Cortona with the Clelands

Iain's parents had rented a villa in Tuscany for three weeks in July and invited everyone over to join them. Naturally, this was the main holiday for all the Scottish based branches of the family but we figured it just wasn't going to be feasible. Iain knew the dates coincided with what was going to be the very intense pre-season part of his job. He knew, however, that if things were going well, they would give the players a week off and if things were going really well, then the management would get some down time too. Things went really well, and before I knew it, we were looking for last minute flights to Italy for some family time in the sun. It turns out Ryanair love to cash in on the catholics and there's three weekly flights from Lourdes to Rome. We managed to get some that fitted in with our dates and off we shot to Cortona in the Tuscan hills for five days.

This was our first time at Lourdes airport, and wow! Talk about cashing in on pilgrims. The place was absolutely awash with awful tat. It was also crazy seeing so many priests and nuns on planes. If I remember correctly, there were four or five on our flight. And one just across the aisle from us. I felt safe that the Big Man wasn't going to let this particular plane fall out of the sky with all these disciples on board.

We arrived into Rome Ciampino airport and had to wait ages on our baggage. Probably an hour. You can imagine Iain's mood by the time we finally got out of the arrivals hall. Although we were desperate to get on the road as it was going to be a decent hour and a half drive to the villa, we needed some sort of food before getting on the road. With it being a typically rubbish terminal that Ryanair had flown into, I really wasn't expecting much in the way of GF food and expected to be leaving with a coffee and a banana, but suddenly the differences between France and Italy and their coeliac awareness was RIGHT IN MY FACE! Amazing. Pre-bloomin'-packed sandwiches! I couldn't believe it.

After a wee bit of back and forward on the country roads around the villa, we finally arrived in the late afternoon. Perfect timing for a dip in the pool and a GnT. It was so lovely to be able to drop into a big family holiday with such ease. William just slots right into the madness of the full Cleland gang being together and absolutely loves spending time with his Granny.

That evening, we headed up into Cortona for dinner. It is a beautifully quaint Tuscan hilltop village with tiny narrow streets and amazing plazas. However, you can only imagine the difficulties of herding fifteen Clelands through these streets on a hot summer evening...

 Full crew:

We were all trying to do our bit of exercise during our stay and I swam every morning in the unexpectedly large pool. It was absolutely brilliant to be back in the water again, and smashing out different (albeit shortened) programmes. Also good to get Iain with me too. Even though he ended up with his bum out due to a poor choice of shorts. 

It was nice to be able to chip in with food and cooking while we were there. A real "muck-in" commune style of living. Iain and I did one of the big shops one of the afternoons and, as ever, it was cool to do some investigating of the local gluten free offerings. This was quite a small supermarket but still well stocked. Clearly, Italian coeliacs are not left wanting. Why the hell did we choose to live in France?!

The best thing about the whole trip was just hanging out. Usual pursuits included eating at the big outdoor dining area, swimming in the pool, drinking rosada waaaaay after the sun went down and listening to Woodsie's stories from his childhood. Our trips back to Scotland are always crazy busy trying to see everyone. This way we got a chance to hang out without the need for trips to different houses, making plans work, and forcing more than enough into our schedule. It was brilliant.

 Did someone say "gelato"? 

Arrivederci! LM :)