Rome Day 9 started with a taxi ride to the middle of town where we started our walking tour of Rome. Giulio Cesari our tour guide was informative and charming. Colosseum After the walking tour, we had lunch and took it upon ourselves to explore the rest of the city. Trevi Fountain For dinner, we …
Author Archives: grant
Italy 2010 Day 8
We checked out of the villa, but not without incident. The day before, it rained so the clothes we left hanging on the clothesline got soaked. We drove around town in search of a laundromat but learned from the tourist office that the only self-service facility was at the top of Montepulciano. Unwilling to carry …
Italy 2010 Day 7
Sarteano Day 7 started out with a drive to Sarteano to explore the open air market. Sarteano should really should be renamed Citta piena di gatti (town full of cats) as we saw numerous cats… or I should say gattos. We found Sandy’s Caffe on one of the small streets and decided to have a …
Italy 2010 Day 6
The prior day apparently ended with some late night drinking and card playing. I was a good boy, asleep. Looks like Skittles were used as currency. For breakfast, we had hard boiled eggs. Laid on a crostini and topped with caramelized onions, prosciutto and fresh vegetables, these were the fanciest hard boiled eggs I’ve ever …
Italy 2010 Day 5
We awoke very early to drive to Chiusi and catch the train to Firenza (Florence). It was a nice change from some of the long drives we’ve been subjected to. I once wrote that I was in Florence… Florence Oregon . Now this was the real thing. Florence No photography of David allowed, although I …
Italy 2010 Day 4
Podere Spedalone Day 4 started with a drive out to a farmhouse, Podere Spedalone on the outskirts of Pienza. Giancarlo, the proprietor, was quite charming and he immediately made us feel welcome at his place. In the backyard where drinks and appetizers were served, we met Maggie the Magpie, an injured bird nursed back to health at the farm. …
Italy 2010 Day 3
Pisa A trip to Pisa of course meant we had to take six million photos of the leaning tower. If I had a euro for every time I saw someone doing the hand on the tower pose, our airfare would have been paid for. This was also the beginning of the ever repeating theme of …
Italy 2010 Day 2
Day 2 started out with breakfast made by Jimi. A simple egg & potato dish and a fruit platter… well he made it look simple. Pienza For our first day trip, we drove the clan to Pienza. This was our first exposure to the small meat and cheese shops we quickly fell in love with. …
Italy 2010 Day 1
Podere Monti After the stress and chaos of waiting for everyone to arrive, renting 2 huge diesel vans, ramming everyone’s luggage into said vans and driving for 3 hours, we finally arrived at our temporary home, a villa in the small town of Montepulciano. Podere Monti is a 7-room bed & breakfast and we managed …
Italy bound
Bonjourno, today our Italian adventure begins. We’ve been talking about this for months and I can’t sit still. I packed all sorts of camera gear and 2 shirts… We’ll fly out of SFO, stop over in Washington DC and then on to Rome. I’ll try to update the blog daily but I don’t know what …