Saturday 19th April. (Charlotte’s 11th Birthday!)

The sun was beaming off the rooftops in Anghiari today……a beautiful day to celebrate Charlotte’s birthday! All she wanted to do was leave Anghiari to finally meet Harley! We slowed her down by tempting her with a delicious breakfast of pastries and hot chocolate in a sweet little café, we had discovered in our exploration of Anghiari the previous day. After our full fat breakky we drove straight to Sansepolcro….. Leon put Kathy’s address into the GPS and we found ourselves driving right into the middle of the old walled centre of town. I am quite calm about entering into the bowels of these medieval towns now, after surviving Florence……..so it was with excitement and not terror, I realized that Kathy lived right in the heart of town and we would get to experience what is actually behind a historic doorway!! Kathy’s apartment was up, of course, a one way narrow lane with limited parking. We located a park not too far away and Charlotte rang Kathy to let her know we had arrived. Kathy was amazed we had actually found her without masses of directions, not realizing we had our little friend on board (GPS), she was quite concerned as to where we had parked the car as the local authorities were particularly savage on bad parking habits. We started to walk towards her place when we spotted her walking towards us, after huge hugs and kisses all round, Kathy wanted us to take her straight to the car so she could find us a park where we didn’t have to pay or wasn’t a local park where we would get a hefty fine.

Harley was still in school, the Italian kids even have school on Saturday’s, but only until 1:00pm, poor Charlie still had to be patient for a while longer, until she finally got to meet her email buddy. It was wonderful talking with Kathy, we had so many questions about Italian customs to find out and general everyday problems we knew she would be able to solve for us.

First we grabbed our overnight bags and headed to Kathy’s apartment……..down a cobbled lane through huge rustic double doors with wrought iron fittings, then into an anti chamber (palazzo)that was cool and dark, we then climbed up two, steep and extraordinary tall flights of old stone stairs and then finally through another heavy old timber door.

Kathy’s traditional Italian apartment was absolutely delightful. The views from Kathy’s windows gave an intimate view of life within the village. The open spaces below were dotted with vegetable gardens , large blossoming trees were given pride of place, peoples washing hanging to catch the sun and the family pets perched high on the window sills trying to do the same. Kathy and Harley have two cats and Charlotte was frightened that they would fall from the windowsills, we were more concerned of where do they do their do do’s!

Remarkable original frescos wrapped around the walls of Kathy’s bedroom and a marble fireplace dominated the wall opposite her bed. Charlie once again thought it was quite spooky! Once we off loaded our bags we went to explore some of Sansepolcro, the markets were on around the main piazza and incredibly the shops hadn’t yet close for siesta. We bought a small scooter for Charlie as a birthday present (she has already had her main present since HK a small digital camera). Now she will be able to use this to get around the Lucca walls….instead of hiring a bike, each time.

After some shopping we went back to Kathy’s place and used her wireless internet connection to send off some our first photos, this was the first time we could do this (our internet and phone is not working at the villa*#@!). Charlotte went with Kathy to pick Harley up from school. When the two girl’s got back with Kathy, you’d swear they had known each other for years……non stop chatting continual giggling and not a mouthful of our yummy (spinach) pasta lunch was eaten!

As soon as lunch was over, the girls took Charlie’s new scooter out for a test run and gelato, since they were starving from not eating their lunch!! Later in the afternoon after siesta, Leon, Kathy and I went in search of a birthday cake for Charlotte. This is one of the easiest things to acquire in Italy, there pasticcheria’s are brimming over; with sweet delicacies, the biggest problem was deciding which exquisitely decorated one to buy. Once we had made our choice, the cake was superbly wrapped up, just like a present and the ribbon expertly made into a handle to carry it with. I never wanted to unwrap the cake!!!!

Now, the cake was an easy purchase but, finding candles was a very fascinating and charming experience…….even Kathy with her local knowledge and good Italian wasn’t sure where to start our search. After being sent to different locations by the local’s we ended up in the most unlikely little shop, it would have been the very last place we would have thought sold candles. From the outside it looked like an old junk and hardware store, inside it was so narrow we could only stand along the long counter side by side. Kathy thankfully asked for the candles and the elderly store owner came around to our side of the counter, I had to back out a bit so he could fit, then he bought out an old wooden ladder and attached it to the top of the numerous shelves running right up to the ceiling, and searched through copious old boxes till he found what he was looking for. Unbelievably he asked what color we would like, pink! and how many? After all this effort I wanted to say just give us the whole box but Leon had decided on two as they would make the number 11. The old gentleman then began the search for the little bases to fit them in. I was feeling quite embarrassed about making this dear old man put all his boxes back and climb down the ladder for two measly candles, worth 30 cents! But still smiling and chatting away, he got his wife to wrap them, while he tidied up ………..I swear I felt like I had just walked off the set of Little House on the Prairie or the Walton’s (He He).

Kathy had booked a table at a favorite Trattoria, for Charlie’s little birthday dinner celebrations. The Trattoria staff were happy to hide the cake and bring it out at the end of our meal, while Leon, Kathy and I talked non stop and enjoyed the delicious antipasto’s and pizza’s, the girls ate in between playing with their connected Nintendo’s…….some things just don’t change no matter where in the world you are! Charlotte was delighted with the surprise birthday cake and we all took pleasure in eating it.

We finished a fun day sitting in the piazza, sipping wine and watching the locals nightly ‘la passeggiata’ (this when people have an evening walk in their piazza’s, where they all meet up to catch up on the day’s news, and when boys and girls have a chance to meet under the watchful eyes of their parents, and the little ones get to play ball in the open area of the piazza). We also got to sleep in the fresco bedroom at Kathy’s…….surreal!!!