Riding with Cosimo, custom cycling tours in Tuscany: Forte de Marmi, Ride, Pool

Tuesday morning we received a call from Kate that Vittorio had burned his hand, just being a curious 1-1/2 year old, grabbing a hot iron. To help out, we decided to spend a couple of days with them at the beach instead of one. We arrived on Wednesday, and upon seeing both kids, Torrio looked fine, and was acting totally fine. We went to the house, and Emily took Viola to the beach and I accompanied Kate and Vittorio to the hospital to have the bandages on his palm changed. He was a total trooper while it was changed, but when I saw the wound, I thought, wow - that must really hurt. It is mostly "superficial second degree burn with a couple of small spots of deeper second degree burns". Anyway it looked bad to me, but he is pretty fine with it. Kate had decided to get a second opinion at the children's hospital in Florence, called the Meyer, which has an outstanding reputation. The surgeon there saw Vittorio (Kate left around 1:30 to drive him there and returned to the beach around 7:00) and pretty much said the same as the hospital in Forte de Marmi. He did however cut away all the dead skin, thinking it should have been done already, and put a "patch" with medicine on the area, then wrapped with gauze, then an arm wrap. It seems this medical patch is relatively new and a good treatment for burns. Basically, he will be fine - he is young and they heal well and quickly, he will just have to stay off the beach for 3 weeks, which is about the amount of time they have left there. Oh well, it could have been much worse.

Emily and I stayed with Viola and the new babysitter, Cali, who was there for her first day when a whole 15 minutes into it, the burn happened. We spent time with Viola at the beach, helped with quiet time, and returned to the beach for more fun. In some ways the injury was very hard for Viola as well, as a lot was happening, she was scared, and was getting around 1/10th the attention she is used to. Anyway, the day went well. Kate was home from take Torrio to the Meyer and we helped him with a new small bike / trike / scooter that his aunt Angie had brought for him. He really showed no concern with the burn and was really doing knee drops on the asphalt and laughing until we stopped him as it hurt me just to watch. We rode bikes into the downtown area of Forte de Marmi and had slices of pizza for dinner. It was at least a little crazy, as both kids, Vittorio in particular, were all over the place. Within a couple of minutes of the pizza arriving, Torrio decided the piece cut up for him was not ok and had to have the whole piece for himself at once. We fooled him a little by cutting it into a couple of slices, but he had wiped the tomato sauce on his wrap, which was the only thing he really should not have done. Oh well, again, things happen. We returned home, and got everyone ready for bed as it was relatively late. Kate and I removed Torrio's bandage and the gauze wrap and replaced it with clean gauze and replaced the stretchy sleeve to it's original position. Everyone was in bed, and a long, action packed day was complete.

Thursday, Kate went to work, and Emily and I helped with Viola and Vittorio, with assistance from Cali, who was doing her best to do what she could and get to a point where she was in charge, not Viola. From experience, this is not easy. We had a good day, trading spots with Viola at the beach and with Vittorio at home, and Cali successfully put Torrio down for nap and Viola down for quiet time and Emily and I had some beach time together. Kate was home from work a little early, Nicco came in from Florence in the middle of the day, and we finished our time here this trip together, catching the train around 6:30 to Florence.

This morning, I did a quick ride, as Emily and I had a "groupon" to go to a place outside of town to have a light lunch and enjoy the pool all afternoon. I rode out Via Faentina to Pian de Mugnone, then climbed to Fiesole, then climbed up to the road to Vincigliata, then descended back to the Miano cut off and returned home. It had been a few weeks since I did the descent from Vincigliata, and it really is just a perfect tiny road with around 15 switchbacks and almost no traffic. Lots of fun. Emily and I then caught the bus and had a lovely, relaxing afternoon at the Hotel Villa Rondini pool. Home again now, I am caught up with the blog. Ciao!