Amore

I have fallen in love with the little town of Greve in Chianti. If I had no responsibilities in life, this is where I would live. I reserved an apartment in a restored pasta factory months ago and had no idea that I couldn't have chosen a better place to stay while in Tuscany.

Greve is tucked in the hills, but is only 30 minutes from Florence, 45 minutes from Siena and closer from charming Tuscan hill towns like San Gimignano. The Pasta Factory was just through a little tunnel and around the corner from the village square. Each morning I would pick fresh fruit and juice from the markets and from the baker, pastries and warm bread, that had the consistency of cotton candy.

The kids would help me pick up our laundry from an Italian woman around the corner and at night we would eat pizza and wild boar pasta in the restaurant, that was packed with locals speaking Italian.

Some afternoons I would give the kids a euro so that they could go into the square to buy a treat. They would come home with little candies, a few cookies or a chocolate croissant.

One morning Jonathan did my errands. He came home and told me that he was so tempted to take an extra euro and go into the meat store to buy a little sausage and cheese for himself. I loved that he was living, just for a week, like a real Italian boy, which is easy to do in Greve.