Yesterday was our last day in London. I left for work at 7:30am as I had a breakfast meeting (not sure why I agreed to that after 2 weeks on holiday). It was a typical English summers day - cool with a light drizzle. After the sweltering heat in Italy I found it quite pleasant but everyone else was moaning that it was cold. The family spend the day doing some more shopping and walking around....

Helen had found out (when we were back in SA) that there was 10km race happening today in London called the Great British 10km. The route takes you past numerous well-known London sites like Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, National Gallery etc. The route also goes right past our flat in London. Helen, Michael, Lara & Oli were registered to do it and they left just before 8am to get to the start (which was at the...

Everyone started leaving from 7:45am this morning. My brother and his family left first, followed by my oldest sister (and her husband and one child), my uncle & aunt and then us. We were in no rush as our flight was only in early evening but we decided to stop at the Ferrari Museum on the way back to Milan. Ferrari's home base is near Modena and after much pleading from Chloe, Lara and Oli we...

Today was our full day in Tuscany. We decided that instead of just loafing around at the Estate for the whole day that we should at least go and see another Tuscan village and it was suggested we go the Akone which is the nearest village to where we are. It is only about 3 kms away. There really isn't a lot to see at the village but it does amazes me that someone would think...

Today was just spent around the Villa. Some of the group (including a bunch of my family and their girlfriends) were meant to go riding. But the heat and the difficult roads around here put them off. My hard-earned money down the drain. Helen and Lara did go for a 5km run though and this time Lara was complaining about how difficult it was. It was considerably cooler today so it couldn't have been the heat....

An early start for everyone today as we needed to be at the train station in Rufina at 9:20am to catch the train to Firenze (known to us as Florence). Probably the earliest some people have had to get up this week and especially after a 2am game of poker again for some last night (@Bryan - don't worry it's not strip poker).  Adding in the treacherous road, we needed to leave at 8:30am. We managed...

Today we had nothing planned and we just spent the day around the Estate. It seems Helen is the first one awake each morning and today was again no exception. She went for a morning swim and found Lara in the pool already and even more surprising was that Stephen arrived shortly afterwards. It is surprising because they have been up late most nights playing games or some sort or another and last night they were...

Today was the olive oil and wine tasting day. Four of us headed out at 9:45am for a preliminary wine tasting. We needed to buy wine for the next 5 nights dinners and so my Dad, my brother-in-law, my brother and I went to one of the nearby wine farms for a tasting. The owner's wife did the tasting for us. They produce 2 million bottles a year (which is a massive amount). There are strict...

Today was a leisurely day around the estate. Helen was up way too early and decided to go for a morning swim as her daily bit of exercise. The estate consists of four separate buildings and we have them all. There is the main building (where Helen and I have our bedroom) and then there is a smaller main building and two other smaller units. Breakfast is self-service and happens in one of the two main...

We were up at 4:30am this morning as we needed to leave for the airport around 5am. We dragged our bags from the hotel up to the terminal (and I specifically said 'up' because it seemed to be uphill the whole way. This being Portugal, the check in counters were not yet open though they were meant to open 2 hours before the departure of the flight (which was leaving at 6:45am so they should have...