A Summer Afternoon in Italy

Here is a glimpse of an afternoon for us here in Italy.

  After Gio woke from his nap we headed up to the huge chestnut forest for a hike.

A rare moment when Gio is not dawdling behind!  

 Gio likes to think of this alternatively as the monster/dinosaur/gruffalo woods.  Today, it was gruffalo. For those of you who may not know this wonderful book, put it on your wish list.  We are obsessed with it here in the Belli house! (And there is also a terrific short film version available.) 

Anyway, the path to the forest begins just above our house.  The climb up is steep.  Gio is always very pleased with himself when he makes it.  Enzo, being a mountain dog, is less impressed with his own self.  

Here is the view of our house just before we enter the woods.  

After spending so much of his life in Kyiv, always restricted to a leash, this life is a gift for Enzo.

Once we enter the forest, both Gio and Enzo begin serious stick hunting and exploration.  Today Gio was busy trying to find the snake, owl, fox, mouse and gruffalo.  He had no luck.... 

....and so both boys switched to sticks.  Each competes to see who can find the biggest ones.  

On the way home we pass by our neighbors who live in a small group of houses and barn at the top of the hill above our house.  Their houses are REALLY old...like, let me see....getting out my calculator...853 years older than ours!

Later we headed to the car wash.  My parents are arriving on Monday so we are trying to clean up our act a bit. 

Gio was fascinated by the "car bath machine".  I promised that next time we would stay in the car and watch from the inside.  He suggested we go home and throw mud at the car so we could come back that evening. 

And to finish off the evening, a scooter "ride" which really means crossing the street and then parking the scooter to investigate the sand pile in the neighbor's driveway.  Soon it was time to head home for pasta and a movie (The Gruffalo, of course!).