October 2008
43 posts
Saturday night.
We’re home! It seems odd that we woke up in Rome this morning and here we are now, in Chippewa Falls. It was a fabulous time, one I’m sure we’ll never forget. I’ll see if I can add some pix now that I’m using my own computer.
Tim
Internet cafe computer won’t let me upload photos. You’ll just have to wait.
Thursday
Tim here. We had a wonderful time at an agriturismo near Greve in Chianti. There are many of these in the area; they’re working farms with guest rooms. We actually had two separate apartments. There was a winding footpath down to the town, but we were advised not to take it at night, since we might get set upon by wild pigs. It can be stated with some confidence that this is the first...
Thursday October 23
We are in Pitigliano tonight (as we were last night). This is a totally cool place - an Estrucan village built high on a hill. I’m at an Internet Cafe so can’t put a picture on but will as soon as I can. It’s truly amazing. We hiked in some Vie Caves, which are basically sort of like tunnels without roofs that were dug out by the Estrucans for some reason. I can try to find...
In Lucca
Hi - it’s Sonia! We are just getting up on our second day in Lucca. Yesterday we took a day trip to Florence, which was happily uncrowded and very lovely. Saw the David, and saw lots of other wonderful sculpture. Our hosts at the B & B here made us a reservation at a very good restaurant last night, so I am still full this morning! It was delicious. Today we leave for the Chianti...
Saturday Oct 18
I’m actually writing this on Sunday morning from our B & B in Lucca. We left Cinque Terra yesterday morning. We took a very short train ride to LaSpezia, where we picked up our rental car (a very cool-looking Alfa Romeo station wagon, w a 6 speed manual transmission). From there we drove to Pisa and had lunch very near the tower. We then drove about another hour to Lucca. We...
Friday, Oct 17. Cinque Terra
We arrived in Cinque Terra about 5:00 yesterday. We have two beautiful rooms in a B & B, with views of the village and the sea. The strange thing about B & B’s here is that they don’t seem to serve breakfast. Maybe their second ”B” means something different.
This is an amazingly beautiful area. The computers at this internet cafe don’t allow the use of...
Thursday morning. We’ve packed up and left our Rome apartment. We’re now at an internet cafe and will shortly get on the H bus to take us to the train. It’s about a 3 hour train ride to Cinque Terra. We’ll be there for 2 nights (or perhaps more; no specific plans beyond these 2 nights).
Rome has been wonderful, but we’re now ready to see some of the rest of the...
Cigarettes apparently don’t cause cancer in Europe; everyone smokes like a ham house.
A post from Sonia
I haven’t taken the time to do this for awhile, and wish I had! I’m forgetting what we have done. I am using my Rome Top Ten book; kind of cheating, but very worthwhile. We did the Borghese Gallery yesterday and are skipping the Vatican yesterday. The Vatican is number 1 on the list so I feel like it’s very bad of us, but we just weren’t up for more tourist stuff...
Day 5 Rome
I think it’s Wednesday, but the days are getting a little jumbled up. Sonia and I are wandering around Tastevere, the neighborhood where we’re staying. Jim and Deb have gone to the Vatican. Of the Top 10 places listed in our Rome guide book, I believe we’ve been to 7 or 8. Our days have really been packed. Yesterday we went to the Forum, the Paletine, the Colosseum and Villa...
Days 3 and 4 Rome
Sunday started with a 4:30 wakeup call at our hotel in Paris and ended at midnight at our apartment in Rome. It was a tiring and fantastic day. Lots and lots and lots of walking both yesterday and today (on the order of 20 miles). We slept in until 10:30 this morning, had breakfast and set out walking again. We’re at an internet cafe near our apartment now. We’ve been to the...
Day Two - Paris
We slept in until 9:30 and so got a late start to our day. After breakfast at a little cafe, we went to the Orsay Museum and spent most of our time in the Impressionist area. I was impressed. From there to lunch at an outdoor cafe and then a wine festival at Montmartre, where there was just a crush of people. Surprisingly, we weren’t the only people who had heard about this festival. We...
Day One - Paris
Day One in Paris has set the bar exceedingly high for the rest of the trip. It was a beautiful day in an amazingly beautiful city. We got into the city from the airport around noon. We took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and went on a 3 hour guided bicycle tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours. It couldn’t have been better. In the small-world department, one of the people working in the office...
Sneak Preview
The video and photo are of the area we are staying in while in Rome. We’ll send our own photos soon! Sonia
Getting Started
Okay, here’s my blog! Nothing interesting to say yet, since we are still at home preparing for the big trip. I spent lots of time today on very few things - but at least it looks like I can fit what I need into a pretty darn small suitcase. My friend Chris lent me a wonderful healthy-back bag for a carry on so I feel like my luggage needs are met! Tried out my latest new shoes today too,...