Leather, Wine, Tower Oh My...

The day started with a terrific breakfast at our terrific hotel. I found it funny that they had an automatic latte and espresso machine, and a jug of what they called “American Coffee.” The American coffee was super black and dark, not quite what we would refer to as American. The beautiful part of having coffee in Italy is the heated milk.
 
It is my dad’s birthday today, he would have been 81 (I feel like I’ll be adding years to what he might have been for the rest of my life). We stopped in San Gimignano, an incredible hill town outside of Siena, and walked the streets, with my mom falling in love with leather bags (she bought two), Mellissa falling in love with leather bags (she bought two), and me falling in love with a leather jacket and scarf (my mom bought me my birthday gift early).
 
Then we stopped at a family winery and drank and ate a lot, bought a great deal of wine and I got poured back on our bus for a nap. And one must note that Mellissa and her family like taking photos of me passed out. They may need therapy. Just saying…
 
Next stop, a very important job of holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
 
Well we just got back, and yes, we saved the tower while we were there. We left the job of holding up the tower in the capable hands of other tourists.
 
Now we are heading to La Spezia the second most important port in Italy.