Umbria

After Toscana we parted ways with Lib and Brian.

They went home, we went to Umbria.

A place you must visit one day.

It was amazing.

Modena

You can never eat enough prosciutto and cheese.

Especially if you have wine with it.  

I think we need to continue our wine with lunch habit now that we're back in the States : )

We planned a few things that didn't involve walking, ruins, or art museums to keep the kid happy!

He very much enjoyed showing me the date each car was manufactured.

Before the Ferrari's we also toured a Balsamic Vinegar producer.

He gave us an amazing private tour of his facility and a tasting of his vinegars.

Embarrassingly as we drove up we were both trying to figure out what Balsamic is made from!

Turns out true Modena Balsamic is made from grapes alone. 

The real stuff is extremely regulated.

 It must be over 12 years old, in a certain bottle shape, and approved by the Balsamic Consortium.  

In fact the makers don't even get to bottle their own stuff. 

The consortium tastes is and decides if it can be bottled that year and if approved they bottle it.

Should've taken photos of his amazing barrel rooms up in the attic!

He even went back to his personal freezer to get Tristan some gelato to put the balsamic on : )

Perugia

 Other than Ferrari's and balsamic our experience was made amazing by the Agriturismo we stayed at.

It's hard to tell here but we were up above the morning/evening/sometimes all day cloud cover.

The view of the Umbrian hills from our cabin.

Roberto, our host, loves to cook so he fixed us an amazing Italian dinner one evening.  

We'd been craving veggies because we'd had so much pizza and pasta!

The squash puree on the far left was darn amazing- squash seeds, pancetta and olive oil topped it.

A simple African chicken dish that he modified to be Italian.

No meal is complete without Parmigiano Reggiano.

We pretty much tried every Italian drink that's served with a meal!

Chianti, water, grappa, a sweet dessert wine that you dip biscotti in, and an espresso.

Tristan spent a lot of time sitting in front of Roberto's fireplace and enjoying jazz music while Michael and I consumed copious amounts of food!

 Such a special night.

Tristan now thinks that Roy (our agriturismo host in Tuscany) and Roberto are his best friends.

He asked me throughout the trip when we were going to see them again.

Roberto did say if we're ever passing through (hahaha) that we must drive up and visit him for a drink!

I was truly enjoying the magnificent Christmas lights in every town.

 Our next kid entertaining activity was a tasting/tour of the Perugina chocolate factory.

They make Baci (a very famous hazelnut chocolate in Italy).

You couldn't take photos during the tour but it was awesome.  

Among other chocolates they were making large chocolate eggs with a toy in the middle for Easter.

 Tristan is now obsessed with them!

They were being assembled, but aren't being sold yet so he begged his Aunt Libby to send him one.

 Spello

 Assisi
 It was sooo foggy and cold at this point, but beautiful anyway.