Oct 8, 2012 - Montepulciano and other Tuscan villages near Siena...

Monday October 8 We were slow getting going in the morning, but eventually got our act together and after a breakfast in the villa we left the villa for the day of adventure around 10:30 in the morning. Our objective for the day was to visit the hill top town of Montepulciano, south and west of where we are staying. It was foggy early in the morning but the sun soon burnt it off as we drove a very circuitous (we like to take smaller and scenic roads across country) making our way towards Siena and then south to Asciano, a charming hilltop...

Oct 1, 2012 - Ivan to Siena

The rain ended; we had a pretty day. After breakfast Ivan joined the group of 13 for the side trip to Siena for 6 hours or so. Three of us gals stayed at our gorgeous hotel; 2 of us not feeling well and one to hike and then sit by the pool with her book. I returned to bed about 10:30 and slept pretty well until 1:15 when I got up and dressed for lunch on the terrace with our hiker gal. (My cold is at the annoying runny stage.) We enjoyed salads and the peaceful surroundings as hardly anyone else the entire place. Back to the room at 3:00 to...

Jun 18, 2012 - Tuscany, Italy

I'm in Tuscany today. Saw Assisi (St. Francis of Assisi) and the medieval city of Siena in the Tuscany Province and spending the next two nights here in Florence. Tomorrow will be a tour of Florence and a side trip to Pisa. It is hot, but oh my gosh. I'm finished with Rome and love the countryside. It is beautiful. I have a bus seat mate from New Zealand, Dot. Had dinner (worst meal so far) tonight with a group from the tour and really enjoyed the dinner conversation, and a nice bottle of local Chianti. I miss my friends and their company...

Jun 7, 2012 - Siena

Rome continued to be a fantastic adventure. Mum got a lot more used to the pace of life and even ventured out on her own for a day while I visited some areas I hadn't seen in previous visits. Prior to that though we had a very catholic church oriented day with a visit to St Peters in the morning and the Vatican Museum in the late afternoon. There were fewer people queuing than the first day (thankfully). There is no charge to visit but you have to go through security, hence the queue. We got through fairly quickly and were inside in no...

May 26, 2012 - Day 9 Siena and San Gimignano

We had great ideas of getting up early this morning and walking into the city centre so we could get some photos without tourists and cars. I woke about 5...Deb was about 6 so that didn't quite happen. Rather a sleep-in for us. We made brekkie, caught up our emails etc and set off about 7.45. We wanted to go to the tour office as we booked on-line and can't print the voucher they say we have to take to the bus. Found the office and were assured we didn't need the voucher. We enjoyed the walk through a very quiet town and saw all sorts of...

May 25, 2012 - Resend of Day 12 - I accidentally deleted it off the journal

Day 12 - Orvieto/Civita di Bagnoregio  Wow what place Civita is! A little place for sure but one of the best visuals in Italy. You an see it as you drive to it and it is a real eye catcher. A town built on a pinnacle that the only way together to it is over a 300 meter walking bridge ( unless, of course you want to climb up a 500 meter cliff through the forest). The walk over the bridge is quite a climb in itself. Beautiful, beautiful. Back to Orvieto and checked out a few more things. One of the most interesting being the Etruscan Tombs....

May 23, 2012 - Day 11 - Siena/Montalcino/Orvieto

Day 11 - ROAD TRIP! Siena/Montalcino/Orvieto  Did a lot of touring the country today. We had rain off and on so it was a really good day for driving. Dropped in on an Abby (Abbazia de Monte Oliveto) and hung around with a Swack of white robed Monks ( because they are devoted to the Virgin Mary). They also own and operate a winery. I don't know, it's hard for me to think of Monks, Virgins and wine in the same sentence. We did buy a bottle of there red wine which is very tasty. Off to Montalcino which is in the middle of the grape growing...

May 23, 2012 - Day 10 - Siena

Day 10 - Siena We can park in the tow! Yay, we just can't park anywhere close to the Hotel!  Walked around last night and saw lots of things that we wanted to see more of in the daytime. Had a breaky at the Hotel (nice place - fairly small room) oh, that reminds me, lots of different ways to flush toilets. There is the push the small, out of sight pedal to the floor type, the push the big/little (big flush/little flush) 'button' on the wall beside the toilet type, the push the big/little button behind the toilet type, and the push the...

May 1, 2012 - Seeing Sienna

Today we tour the great churches of Sienna and get a stained glass making demonstration. WE met up with AnnaLisa again in front of the Monte dei Paschi, which once housed the oldest continuing operating bank in the world—Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The bank was established in 1472 and is still operating today. It employs over 20,000 people in Sienna and 33,000 worldwide and is the largest employer in the city. Along the way we saw several contrada markers, including several for the Dragon contrada. We also saw a statue of what looked like...

Apr 12, 2012 - Siena and beyond!

We woke up to a beautiful day... Cool, brisk and partly cloudy... But, not raining...yippee ! Loaded into the car, minus our prior days consumption of champagne for brunch!!!! Anthony drove, Patti once again contortioned in the "trunk" LOL! And headed to the city centre of Siena! You drive down at the bottom of this mountain... And then they have an indoor escalator (and steps, of course that I took) to travel to the top of the mountain where this archeological city center sits.... The indoor escalator also has a grocery store, shops,...

Apr 11, 2012 - Thunderstorms in Radda? Yep!

We woke up to espresso, an egg dish that Molly retrieved out of a Tuscan cooking cookbook, champagne , fresh fruit. Since our plans of exploring the area and doing a wine tasting at the Castello di Meleto with our infamous wine officianado, Anthony......what better way to wait out the storm! Oh, uncork another... Finest sound in the hills of Tuscany in the rain!!! We ended showing the area to Sandra and Paul later in the afternoon... I was comfortably contortioned in the trunk ( of sorts) but if I craned my neck around, lo and behold, I...

Apr 10, 2012 - Trekking the Chianti area...

I woke up and hiked down a mountain to the road to visit a sheep farm/cashmere store! The darn thing was closed...but the señor let me go in and look around! The name is the Chianti Casmere Company....google it, pretty cool. As one goes down hill to their destination....one must get back....uphill being the only way! Worked off the homemade ravioli with sundries tomatoes from last night!!! Ummmm! I proceeded to go uphill for 1km to the town of Radda in Chianti....our little villa is actually in " La Villa".... I walked around, visited a...