Pretty as a.. Picnic!

Despite living in a beautiful Tuscan villa, surrounded by gently sloping hills dotted with olive trees, I was still yet to explore the area until yesterday. After the windy, rainy and at times stormy weather of the past week, the sun was a welcome relief and there was no question that Filomena, the kids and I wanted to do something out doors. With the kids having slept in until 10am and Filo being needed at work in the afternoon, we decided to pack up a picnic and go for a short walk down through the olive groves and find our own little picnic spot.

While Filomena helped Giacomo with his Italian homework, Beatrice and I got to packing up the lunch. First we cleaned out the big picnic bag before I began washing the plates, knives, forks and spoons in hot soupy water. Beatrice did her best to dry them and place them back in the bag. Then came the exciting part, the food! We packed pizza, pasta with pesto, bread and cheese, fruit, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, boiled eggs and biscuits. We even packed some doggie treats for Ciccia, their boisterous golden lab who would be accompanying us to scare off any grass snakes that may slither our way.

 

Ready to go!

Little shed on the side of the road

Once we were finally ready to leave we headed off down the road a few metres before cutting into the olive groves. Though the walk itself was very short as the kids were hungry and it was relatively easily to find a beautiful, shaded area under the silver-green leaves, it was still filled with beauty. Despite the aforementioned rain, the summer so far has been relatively hot and dry resulting in a path of golden, crunch-under-your-feet grass in-between the trees. The slight breeze that passed through the leaves added a nice accompaniment to the chirping of the birds and the pulsing humming of the bees, busy at work on the nearby Jasmin bush. After zig-zagging our way down the hill, through a small, bright green bamboo forest we found our picnic spot under a particularly wide branched tree giving plenty of shade from the midday sun. Within 5 minutes all the food from the picnic bag had been laid out on the slightly slopped ground covered by a very picnicy looking red and white cloth. Following the obligatory photos, we finally dug in to the meal, with only the sounds of nature and the occasional clank of a fork-to-plate to be heard. When the eating was out of the way we all lay down, enjoying the slight breeze and watching the butterflies moving from flower to flower and the lazy lizard stretched out over a log soaking in the sun.

Mini Bamboo Forest

Crunch-under-your-feet-grass



Our Picnic Feast



Picnic Time!