.  In the movie, they set up a fountain in the square, but the scene that was filmed here is when Edward was going to expose himself in the sun so the Volturi would kill him.  And sweet Bella comes running across the courtyard, through the fountain and pushes him back into the doorway.  Yeah, I’ve seen the movies and read the books, I’m a nerd, but they were good.  The books more so than the movie.

We ate lunch at a great place in Montepulciano, explored the area and came back to the hotel.  We hung out by the pool for a bit, then headed back up into Cortona that evening to look around some more and eat dinner.  We came across this neat theater with girls practicing a recital.

We ate dinner at a yummy pizza joint and headed out to see the sunset.

This place was fabulous. I loved it and can’t wait to go back.  I would LOVE to stay in the same hotel too, not one bad thing about it.  Such a great vacation with my family.  Memories I will for sure hold on to!