Auto Park Florence

Tuscan Hills

The drive from Venice to Tuscany was eventful (as always). First we wanted to see the Adriatic Sea.. We knew we were near the coast but finding a road which led to the sea was not so easy… even our sat nav lady Shirley couldn’t seem to find the sea… all we wanted was enough sea to put the feet in and say we had been to the Adriatic Sea… please note wet feet in venice the day before could not be counted as Adriatic Sea ...

... on the same day as me, so we got to spend quite a bit of time together.

Six of us took a day trip to a little town called Siena, about an hour away by bus (with no traffic). We explored the town all afternoon and stumbled across a fantastic little restaurant in a park, far away from the tourist crowd. Nobody there spoke English and it was easy to tell that the only other people there ...

... room with free breakfast (eggs!) and dinner (pasta or pizza, naturally) made for some serious socialization and some interesting folks.

We confirmed the best gelato in the world claim made by the Trinity Gelato shop... twice. Mascarpone and Chocolate being the ultimate flavours, we saw the David by Michealangelo and found it a unique experience as compared to everything we had seen up to that point. There was a fascinating photo exhibit set up temporarily at the ...

... do it for us, even in the best of times and we think it is pretty easy to say that this is definitely the best of times.

Our BREAKING NEWS! As we may or may not have told you we have decided to stay in Italy with Dino's family until at least January (Yeap you heard us right). We had planned on travelling through only summers (we didn't plan very well), so we have minimal winter clothes and with us ...

We finally said goodbye to Roma and hello to Florence, well Perugia first, our destination on the day of departure from Rome. We arrived in sunny Perugia at 3pm, only to find out that the number 9 bus we were meant to catch to our planned camp site (according to lonely planet) doesn't actually exist. We could've of coarse waited the 3 and a half hours for a different bus going in the same direction, but this didn't agree with us all to ...

... doors closed and the train disappeared...!!! I was stranded at a dark, rainy station, not speaking the language and with no cash on me! Luckily a lovely man (with an umbrella) helped me... got me on the right bus, told the driver and another stranger where I had to get off and sorted me out. I was back with Tom fairly quickly and all was good. I did get a bruised set of ribs from an altercation with a car door, the bruise has healed now!!


Monday
Tuscan cooking class ...

today was also a great day. i did the run and went to the market to get some cafe Americana and some fresh fruit. I got some grapes this time and they were really good. art history was kinda boring because i listened to tons and tons of presentations which lasted for the whole 2 hours after our teacher lectured. it was painful but i love that class so i made the best of it. after class i went to the library and ate my packed lunch and tried to ...

... the entire time we were riding and it was really cold.  The ride was very pretty though, we got some great views of Florence and a little valley north of Florence, but I can't remember the name of it.  There were only about 10 students and AIFS representatives so it was nice to have a small group.  We grunted through all of it and only a few of us slipped (me while I was walking my bike, lol) or fell (only two people).

... close to the Ponte Vecchio, which takes you almost directly to the Uffizi Gallery. Rooms are appointed with antique furniture and elegant prints. Watch the fading light hit the Ponte Vecchio from the restaurant terrace. Absolutely beautiful. In the room, amenities include air conditioning, a dataport (only some rooms), hairdryer, mini-bar, radio, safe ...