Casa Cernano Castelnuovo Berardenga

... ever been inside and it was so cute! She had these three huge bookcases that her architect sister designed filled with books, paintings and drawings on the wall and a baby grand piano that a girl in our class played while we sipped our tea. The apartment itself was pretty large by Italian standards and our class of about 25 fit inside her living/dinning room with ease.

As far as the ...

... one for the wwoofers. Only one other wwoofer was there at the moment- a 60 yr. old Slovenian woman but the there were two others, who were out for the day. So Vilmo left me to get settled in and told me to come join him and his mother for dinner at 8pm. The apartment had a nice little kitchen.dining room/living room all in one minus a sink. We had to wash dishes in the bathroom sink. The main bedroom was designed like an army hospital with ...

... and tiny, weaving streets that are closed to traffic (the first European city to banish vehicles from its center, in 1966).

We started our tour of Siena by walking through town and coming across the Piazza Salimbeni, which contains the interesting Palazzo Spannocchi, a Gothic building from which 29 finely carved busts stare down at you from under the palazzo’s eaves! Pretty cool.

We continued walking through interesting ...

... life time on this trip already!
Climbed the tower in the main piazza, saw an enormously large pizza and had wild boar sausages for lunch which were a bit gamey but nice.
Went for drinks at Lochness bar and ended up drinking long islands as there wasn't much in the way of wine or beer there.

... Rossi was her husband. Then I realized that this old lady was the wife of a bicycling legend and the frame on the wall was one of the frames from his hay-day.

We moved onto shopping and grabbing pizza for lunch then on to the piazza Campos. Here we looked around until it was time to go to St. Dominics Church for the start of a walking tour. The tour guide gave us interesting history about Siena, its churches, and its customs. We ended up at the Duomo which was incredible ...

After another day in Siena (on market day - not recommended) and a lovely day driving through Chianti (Gaiole, Rada, etc.) it is time to pack up and leave our lovely Villa. To make it even harder the weather has been beautiful for the past two days, bright and sunny. We managed to finish most of our groceries and all of our wine (several times) and somehow we have gotten all of our belongings back into suitcases. Sue & Mary drove the ...

... previous night I felt like sharing's caring! We arrived into Florence early evening at our hotel. Checked in, had a nice shower, then got ready to go for dinner that night. We also had a few drinks before as well - always nice to have a few cheeky ones!! We went to a restaurant call 'La Certosa' for dinner. It was just near the monastery, which looked pretty awesome at night. We got a welcome drink, and there was wine provided on the tables. I've never had the ...

... watercolor. The intructor for the class is Patrizio and we listen to the classical radio station while we draw. He instructs me in English, fortunately, and something that i find impossible to draw he takes me step by step through so in the end, my drawing actually resembles the subject.

... thing ever!! The Villa is so beautiful. A little place of America, home, and comfort in the middle of a foreign land. Elizabeth, our program director, is so amazing. She so friendly and warm. Originally from California, she came to Florence first as a Pepperdine student, and now lives in Florence, running the villa! WOW! The rooms were handed out in the most hectic fashion...whoevers hand went up first won. But you didn't know which room you got, so some ...

... that don't help prove my point.) After not sleeping much and attempting to speak Italian with her Italian phrase card at dinner, we ended the night early as she was falling asleep "in her soup." Instead of studying like a good boy would, I went to PH for an hour or so to see Michael Janza who is studying in Spain for the semester. It was Sangria Night. On Tuesday I sent mom on the "Red Tour Bus" where she went all over the town ...