Italian Honeymoon, part IX: Tuscan Villages (and how we honeymooned with my mother in law)

Some of you may be wondering about the whole "mother-in-law on our honeymoon" situation since I mentioned in on Twitter. And I'll get to it, I promise. First I have to share my second favorite city in Italy...a very close second to Venice.

Siena was one of the few village in the Tuscan countryside we visited to get away from the hustle and bustle of Florence life. We enjoyed lots of incredible wine and food (the food was much better outside of the big cities!)

Siena may look familiar to you, as it was the location for the opening scenes of Quantum of Solace (the latest James Bond flick)

It was also two days before the famous Siena Horse Races, the Palio (de Provenzano). If you've never heard of them, check out the link really quick. I'll wait!

ok, back?

Where's waldo? ;-)



The city was totally abuzz with excitement--The 17 neighborhood flags were proudly worn as scarves, belts, bandannas and capes. Every once in a while the street traffic would get completely clogged from a large parade of men singing their neighborhood anthem. It was totally electric. We watched workers begin to erect the bleachers for the big event!

We grabbed a gelato (of course) and want on to tour the duomo and baptistry

and this is where the story starts to get good....

I've been avoiding this post for a while because it's taken me a long while to get to this point in writing about our honeymoon, but here is the story!

Going back a little:::In the beginning of the year, E and I started talking about honeymoon locations. I suggested an exotic yet unusual place where we could have adventures (we are not just lay on the beach type people) and we tossed around some places in South America....but both of us kept returning to a dream of a European honeymoon. We were concerned about the amount of relaxation we'd have on a 'touring' honeymoon, as well as the cost so we tossed it around for several weeks before making a decision on Northern Italy-- a romantic, relaxing place in Europe that was new to both of us.

As E was doing his research, he mentioned out plans to his mom, who revealed her plans to travel to Northern Italy with a friend immediately following our wedding.

E didn't see this as a big deal and didn't mention it to me right away.

A little while later he brought it up (assuringly knowing what my reaction would be!)...and needless to say I flipped a lid. It was our biggest argument in our relationship up to that point. He couldn't bring up the honeymoon for weeks without me bursting into tears. I was devastated that our epic European splurge of a honeymoon was just going to be a fun trip for his mom and a friend. The planning was difficult because E's mom always does a ton of research and I knew he was getting a lot of guidance from his mom. I had a hard time with the fact that his mom was planning our honeymoon.***

...and then there was the possibility that we would run into them!

So what happened? Tune in next time to find out :-)

***I want to say as a disclaimer that I love my MIL dearly, and she didn't know anything of my feelings about the whole situation. In all fairness, she booked her trip before us and we planned both trips without the other knowing until well into the process.