Gen X Mama

Simply awesome.

This Lancia is car #15.

Sebastian is rooting for Obama! Gobama!

Yup, that Alfa Romeo would be car #14.

More detail on the trip soon. See pictures of the excursions off the cruise ship here.

Yeah, it sucks being on vacation.

Villa Rignana was our home for 6 days during our vacation to the Chianti region in Italy. Having visited Tuscany before, we focused on visiting the small hill towns in the Greve area near our villa. We were most enamored with Montefioralle, a small and quaint hill town with a single brick elliptical street and beautiful views. We had some great meals there with scenery that makes you happy to be alive. The first at Ristorante La Castellana, which had a plate lickingly delicious truffle pasta; and Taverna del Guerrino, a simple trattorie with a nice terrace whose cook looked like a sweet grandmom!

The other town we enjoyed was Badia a Passignano. This hill town is dominated by its monastery dating back to 1049; it looks mythical as you approach it. We ate at Ristoro L'Antica Scuderia, a nice, modern restaurant with a peaceful terrace and a small "public park" next door where the kids ran around while waiting for the grownups to finish their meals.

Hands down our favorite restaurant while staying in the villa was La Cantinetta di Rignana. This locals' favorite restaurant not only had great views, good BBQ with hearty slabs of meat, but a play structure for kids to play in between courses! Perfect!

We also visited Greve, a larger town located at the bottom of the valley. Piazza Matteotti was a pleasant walk. A highlight was visiting Macelleria Falorni, one of Italy's oldest butcher shops. We also stopped by Panzano, a small town with views of the rolling hills; known for famous butcher Dario Cecchini at Antica Macelleria Cecchini.

Rich mapped all the places we visited in Tuscany here. This is also a good website which covers all restaurants in the area we were in.

The Chiantigiana roads were too nauseatingly windy for Isabella, so we did not explore too far. But that gave us an excuse to just relax at the villa amongst the breathtaking scenery, watch the kids play gleefully, and eat well. That's all we wanted on our Tuscan holiday.

See more pictures of the Italy trip here.

We stopped over in New York City for a week to break up the long flight to Italy, a good excuse (like we need one!) to visit old friends. We had playdates with many friends with kids, visited others with new babies, laughed with old buddies, and of course ate lots of great food. The kids' favorite part was probably looking out from this window at all of the activity going around outside!

The summer fun that we had while in New York City:

- Madison Square Park has a music performance for kids every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30 am during the summer
- Central Park's Heckscher Playground has an outstanding water park: an ankle deep walkway for the more timid to splash their feet, to a huge fountain where you can take a "shower"; Central Park Zoo is just the right size to provide variety to your day at Central Park
- Children's Museum of Manhattan is a fun place to duck inside from rain or oppressive heat. The "fire department" with dressup and fire engine were the best!
- Toys R Us Ferris Wheel - beware of all the toys your kids will want to buy when eyeing them from the ferris wheel
- Liberty Island - Isabella loved everything about this excursion, the ferry ride, the island, the ice cream...
- Brooklyn Heights Promenade - gorgeous walk you see in all the movies

We had some great meals from:
- Penang - we had this Malaysian delivered twice because it was so good
- Menchankotei - excellent ramen, very authentic
- Katsuhama - excellent tonkatsu from the same owners as Menchankotei with kurobuta (black pork) which we thought we could only find in Japan
- Queen of Sheba - had to have Ethiopian while Rich babysat the kids!
- Carnegie Deli - hugemongo sandwich, half the size of your head; they delivered!
- Brasserie Cognac - went with B-school buddies
- Bouchon Bakery - great pastries!
- 2nd Avenue Deli - my old favorite, reopened at a new location at 162 E33rd street (between Lex & 3rd Ave)