colle di val d' elsa

After leaving Venice we took a train to Florence, where we rented a car and drove to a small town in Italy called Colle di Val d' Elsa.  It is a quiet, small town in the heart of Tuscany.  It was a welcome respite after the crowds in Venice.  Our first day the kids rested in the hotel while Gary and I went exploring on a road with few cars.  We found out about local hikes from the office of tourism.  Then we took the kids out to dinner and Shawn had the best homemade pasta I had ever tried.  The noodles were homemade, thick, and twisted together into irregularly shaped strips. The restaurant was a walk across the street from our hotel, and we didn't know it then, but it would become our go to during our stay in this quaint town.  After dinner the kids wanted to get gelato and so we ventured into the center of town, a five minute walk from out hotel.  There we found all the locals, gathered in the town square, watching soccer on a big screen television under the stars.  I had a moment that night, sitting in the crowd, watching the game with all the Italian people.  For that hour, I was one of them.