Agriturismo Podere Casa Nova Greve

We arrived from Lucca just in time for a sublime sunset... it was like the sky was on fire!! See photos!!<br>I was a bit pooped so I opted to stay in the scoobs reading and relaxing while Kim headed into the village to scope it out. <br>Next morning started with a beautiful sunrise which was quickly replaced by some storm clouds. Fortunatly the storm passed over without parting with a drop of rain and we had sun again when we both headed ...

... and geleta, i.e. ice cream. We are back at the room and packed for our final place to see tomorrow as we head by train to Cinque Terre. We are staying on Manarola and think it will be an easy train ride and a wonderful view. We will attach pics tonight and then sometime tomorrow attach some video to show you the parade in the square with people on stilts.<br>Hugs and Kisses<br>Mick and Lisa<br>XXX<br>OOO

... our salami and cheese and looked at the beautiful landscape. We then played cards in the small hallway of our B&amp;B and drank some beer and met Allen and Theresa from California. I was getting ready to beat Mick's ass so we quit playing and talked to them. Anyway, since we spent our Euros with the meat market we had to go to the corner and get 2 slices of pizza for 6.50 euros and that came with a Cola. Each piece was the biggest piece of pizza we ever ...

... Once it is finished and the black screen appears again do not close out as now you can hit the white arrow and watch it without interruption because it is fully downloaded. So hit the arrow the first time and walk away then come back and when it is the black screen again hit the arrow and you won't have any interruptions.<br>Chow

... we finished it just in time to take in the Florentine Hall of Fame in the square outside the Uffizi. There are sculptures of all the heavy hitters from the Renaissance including Macchiavelli, Dante, Galileo, Donatello, Michelangelo and on, and on. It was like an outdoor walk through an intellectual Cooperstown. <br><br> We finished our walk at Ponte Vecchio, a beautiful bridge with its own incredible history (including being the only ...

... br><br><br>After lunch, we had another thunder storm. I started to read a new book - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Kingsolver. A very good book so far - about a family who moves to the Appalachians from Tucson to try and live off the land for a year (Andrew and I have always wondered what it would take to live off the land ). The rains ended, and then we went for a walk into town. Many gardens along the way. Most people have ...

We had a wine tour today of the regions in Chianti. This is one of the most famous wines from the Tuscany region. We started out at 10am for about an hour bus ride. Once we got to the vineyard, we had a tour of the "castle" which dates back to 1215 and was owned by a very wealthy family of the area. We saw the cellar with all the wine in big ...

... in front of us tried to drive his Mercedes minibus through an opening designed for a dog cart. It took us over an hour to find the stupid place then we had to drive around the block again before we dropped off the car. OK, Florence: It's big, it's crowded and it's expensive, but other than that it's fine. And old. And it's full of museums. Yesterday we did the Pitti Palace and this Morning we were queued up outside ...

... back to the station for a train to Siena. Since I've missed the place on previous visits, this was a new experience for me, so I was greatly looking forward to it. I have to say though that for its tremendous reputation, Siena didn't overly wow me. It is unquestionably scenic and historic, but I guess I was expecting something more pastoral in the surroundings. The weather didn't help though - it turned almost totally overcast right after we got in ...

... was the only line I waited in during my time in Europe (there is something to be said for winter travel!). I saw some great paintings in there but it was really a rush through because we had to go meet a tour guide. So we learned all about Florence as we wandered the streets and ended up at the Duomo which was very cool. Then it was off to find David. David was the finest piece of art I saw in Europe and maybe that I've seen ever. I was looking at the other stuff in the gallery ...