20 -27 July 2019

The road to Riparbella from Lyon took us through some amazing scenery in the lower Alps of Savoie, through one of the longest (and certainly the most expensive at $80) tunnel we’ve ever experienced and past numerous beautiful old hill forts of northern Italy. 

Conversations around ‘why would you build a fort all the way up there’ deteriorated rapidly into stories of flaming arrows, boiling pitch and screaming horses. Fresh off the last season of Game of Thrones, we resisted the temptation to also include dragons and screaming dothraki (the dragons would have kind of disproved the point in any case) and tried to keep things as historically accurate as possible. 

We tested and proved the theory that each one of those little brown signs that you fly past at 140 km/h on the French motorways hides a perfect little village, complete with 15th century church, town square, boulangerie and bar. Croissants and second breakfasts were consumed here; picnic lunch at an equally beautiful Italian village slightly off our route. 

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En route, we discussed how we wanted to spend our time 

We were excited to be spending a full week with some of our closest friends, hopeful that our girls not act like complete savages and (Ellie in particular) would not go crazy without kids her own age for a week. We had vague plans to explore Tuscany (in particular going back to Siena and maybe Florence), visit some Tuscan beaches and also the local waterpark). 

Fresh off Paris, we were still searching for ways to fill our days.

Some 11 hours later we pulled into Relais La Pieve Vecchia in Riparbella which would be our home for the next week. The property was beautiful, and far surpassed our expectations. We had 4 apartments clustered around a common grassy area complete with our own BBQ. There were two beautiful pools, a tennis court and all important ping pong table. The property was surrounded by olive groves and vineyards which were being bathed in the late afternoon light. 

The place appeared to be populated almost entirely by slow moving, heavily tanned migratory Scandinavians, seemingly paralyzed by the sunshine and 30+ degree heat. 

Our friends already had ice cold beers and rose ready. A quick swim and we were ready to settle in for an evening of catching up with good friends, drinks and BBQ salmon. And pear rakia (but perhaps the less said about that the better). 

How it feels to catch up after a long period of absence is always a good test of friendship. The last time we were with the majority of this group was Liz’s 40th birthday in Barcelona 3 years ago. Whilst lots has changed, it felt like we picked things up immediately, and progressively worked through our catch ups over the next week. Kids were generally now in the frame, and this just added a different dimension which was really great too. 

We agreed that our first day would be a ‘chill out’ day… but in actual fact would become our blueprint for the week.  

We would start with an early morning run, hit the pool, throw a frisbee, have a coffee and think about lunch. Rose in the afternoon would roll into pre dinner beers and highly competitive ping pong tournaments, eventually followed by BBQ dinners, prawns by the truckload and lots of beautiful salads. And more rose. 

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Sometimes we would alternative the early morning run for a game of tennis or basketball, sometimes we would double up. Occasionally a game of cricket would be thrown in (just to confuse the local Scandinavian inhabitants). 

We introduced the girls to classic catches, and it quickly caught on as a ‘must do’ activity. Throughout the week, the throws got harder, the dives bigger, the competition more intense. 

Ping pong was a constant throughout. Sometimes Alan would even win. 

The guidebook in our bag flirted with us, beckoning us to explore the riches of the local area, then pouted and finally rolled over, rejected. This was a trip like we had never done before. If someone had told us we too would become like the slow moving Scandinavians (albeit with more sun sense) and spend the majority of the week hanging by a pool or playing on the grass we would have strongly rejected the notion. But here we were. 

We watched our kids get to know each other and bond, as well as break through language barriers to make friends with a bunch of Danish kids next door. They relished the ‘down time’ and the amount of uninterrupted attention they got from us. 

By the second day Sena was swimming unaided. Thalia was putting her head in the water. By the end of the week everyone was diving and taking catches. 

It’s amazing what happens to kids when you stop dragging them around places. 

We did deviate from the formula a few times. 

We took a day trip to the beautiful town of San Gimignano for a morning… the drive through the beautiful Tuscan hillside was stunning, if a little feisty at times! The town itself was beautiful – surrounded by 13th century walls and towering over the surrounding countryside. It was, however, also (predictably) thronged by tour groups and baking in the 35 degree morning heat. There is only so much you can do to help a child appreciate 13th century architecture (think more battle stories), and by the time we actually breached the city walls, the kids were already convinced it was time to retreat back to the sanctuary of the pool. We held them off until lunch then headed back home. 

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The following day we decided on a trip to the local beach at Cecina, where we would hire bikes and explore the beachside paths and pine forests before finding a secluded spot for a swim. Good in theory. 

What actually happened was we hired a bike for Jessie and Ant/Sena (building on the success of Versailles) and the rest of the crew (Dave, Lara, Thalia, Matty, Liz and Ellie) all piled into a double wheeling, tuk tuk style monstrosity which was basically held together by sticky tape, was about 5 foot wide, perilously unstable and required olympic rowing like synchronicity to drive forward movement. Perfect for 4 adults and 2 kids to explore unpaved beach tracks. 

Amid much screaming and laughing, we headed out towards the beach pathway. Despite a few navigational issues including an unplanned visit to the local police station and time to evaluate whether the vehicle in question could cope with the beach pathway, we made our way into the pine forest. We cycled what seemed like a good distance, announcing ourselves in advance by a continued stream of laughter, screaming and not insignificant swearing. 

We spotted the sea, parked our bikes and walked up the path, excited to have found our little piece of secluded paradise… only to find out we had popped out about 50 metres down the beach from the main town, and right in the middle of about 200 other holidaymakers who were still in sight of their cars parked in the nearby car park. 

So much for secluded. But regardless, the water was warm and our swim felt well deserved. We backed this up with a lovely seaside lunch, a cold beer and another swim before heading home. 

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On our second last day, and now with Dan and Ale arrived from Columbia (including the slightly contraband Dolce the yorkshire terrier, fresh off the plane and making herself comfortable in the non dog friendly apartment), we hit up the nearby waterpark. Despite the long waits for the adult rides, we had a great time playing in the kids areas and got in just enough of the bigger rides to keep everyone (especially Sena, with a new found taste for speed) satisfied. It must be said however, that, even in the midst of a number of good slides for kids, all you need is a metre high wall for them to jump off to keep them happy. We really do try too hard sometimes. 

Before we knew it we were down to the last night. The kids were brown (oops), happy and saying goodbye to their Danish friends (hugs and waves only, still no words spoken). We were slightly pickled. The stone BBQ, having been flambeed by Dave’s lighter fluid, was pitch black and would never be the same again. Ping pong honors were split, Ellie was convinced she’d won the basketball (untrue), Alan couldn’t move his arms anymore (as a result of trying to shoulder press the kids in the pool) and we were all amazed at how fast the week had gone. We celebrated with a night out in Cecina with pizza and more wine.

The next day the ladies did a wine tour because lets face it there just simply had not been enough of that during the week.

The the last dinner (amazing salmon, again courtesy of Dave Sanchez), more rose and preparations were made for the drive out in the morning.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to everyone, giving Alan and Ana one last jab to get a wedding date in the diary. As we got in the car, the girls started talking about how much they would miss our friends. Result. 

We passed rapidly through Pisa with Dave, Lara and Thalia for the obligatory ‘holding up/pushing over the tower’ shots and a quick coffee before hitting the road towards Lyon (instead of the planned Perpignan) for a quick ‘bugger we forgot our wetsuits, can we grab them and by the way can we sleep over again and could you feed us too please?’ stopover at Fred and Noemies. 

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We motored up the autopista, powered (barely) by our own little piece of Romanian automotive excellence, now sporting sparkly new roof racks and ready for our trip around the Iberian Peninsula. 

We felt incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to spend the week with such great friends, and were clearly reminded why it had been so hard to leave Europe 11 years ago. 

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