Heading West....

Well we are checking out of Florence and beginning the trip home. We're going to do some last minute exploring of Florence this morning and then take a train back to Rome, stay the night and fly out for DC tomorrow morning (getting in at 7). It's been a wonderful trip but I think we are both ready to get back to the familiar soon. Grace misses the cat and I miss the couch!

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday. We hit the art museums most of the day but they don't allow picture taking.

Bye for now!




Here is the main tower in the center of Florence. We're planning to go climb up it right now.


Here is a view of the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge"). It is a bridge with tons of small (and absurdly expensive shops on it). Neat but way too touristy for my tastes.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

OK we just arrived in Florence after a relaxing day and a half in San Gimignano bordered on both sides by some painful travelling. My idea to rent a car in Tuscany wasn't the best. It is nearly impossible to get around in these small Italian towns--the maps show road numbers but the signs don't show route numbers--just names. Add to that a bunch of crazy tailgating Italians and funky three lane "Roundabouts" every half mile and its the makings of some stressful driving!!

But we did make it to where we needed to be after we figured out the best thing to do was just pull over, point to the map and ask people every couple of miles!

San Gimignano and the neighboring area was very nice--not near as tourist-y as the rest of Italy. We stayed in a little B&B with about 8 rooms. The host was a crazy little Italian guy named Guido that really aimed to please. When we checked in he gave us a bell to ring if we needed anything. We had to ring it a couple times for questions and he came sprinting to our room as if the house was on fire. He was just trying to be responsive but it was pretty funny to watch him run around every where.

Anywho, we are off to explore Florence this evening, but here are a few more recent pics to share. Tomorrow we're going to check out museums and I think Grace wants to go to the flea market place and shop for purses and other leather goods. Until next time--arriverdici!

Here is the view from our B&B in San Gimignano (actually in the middle of nowhere about 5 miles from town).


One of the restaurants we ate at in Rome was apparently just visited by Franco Harris a couple of weeks ago. The waiter saw my Steelers hat and told me about it and we took a picture of the poster that Franco signed for them.
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Greetings from Florence! This is Grace. We are getting ready for dinner -- and uh hmmm.. while I'm waiting for Dan to pretty up, I thought I'd write a few thoughts. #1 - I love Florence! Who knew?! I actually like a populated city! We are staying at the Hotel Davanzati, where they do happy hour from 6 - 7:30 with champagne, candles, really nice comfy seats and ... italiano techno! Plus they have these really yummy crackers - they call it saltines but they are more like crispy rice crackers with cheese coated on them. Yum-o!

Oh, I also spotted another Zaro's - so I want to go in. In Florence, they have two Zaros -- right across the street from each other.

My other quick observations. Everyone in Italy where's flat-toed boots. I am going to buy a pair - don't tell Dan. Depending on what I can bargain for at the flea market tomorrow, I will see if I can just get them cheaper at BP, Nordstroms. We shall see. For the girls - All italians either where these really tight jeans or really, really short mini jean skirts, with fishnet tights and knee-high flat boots - and they all smoke. For the men - ALl italians where puffy hoodies AKA p. diddy with fur-lined hoodies. And of course, the tight jeans are a requisite. I do have to say - I feel safe around Mr. Byers. He is one of the tallest and biggest guys around:)

We finally had really good pizza in San Gim. They do not have pepporini here. The closest we have come by so far is the spicy salami. Did you see a photo of the calzone I had last night in Tuscany?! And they say Americans serve big portions!



Also, I have yet to receive any olives. Everyone says make sure to get olives but everytime I ask, they hand me olive oil and then say, olives are being harvested! I did have big black pitted olives in the calzone however. Those are pretty good.

Well..it's almost time for our dinner reseversations. We are going somewhere where the hotel guy said is hard to reserve tables from. Ciao for now!





This is the main square in Siena.



I had to take a photo of this can of Paprika Pringles. Who would have thought they make paprika flavored Pringles? They tasted terrible!

p.s. just noticed we're mainly blogging about food and nothing about the history or culture. Don't take that to be an indication of how we're spending our time--we've seen LOTS of art and churches but we aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate everything so it all starts looking the same....hence the focus on food!!

Here we are in Tuscany!

Greetings from Tuscany. Grace and I just finished two very nice days in Siena, which is a medium-size city halfway between Rome and Florence. We liked it much better than Rome. It was beautiful, clean, and not nearly as crowded.

We are about to drive to another town about an hour away, San Gimignano, known as the city of towers. I am quite nervous as my Italian road sign reading isn't as strong as I might like. But I have a good navigator at my side, and we will figure out how to get there one way or another.

We'll probably check back in from Florence after we arrive there on Monday, but in the meantime, here are a few recent pics.



This is from a hilltop in Rome overlooking St. Peter's Cathedral and the Vatican.


Here is the few out the window from our hotel in >Siena. It was incredible.


Here is the main Duomo (church) in Siena. Churches here seem to come in three sizes--big, bigger, and biggest.



Grace and I climbed to the top of the watchtower in the center of the city and Grace took this photo from there. I couldnàt quite make it to the top on account of the heights and wind, but Grace was brave and took one for the team photo!

Il Roma ha Vinto!

Ciao from Rome. Grace and I are finishing day three in Rome and enjoying ourselves thoroughly, though we are tiring of the crowded city and definitely ready to leave on the train to Tuscany tomorrow.

It has rained pretty much nonstop since we arrived. We figure thats the meteorological gods' tradeoff for giving us such good weather at the wedding. Here are a few pics.


We have been fascinated by these little dinky cars. They sound like they have lawnmower engines and don't look the least bit safe in the crazy Rome traffic, but lots of people are driving them. Who needs four cylinders when you can get by on three?!


Here is our gelato dessert the first night after dinner. Grace ate too much of the main course and didn't have any room left so I had to eat the whole thing!
Grace: Actually the food is so rich here that after eating soup and salad for ages...my stomach couldn't handle it too fast. I'm looking forward to some risotto tonight!




Us at the Colisseum. It is pretty impressive without any context, but after you get it in your head that they built the thing during bible times it is really incredible.
Grace: Also it was raining nonstop but we had a good time...see the photo below. I'm not too crazy about how I look but qw were having a bit of fun. Colisseum was pretty impressive what I got out of the tour was that the romans were kind of cruel. During the 100 day gladiator games - they killed up to 5,000 wild animals because they thought it was funny! Like they'd put a crocodile and giraffe together to fight to the death because they found that humorous. Hmmph! Good thing modern Romans put an end to that!


This is Grace at the Palatino doing her best Charlie Chaplin...



Ciao, Grace here, reporting from the Trevi Fountain. This is the place where you are suppossed to throw in a euro or penny or something and you are guaranteed that someday you will return to Rome. Well, we didn't throw anything into the fountain! Rome is more crowded than anyplace we've ever been too. Even Georgetown! Too many people. Dan had paprika pringles as a snack here while we were being accosted by many Indian rose pushers. One actually even handed me one as a "present" but then came chasing after us wanting a few somethings for the rose! Dan handed it back to him and said, Go away!" Anyways, afterwards, we hit a couple of bars and were on our way!