This was the day that I'd been planning on having a huge celebration on. I'd planned on having eating something sweet, on eating something homey (like soup), on having huge bouquets of flowers, on taking a nice walk at night, and on sharing ghost stories. We did sooooo much more than that.
In the morning I looked at Ahmee and Poppy and asked, "Can I have gelato for breakfast?" Gelato is WONDERFUL(click here)
To my surprise and my delight they said yes. I got to have chocolate/vanilla/chocolate chunk gelato for breakfast on Halloween morning.
After breakfast I got ready in a hurry because we planned on going to several hill-towns in Umbria/Tuscany. The one I asked to see was the one we were going to first. The one I asked to see was: Cortona. Now some people might ask why I picked Cortona. Cortona is the hill-town where the movie Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. That town was where Francis built up her own self-love and THEN found the right guy. Cortona is the sight of one of my favorite movies that's become a classic in my book (up there with The Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid, Princess Diaries, and all of the other movies I watched until the tape/dvd croaked on me). What annoyed me was that my eyes continued to not work with me. I had to go visit Cortona with my glasses on, meaning that I could see clearly 5-6 feet and then everything got fuzzy. Luckily this didn't hinder me too much while we were there.We drove up to Cortona through hilltown after hilltown, around all kinds of curves, with amazing views of the valleys and the trees and the lake and the houses, stopping only once for lunch and to grab Ahmee a coke, until we reached Cortona. This town was a famous tourist destination before the movie Under the Tuscan Sun because it is one of the most beautiful hill towns in Tuscany. When we first parked we parked too far down the hill. We quickly figured this out however and moved up to where the other cars were parked and where one tour bus sat.
Then we walked into Cortona many of the shops were closed due to it being siesta time. This didn't bother us too much, we simply window shopped, going from one side of the skinny street to the other, peering into shops that contained leather, shops that contained clothes, shops that contained antiques, shops that contained table-cloths, AND down little alleyways that Ahmee and Poppy dearly loved and which called to them seductively: "Come down me! You know you want to see what's around this bend! You know you want to traverse my steps and get lost in Cortona!" We did want to, but then we also wanted to get something to drink so we ignored (most) of the alley's. We went into a local cafe that was just outside the piazza where Gianna is the virgin Mary at Christmastime, where Francis gets her patron Saint of Chiefs, and where Francis sits in Cortona and writes that famous postcard. We got hot chocolate and water and then we continued on our way.
After stopping in a leather store to look at potential gifts, and after looking at the real estate of the area, we went into the piazza and decided we wanted to find the fountain that was put into Cortona just for the movie. We never did find this fountain. 
We ended up going up to the very top of the hill to the main church of Cortona. We wound our way through the cobblestone streets that we just knew were set at a 18 degree slope, went through the neighborhoods that were centered around their gardens (I loved it-there were houses there whose porches were filled with potted plants, whose yards were filled with flowers, whose yards had trellises over them, etc.), went up an even steeper incline that caused most of us to breath heavily, saw a view of the valley that took what little breath we had away, and then came to the gigango church at the very top of the hill that was having mass at that moment. This was not the church that Gianna and Pablo got married in however, this was a church that wasn't in the movie at all. It should've been though. It was a truly stunning church with a magnificent view. After admiring the church a bit I realized that I had never used the toilet back at the cafe and that I really should have. I needed to hurry back down the hill so that I could use some sort of toilet. We rushed back through the streets, back through the wonderful clusters of houses, back through the alleys (went a different way down), and back to the piazza to the same cafe we'd been to before. After I used the toilet we had to get back on the road because it was obvious it was going to get dark very soon. Why was it obvious? The kids were out trick or treating! The shops where we'd simply peered in the windows were now open and little witches, wizards, ghosts, goblins, mummies, and pirates were all rushing in and out saying the Italian "trick or treat" (I never caught what exactly it was they said). It was sooooo cool seeing the kids rush to get their candy and to see the festivities in Cortona. Was a shame we couldn't have stayed longer to see more of it.
We got back on the windy road where Poppy had a fun time (not really he was tense) driving in the dark, in the rain, and with crazy Italian drivers. It seemed to take less time for us to get back than it did for us to get there. Maybe that was just my imagination. When we did get back to the town that had the coop we stopped so that we could buy Aggie a bouquet. When we drove back into La Casella we went directly to the front desk before we headed back to the apartment. At the front desk we gave Aggie her bouquet, thanking her over and over again for her kindness and her helpfulness (she really was wonderful and was such a nice lady), as she exclaimed at the gift and how she truly enjoyed us and how kind we were. We ended up leaving Aggie with her bouquet of autumn colored flowers standing in the bar area smiling with the fox hunting party behind her looking at her with funny glances.
There we ate our soup, told our ghost stories, and enjoyed each others company. Before we got into our desert Ahmee decided she needed something out of the car. Poppy, with a mischievous glint in his eye went outside behind her and stood behind a pillar (was incredibly dark). I followed him, keeping quiet and staying in the shadows. When Ahmee came back from the car she passed the first pillar. Poppy growled a low growl that made Ahmee jump up and screech and hoot and holler. I couldn't contain myself, before Ahmee was even done screeching I was laughing. I laughed so much and so hard I felt like I was going to throw up all the delicious food I'd eaten. That had to be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Once we were inside Poppy said he was sorry and Ahmee made me laugh again when she said, "You aren't the slightest bit sorry! You're just sorry your toe hurts!" Poppy didn't come away from scaring Ahmee like that unscathed.
I didn't eat any gelato after dinner (in fact after the episode with Ahmee and Poppy I didn't eat anything else). I instead drank all of the rest of the milk. Something I haven't mentioned is that while we've been at La Casella I've made a discovery. On my own, I drink more than a liter of milk a day. The milk containers that were in the coop were in liters and I would drink all of the carton in one day (surprising myself) and then I would want more for other things. This means that I can easily (and quite happily) drink over a third of a gallon of milk a day. I was happy to drink the rest of the milk and to have it serve as my candy for the evening. My milk was the cherry on top of an incredible day.
After packing up, sleep came quickly and easily. I cannot say however that it was a good heavy sleep however.
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