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)

 

More of Tuscany with the McCanns

Fooled ya. This post is dated Sept 3rd, but it's going back in time. Jim was our primary blogger and he got a job in May, so I'm just now picking up the slack after a whirlwind summer. Will upload some fun pics to share with everyone. Bear with me, as we go back to April and then scroll forward to now.

 

Above is how the girls looked after we made them climb to the top of the tallest of San Gimignano's 12 odd towers. Good thing their faces didn't freeze this way.

The Tuscan vineyards were beautiful even in the spring time.

Whoa Nelly!

Claire really enjoyed the scenery and had much better control over her horse than Daddy did.

Giro di Piemonte, Liguria and Toscana con McCann's

Claire on tour in Florence - we did a great guided tour of the Uffizi gallery seeing the key items like Venus rising from the sea by Botticelli.

Above - the sign of Florence, the lion and the shield here at the Medici Palace, old Town hall

One afternoon we went horseback riding outside San Gimignano - the little girls loved it, the big girls went along for a walk instead. Claire's horse decided to step up the pace at one stage and the guide was worried that it would head back to the barn with or without the rider.

Making Daisy chains in a garden in San Gimignano.

The towers of San Gimignano...

The leaning tower of Pisa with Lila, Ray & Claire

The small seaside village of Vernazza - one of the "Cinque Terre" or 5 lands on the coast just south of Portofino. We spent Julia's birthday night here and enjoyed a fun dinner all together at Il Capitano.

Another view of Vernazza - our hotel is the one on the far right in orange. This photo is taken form the old castle tower at the harbor entrance.

The beachfront of Vernazza with Lila, Ray and Claire.

Claudio graciously hosted all of us for a wonderful dinner at Casa Recchi on top of the hill of Portofino.

Coastine view from the church in Portofino.

And again with Jules.

Claire (above) & Lila (below) overlooking the Portofino harbor.

In front of the Hotel Eden - the three girls were insperable the entire week.

The top of Monte Mottarone overlooking Lago Maggiore, we did not bring up the skis, but plenty of others did!

A boat trip out of Stresa to the island was beautiful.