Arca di Pienza

... room in the afternoon and played cards on the terrace and drank the last of our beer. People were gathering under our terrace to take pictures and we had the terrace all to ourselves. This place has been so friendly and wonderful. Coletta and her sister E'letta have been such help. I think I spelled the names wrong and will check when I get home. We went back to the square to have another gigantic slice of ...

... It was the size of a small frozen Tony's party pizza from home. We then went to get Gelato (ice cream) and we walked the main strip with all the beautiful young Italians. It is Friday night and they were out full force and dressed to kill. It is amazing how we dress big and saggy in America (boys and girls) and here and when in London everything was tight, small to the waist in coats and shirts and tight jeans. The girls all wear the leggings with boots ...

I hope this works, it has been hard to attach some of the video because it times out. FYI to all my not so computer literate friends and family. When you first open the video, it will start and then stop in the middle to keep reloading and then start and stop again. This can get frustrating but is necessary until it is completely ...

... like we knew what we were looking at and of course I was talking when a young girl named Meghan came up to us and helped. Yes, a Meghan wow it was great. We talked to her and she was here on her own from Washington going to med school for free because she was volunteering at the hospital. She stays with an Italian family and she said it is O.K. We followed her and then she went one way and we ...

Well, our last day in Arezzo.<br>My haircut turned out OK I think.<br>Turns out that the head (excuse the pun) hairdresser had lived in Australia for a few years, and although she couldn't remember much english, I emerged unscathed sans mohawk!<br> <br>We spent the last day wandering the streets of Arezzo in the raiin and discovered new nooks and crannies, it's that sort of town ...

On a drizzly morning we set off in the Panda and in an hour and or so got spat off the Autostrada at 130kmh!<br>Only about 80km further than we needed to go, so we followed a few back roads to arrive at the hillside town of Cortona.<br>After parking below the town's walls we were greeted by a posse of cats.<br>Guess what? Jane has bought another bag. Apparently two was clearly not enough, so now she has to carry the extra one.<br>The sun finally came out and we found ...

... Maddie&#8217;s friend who is studying in Siena for the semester. We were all excited to go to dinner at this place that was recommended to us by &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; our buddy Rick Steves. But on the way there, a pigeon pooped on my shoulder. Stellar. Before I even knew what had hit my shoulder, a man passed by me and said, &#8220;Molto fortunate!&#8221; Apparently, in Italy, if a bird poops on you, it&#8217;s ...

... very high on a hill w/beautiful landscapes. We had lunch there - Pinci w/tomato sauce and bruschetta. We went to the Fortress of Montalcino Enoteca and bought a case of wine. It was very expensive. I didn't realize that we were just tasting Brunellos - I thought that this was all the wine that we were going to taste and buy and that it was from this whole area of Italy. Really didn't know what we were doing. We had ...

... time to walk around and I was soon off on my own in the peaceful woods where I found a great pool of oriental-looking fish to watch. Then I made my way back to the town for lunch and got a delicious porchetta panino (pork sandwich), a specialty of Bagnaia. James Bond entertained us on the bus as we rolled over loopy hills in the rain toward our hotel in Pienza. It is the same hotel in which I write from now and is actually a very nice ...

... and see what kind of riding each person will be capable of for the days ahead. Our goal for the day is to arrive at an ancient Roman spa site called Bagno Vignoni. This amazing site, which pre-dates the Romans back to the Etruscans, was a major waypoint along the Rome to Florence for merchants and later Christian pilgrims seeking respite along the way. I have seen a lot of European villages but this one uniquely has a huge Roman bath as its town square! Leave it to the Romans to ...