Arezzo, Tuscany

We spent more or less 10 days travelling to and from "the husband's" ECVP, the annual vision science conference he attends every year. This time it was in Arezzo, Tuscany, one of the most beautiful areas of beautiful Italy. (Tony Blair and his family used to spend their summers there).
You can just get a glimpse of "the husband" here in a green shirt in front of the San Francesco's church.
For "the husband" was all work and no play but we had a great time, specially because this year we went by car, so we (the rest of the family) were free to go to different towns and just drive around one of the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen.

Arezzo is a smallish town, famous for having one of the best, and I think the biggest, frescoes by Piero della Francesca in its main church. He's not my favourite Renaissance artist (that'd be Leonardo DaVinci, of course) but the frescoes were indeed worthy of a visit as it was his pregnant Virgin in the nearby village of Monterchi, the only picture of a pregnant virgin of the period.
Here you can see a close-up of the beautiful severe, regal face of the pregnant Madonna much aware of who's son she's carrying...

I was waiting to go to Florence with "the husband" but he never had any time, so we missed that glorious city this time. A good excuse to go back, because Florence deserves a few days to get just the art. The famous David is there together with many other priceless pieces.

So, we spend our time visiting lovely medieval villages and just driving around in the countryside which was a great. even my dad, who's not the most artistic minded person in town, marvelled at the beauty of the countryside and remarked that it's no wonder that so many works of art has it as a subject. He said that it even inspired him to give it a go and paint! God forbid!!
Mere pictures, specially my own, cannot do justice to the beauty of the rolling hills at the end of summer, but here you a have my favourite.

One of the highlights was a day trip to the gorgeous town Sienna. I've been there once, very briefly, and felt in love with its unique square and the feeling of the old town. And if anything, it's even more beautiful than what remembered from nearly 25 years ago.
My dad walks with a cane (the result of reckless flying in a balloon once, not merely old age), so he found it hard to get up and down the old towns, so I try my best to take him as close as I could with the car to central piazza. I may have gotten I fine or two on the process, I'm not sure, because only residents are supposed to get into the old part of town, and I did it twice, once to drop him there and another to collect him.
Here you can see Sienna's majestic and unique piazza in the shape of a shell, taken from the Internet, of course.
I'll try to find a picture that actually have me on it... I don't think there's any, as I was always the one with the camera.

At the end of it we all have a really good time. I visited lovely places and seen some art that I never saw before, my dad enjoyed mostly the grand views and he loved Sienna, a town that was new for him, P enjoyed Italian ice cream and even "the husband" said that the conference was great and he didn't miss missing the touristic part of the trip.