Another early start to the morning, breakfaast, packed and out of the hotel by 9.00am. The drive from Rapollo to Tuscany was about 3 hours on the super smooth autostradas. Again the drive was fast through tunnels and big bridges over valleys. We had to drive up a bumpy dirt road to get to our villa. It was set among vines and olive trees. The countryside is green and bushy and there are villas scatered around the hills. Very picturesque.

We arrived at the villa at 12.00 noon. We were greeted by Eduardo - the caretaker of the property. He didn't speak a word of English - so, using my very broken Italian, we managed to work out that we were a the right villa and that Peter and Jenny were staying here! He opened he door to he villa and the girls ran to the bedrooms to search for Grace's special bear called Tony (that way we could be 100% sure we were in the right place!). Bingo! There was Tony on a bed - phew! We were in the right place!!

We unpacked and then Peter, Jenny and Grace arrived from an outing to the local village of Greve in Chianti. We sat around the pool while the girls swam. Not long after, the Birds arrived - more welcome drinks! The children decide they want to hang around the villa while the parents head into Greve for the wine festival. You pay 10Euro for a glass and a tasting card that gives you 7 wine tastings. We went into one of the local butchers that took up three shop fronts. Inside you could purchase a card that enabled you to get more wine from the wine vending machine. We bought a couple of large platters to share.

Back to the villa where Pete and Jen cooked a delicious pasta feast. We ate dinner at the Brid's villa.

On Sunday 8 September, everybody, except for me, slept in until 10.30am. Our breakfasts in Tuscany have been salami, prosciutto, cheese, olives, pesto and bread - yummy! Steph is in food heaven! Today we are going to Panzano to Dario the Butcher's restaurant called Solociccia.

We arrived in Panzano, parked the car and then walked into the town. There was a market with about half an hour to go. Of course, the girls made their way over to the markets. We all made a purchase of some sort - bags, wallets, dresses and tops! Bargains!

Our restaurant was booked for 1.00pm - we had a 10 course lunch which included wine, mineral and still waters. After two hours of grazing on the delicious specialties of the area, we walked through the town to the church. The church provided great views of the surrounding Tuscan rolling hills.

On the way back to our villa we stopped in Greve again for the last day of the wine tasting festival. It was very busy. The kids walked around the town and got a gelati while the parents had a few wine tasings. Back to the villa for more swimming and chill out time. After the huge lunch, we decided to just have a platter of nibbles for dinner.