More Regatta Pirelli action

Here is Portofino as seen from our boat in the harbor. It's got to be one of the prettier places on the whole Italian left coast.

The long weekend we spent there in early May coincided with Regatta Pirelli, a big boat regatta that Jim used to race in a lot with all of his Italian cronies. He still doesn't really know how to speak Italian on the street but he can get around the racecourse in their language. "Pronto strombare!"

The fashion brands are still into sailing.

And fortunately Jim's racing days were so long ago that he didn't get invited onto any of these high-tech yachts and could hang with us on the Gemma and simply spectate.

Regatta Pirelli in Portofino

Here's a shot of the Recchi's infinity pool looking out over the Mediterranean. Dare you to find the edge.

One, two, three, go!

The Gemma has been good to us.

And you can see why we prefer to go out on her rather than sit on an Italian "beach"...

We've invited our friend, Roberta, along for the ride several times because she is wonderful company and always brings nice tortes :-).

Weekend in Portofino

We brought the boat over and it has been a blast. The Med is really warm and there's a marine park surrounding the Portofino peninsula so lots of fishies and rocks to be found. The girls love swimming and jumping off the boat, and we've had great weather every single weekend.

Here's Claire on the edge of the Recchi's infinity pool at their beautiful house in Portofino.

The pool is built into the rocks in a gorgeous garden at the top of the peninsula looking east over the Portofino harbor and west over the Mediterranean. Not bad.

More Maurers

Here's the whole clan, enjoying a beautiful day. I'm sure we settled into a 3-hour lunch shortly after this photo opp.

The next day we went to a Tuscan "terme" which is their version of thermal hot springs. I had visions of a lovely stream, set in the woods, with bubbling hot water mixing with the cool water of the stream in a naturally formed pool. But no such thing. The Italians like their hot springs (and their beaches) crowded with lots of deck chairs and umbrellas and people. As Alexandra put it, "This looks like the Casco Bay YMCA!"

Day in Florence with Maurers

Look at this statue closely...

See any resemblance?

Here's Lila looking out from Piazza Michelangelo onto the skyline of Firenze, contemplating her year abroad studying art history in college...

The wisteria and other beautiful flowers were out for us in late April.

The girls and I had fun looking at all of the statues in Piazza Signoria.

Lila picks up the guitar

Lila got a guitar for Christmas and has really taken to it.

Tuscany with the Maurers

In late April we ventured back to Tuscany with the Maurers. Here they are in front of that San Gimignano tower. The city used to have 80 of them--it was the medieval way of keeping up with the Joneses.

We also visited Siena which is one of our favority Italian cities with its amazing piazzas, winding streets and spectacular architecture. And of course we must sample each locale's gelato wherever we go.

We took a tour with our favorite guide, Alessia. Here she is showing Claire the mosaics on the walkway outside the duomo.

We rented a villa in the countryside for the week which made the kids pretty happy. They made obstacle courses, rode bikes and played on the playground. And while it might have been too cold to swim for most people, we're Mainers so the girls went right in (the unheated pool water was in the high 50's that time of year).

(notice that Jim is not swimming)