Animal day: a mouse, a monkey and lots of ants

This morning started out bright and early for everyone - or early, at least. After yesterday afternoon's drinks in the square and delicious steak meal washed down with wine, I'm not sure any of us felt exactly bright when this morning rolled around. Nevertheless, I crawled out of bed at 6.30am to try and get a mini-exercise session in before the day's activities began. It hardly even qualified as a mini-exercise session, but I did at least show willing before hurrying back indoors to shower, change and get Stuart up.

We'd both been disturbed in the early hours of the morning by Lucca and Florence messing around - it sounded like they were playing with something, and when I got up I was very suspicious of the fact that they were both sitting staring at the wall at the top of the stairs behind the laundry basket and their litter tray. When they didn't even venture downstairs to be let outside, I became even more suspicious and they were starting to make me nervous - the conclusion I jumped to was that there must be an enormous spider behind there somewhere, so I hurried past the cats and whatever they could smell and hoped that someone else would investigate! When he got up, Stuart was brave enough to move the laundry basket and litter tray and when I heard an exclamation of surprise, I was intrigued, but kept my distance. It turned out that there was a mouse hiding in the corner! That certainly explained the cats' persistence! Immediately relieved (since mice are not on the short list of things I'm afraid of), I watched while Stuart cleared the area to allow the cats to finish dealing with the interloper - they had already maimed it during their playtime with it in the night, and Lucca duly hurried out of the house with it in his mouth to finish the deed off.

Drama over, it was nearing 7.20am so Stuart and I grabbed Reggie's lead and Reggie himself and headed out in the car to San Lorenzo. It was a damp morning and it felt a little like walking through the rainforest, but it wasn't cold and it was quite nice to be out and about so early. We did the 'reverse San Lorenzo' walk with Reggie and were back at the house by 8.05am.

After a quick bowl of cereal and loading our guests' bags into the car, we gave Reggie a bone to amuse himself with in his crate and set off for Pisa.

Helen and John hadn't been to Pisa before and had requested a trip in to see the Torre Pendente, so we came off the autostrade at Lucca and took the scenic road from Lucca into the centre of Pisa. It didn't take us too long to find somewhere to park, then we walked towards the Piazza dei Miracoli, which is where the main sights (tower, duomo, baptistry and museums) are clustered.

By the time we arrived, we were all feeling the need of something to pep us up, so we stopped at a café just before we hit central touristville and had coffees all round, with croissants for Helen and Sheila and arancini (fried balls of risotto rice with a meat filling) for Stuart and John.

Feeling revitalised, we headed to the piazza for a wander around and some obligatory holding-the-tower-up shots.

It was while Sheila and I were doing our best to photograph Helen holding the tower up that we were approached by a young Scottish woman who explained that she wanted to take a photograph of her travelling companion - a toy monkey - holding up the tower, but that she needed some assistance. Helen duly agreed to lend a hand, and the rest of us looked on in fits of giggles as poor Helen stood holding the monkey, having her hands positioned and repositioned, being asked to move to the left and right and up and down until the Scottish girl was finally happy with her photograph of monkey.

Bizarre photoshoots over, we ambled back to the car and slowly made our way to the airport. The airport is very close to the centre of Pisa, but after having lived in the sticks for almost a year, we'd forgotten what city driving is like and with all the stopping and starting at traffic lights and junctions and crossings, it took us a good half hour to get there.

Once there, we said fond farewells to our guests and wished them safe travels, waving them off into the terminal building, before set off back home. We've all had a lovely week, we've really enjoyed the company of Sheila, Helen and John, and we hope that they've had an enjoyable holiday too. We know it won't be too long before we see Sheila again, as she is due back in August with Kerys and Ben (Stuart's daughter and son), and we hope it won't be too long before we get to catch up with Helen and John again as well.

We arrived home just after 12.30pm and were greeted not just by two geese, two cats and a dog, but also by the less welcome addition of a colony of hundreds of ants. All over the kitchen floor. Yikes. We were incredulous that so much could happen so quickly - the kitchen floor had been spotless when we'd left the house four hours earlier (largely thanks to Sheila's fastidious cleaning and tidying), and now it was alive with little black dots. I spent five minutes jumping around trying to get rid of as many as I could under my feet, while Stuart tried to locate their entry point, then spent another 10 minutes vacuuming up the remainder. All while Reggie looked on with a very confused expression on his face.

After clearing up, we finally got around to sitting down for a lunch of leftovers (bean dip & cheese with bread) before steeling ourselves to hit the supermarkets. With the early check-out of our guests and trip into Pisa, we'd missed out on our usual early morning supermarket shopping slot, but thankfully both Lidl and Esselunga were fairly quiet this afternoon as well, so it was a relatively easy task and within an hour we were heading home again.

We both felt rather jaded by the time we got back home - after a week of entertaining, lots of drinking, lots of driving today, and an early start, we were definitely not in the right frame of mind to start doing any outdoor work, so instead we sat outside on the patio for a while enjoying the fresh air and the view. While the weather had dried up around lunchtime, it was still mainly cloudy and I kept a coat and scarf on, but when there were the odd breaks in the cloud it was gloriously warm and sunny - hopefully the sign of things to come tomorrow and for the rest of the week.

It will be an early dinner and an early night tonight after the excesses of the week just past, and tomorrow we will be prisoners in our own home: the road that runs past our house will be closed for most of the day for the Valdinievole rally. We aren't really sure quite what to expect, other than a lot of noise, petrol heads and fast cars, but we're looking forward to having a nose at things from the safety of the end of our driveway!

Old cars and even older traditions.

After breakfast on Friday, the four of us (i.e. everyone excluding my wife who was busy working in the office) headed towards town with Reggie.

Mom, auntie Helen and Reggie got out at the San Lorenzo hotel just the other side of Pietrabuona and headed off to walk the track into Pescia while uncle John and I went to the classic car event at the flower market in Pescia for an hour. I was keen to see inside the market as much as John was to nose around old motors, spares and tools.

Thanks to the eight enormous steel legs on the exterior that support the roof, the market itself is a vacuous uninterrupted square space, and while it's normally full of flowers and plants, today it gave way to old cars and the selling of car spares, tools and vaguely related paraphernalia as well some some unrelated paraphernalia such as fishing rods!

John and I enjoyed a good hour in a largely male environment rummaging around the piles of tools and looking open mouthed at the prices displayed on some of the cars as well as chatting briefly with Mimmo, who had his truck at the entrance; Michelle, who was walking her fox terrier Piff inside; and Paulo, from Frateschi, who was there with his son.

After an enjoyable lap of the market we left and walked out into a warmer morning. We called the women to arrange to meet up, which we did on the stone bridge across the river Pescia which joins the Santa Maria quarter to the piazza. We all piled into the car and parked up at Bar Fortuna for a beer and a snack before heading home for lunch.

For lunch, we finished off the last of Helen's rice salad along with some bean dip and aged pecorino cheese, after which the holiday makers headed off to relax for a couple of hours while Helen finished working her hours for the week and I did a little more dry stone walling in the parking area. It was frustratingly slow going today as I'm quickly running out of large, easy-to-stack stones, but after a couple of hours some visual progress had been made and when John appeared after a nap I called it a day to change so that we could all head into town once Helen had finished work for the Mediaeval festival.

Leaving Reggie at home, we drove into Pesicia where we parked in the San Francesco quarter of town and walked towards the sound of drums. Just as we arrived at the San Francesco church, the San Francesco drummers were getting into full swing and a flag thrower was doing his thing in front of them. It didn't take us long to spot Henry and Erik in the troop drumming along with the rest of them, although there was no sign of Chris and Sue.

After the drumming finished we browsed around the various mediaeval-style stalls before walking down to the Santa Maria quarter - just in time for their drumming and flag throwing to start. We all watched in awe as a young lad - who couldn't have been much older than 10 or 11 - threw his flags and did a very impressive display before the teenage group of flag throwers took over from him.

Once the Santa Maria flag throwers had ended their display, we headed across the river and up to the Ferraia district. Here, there was excellent display, including a range of birds of prey and a chap making a bow with an axe all accompanied with the smell of fires burning in readiness for cooking meals later in the evening in their pop-up trattoria.

Next it was down to the San Michele quarter, their stalls being set up in the park near to the San Michele church. It wasn't as good as the Ferraia set up, but they were offering the opportunity to try your hand at archery, and I couldn't resist giving it a whirl. After patiently waiting my turn, I finally got my hands on the bow and arrows, and even if I do say so myself, I did quite well - scoring 20 points with five frecce (arrows). I think I could quite easily get into that pastime (who knows, maybe with a bit of practice I could be head hunted by one of the quarters and given my own pair of mediaeval tights to wear!)

While all the others were waiting for me to try out my bow and arrow skills, they had bumped into Alex, Donatella, David and Sarah, so once I'd finished we all stood chatting for a good while as the drummers drummed their way past us to start their display and then drummed their way back in again once they'd finished.

We finally left our friends so that they could get on and see the rest of the festa while we headed in the direction of the piazza to search out a bar. We didn't make it very far before we heard a shout from behind us - Chris and Sue had spotted us walking past and Sue was shouting to us so we did an about turn and joined them for a very enjoyable hour or two with a couple of drinks. Come 7pm though, it was time for us to head home to rescue Reggie and for John to treat us to a fillet steak with lots of garlic, onions, mushrooms and French beans, all washed down with plenty of wine - what a TREAT!

It wasn't long before we all retired to bed, having had a busy day and planning an 8:30am departure in the morning to allow enough time to see the leaning tower of Pisa on the way back to the airport.

Is it a holiday or isn't it?

The holiday spirit really took hold last night as we sat outside with the fire pit alight, and I think we maybe all had one glass of wine too many - this meant I nodded back off to sleep after Helen had come back in from her exercise and by the time I was climbing out of bed John was knocking at the door reporting for work and ready to start strimming. So, bleary eyed, I got the gear out, filled the fuel tank and loaded the backpack onto his shoulders before pointing him in the direction of the upper terraces.

Then, while trying to eat breakfast, I was getting Mom and (auntie)Helen sorted with tools for weeding and a car sponge as they were planning to clean the car inside and out - the first time that's happened since we bought it.

After sorting everyone out, I took off in the car to Chiesina again - the strimmer head/line feeder was very much on its last legs and John was already having trouble with the cord not feeding then knotting itself up, so a replacement was urgently needed.

By the time I got back, it was already past 11am so I fitted the new head to the strimmer and left the car with Mom and (auntie)Helen before going indoors to send a few emails - including a plan of the roof to the guy we've been recommended to supply and fit the required life line system before we can have solar panels.

By now, (wife)Helen was already starting to prepare today's lunch - a rice salad with spring onions, boiled eggs, cannellini beans, tuna and tomatoes, which was a huge success with everyone. We ate lunch indoors today though, as the breeze was a touch chilly.

After lunch, with most of the terraces strimmed and the car looking cleaner than when we bought it, the guests switched into holiday mode and sat out on the patio in the now warmer afternoon while I took my turn with the strimmer to finish the last couple of terraces.

As four o'clock approached, I downed my tools, hit the shower and went to see how Helen was doing in the office. She had just about finished what she needed to do for the day too, so we left Reggie at home and all piled into the (very clean) car to head over to Montecatini Alto - a very small but perfectly formed village with restaurants and bars lining the edge of the small central piazza. We had a slow amble around the village before settling into one of the bars for a drink and to watch the world go by for an hour before heading home. (But not before John and the two Helens had given the car a push out of the car park to get it rolling so I could bump start it!)

When we got home we let Reggie out to play for 20 minutes, watered the veg, put the geese away, fed the cats and fed the dog before jumping back in the car again to head out to Sorana for dinner at Da Sandrino. We had a lovely meal, but were all starting to feel a bit jaded by the end and, with no room for desert after an epic antipasti course, we went home to give Reggie a couple of hours out of his crate before all retiring for a good night's sleep.