Aug 13, 2011 - Under the Tuscan Sun!

Hey Folks! Sorry I didn't post yesterday we were insanely busy and I lost track of time... As for yesterday we got to see the David made by Michelangelo and the Duomo which is a HUGE church in Florence. Afterwords we had an amazing dinner on the other side of the river and finished off the evening with some amazing gelato. Today, we got up really early and went on a Tuscan hike. We were able to see all of Florence. Along with the hike, we got free lunch, wine, and a tour of this huge villa dating back to the 1400's. Also at the villa...

Aug 11, 2011 - Firenze forever, hello Florence

Today, we left our hotel in Rome early and trekked to the train station. We had our first train experience and boy was it confusing... We only made our train by two minutes. Luckily some nice Asian woman helped us. If she hadn't helped we would've missed one of the only trains running to Florence (usually they leave every half hour but a bunch of the regular trains were broken). Luckily, we left so early that we were able to get in a super long line and make reservations for one of the high speed trains. When we got to Florence we went on...

Jun 6, 2011 - 14. Castel del Piano to Firenze

Day 23 Castel del Piano to Siena After a dampish night we wake to a sunny morning. We descend from our mountain top camp-site and then start a series of ups and downs which go on all day. Many of the ups have gradients between 12% and 14% but these are fairly short however it does become wearying after a while. We stop at another delightful hilltop village called Montalcino for a coffee and then decide to explore the town. There is an old 12 century fortress right at the top. We wind our way through the village past people setting up for a...

Mar 7, 2011 - Florence

Had a pretty rough day today!!! Started off great. Woke up in Bologna at the Sheraton. I hit the road around 7am because my cooking class in florence started at 10. Google said it would take less than 2hrs so my plan was to drive to the hotel, park and walk 2km to meet the group by the city center. I stopped along the way at a rest stop for cappuccino. That has become one of my favorite parts of the day. The drive was absolutely amazing. One of the prettiest places I've ever been. One minute there were mountains in front of me with snow...

Oct 5, 2010 - Oct 5 Firenze aka Florence

Walking the city of Florence... Now we re getting a feel of old architecture! We walked around aimlessly, running into plaza fate plaza.. I took a video of one of the plaza s, background of some italian belting out Italian songs..and tastefully done, facing the basilica di Santa Croce... Pigeons flying around everywhere..The churches are incredible, massive 12 th century architecture, it truly is mind blowing, to think in the year 1100 and something they started building this church...can t imagine the labour involved.. Kinda doubt the...

Oct 4, 2010 - Oct 4 off to Firenze/Florence Travel day...

off to Florence! Trains trains trains... We re loving the train system here. Easy to use and really not all that expensive.. Upon our arrival to Florence, went right to the travel agency at the train station...that's right, we decided ... Greece it is! Looking for a place to put the backpacks down ( well backapack off my back, and well terri was getting tired of rolling her luggage around..lol) Fate always plays such a huge role when you re traveling, if we would have taken a later train or earlier train, our plans would surely have...

Jul 18, 2010 - Venice to Florence

Today was an absolutely full on day, and it's left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Once again the seat rotation on the bus was messed up, but that's just the start... We headed out from Venice today, straight to Florence. The tour had been changed a little bit from it's itinerary, and that was going to benefit us greatly. Originally we'd have gotten into Venice later yesterday, and only spent time there for a little bit, then did the bulk of the touring there today. However, we left earlier and stayed longer in Venice last night, so that...

Jun 30, 2010 - More on Italy

We woke up in the hotel Golf and headed downstairs for our free breakfast. Though it was simple, we are in Italy, which meant I could say to the man bussing tables, "Cappacino, per favere" and he replied "prego" disappeared for some minutes and returned with the most delicious cappacino I have ever tasted. From there we headed to the Academy of Firenze for a tour. We bi-passed the huge lines and found a man with some tickets for us and a much smaller line. A woman named Sylvia came and gave us head phones and we headed into the museum to...

Mar 20, 2010 - Florence again and home for some

Mom, Dad, Angie, Alyse, Becky and Dick packing up and going to Florence to stay so they can catch the plane back to Chicago. Up early so I could ride with them to the airport for future reference for our return to Florence. Easy trip to the autostrade – good signs for airport and rental car drop off at same spot as pick up and then back to airport taxi stand to catch a ride to their hotel in Florence. Got them checked in then a brisk walk to the Adademie to meet for tour of paintings and sculpture, especially David. Our tour guide, Anna...

Mar 19, 2010 - Florence for the day

Today was our open unplanned day – Angie suggested going to Florence to do a little shopping. Surprise! Everyone thought that was a good plan. First we had breakfast and then took two of our cars to San Ellero for the quick 30 minute ride ot Florence. Parking was challenging at the trainstation as all the regular spots were full. So up onto the sidewalk/curb we went – hoping that when we got back our cars would still be there! We went from the trainstation through the underground shopping area through part of Florence to the Ponte Vecchio...

Mar 15, 2010 - Olive oil and cooking school

Got up and went to breakfast after a delightful shower and a long sleep after the trip over. Alyse and Angie met a friendly farm cat that they seemed to enjoy. Breakfast consisted of a variety of breads and cereal , yogurts, hard boiled eggs, meats and fruits. After we were done, we made a quick detour to the main office for a my trip journal update. Then on to Reggello for a visit to the olive oil maker. We made a slight detour to the main downtown area of the town where we purchased some snacks for the next week. Fresh grapes, bananas,...

Mar 14, 2010 - Arriving in Florance and getting out to Tuscany

On the plane forever today, we finally arrived in Rome. Off the plane and then quickly through the airport to our connecting flight to Florence. A quick 40 minute flight and we were in Florence and ready to hit the road in our fancy Italian vehicles. It took a while to get the cars rented and a lot time for the navigational review to take place but finally we wer off on the A11 to the A1 and south to the villa. Dad had his GPS – it seems to have been quite beneficial especially getting around in the rural areas. Either that or we are just...