Castello Di Oliveto Castelfiorentino

... I have to walk across town to get to class now. One good thing that came out of this, however, is that because we were so close to her apartment she decided to invite the entire class over for a tea party after class today. Not sure why or how she came up with this idea, but I thought it was really cute.

This was the first genuine Italian apartment inhabited by genuine Italians that I ...

... we left. I couldn't believe all of these older people stayed at the club until 5 am dancing. This would not happen in America. It was such a great cultural experience though and it made Vilmo happy we joined him.
By the end of my ten days we were very close to finishing all of the olive trees especially be two other wwoofers joined us. Rebecca the American girl from the summer who was in the play came back to help at the farm and her friend Kristian ...

... until we got to Il Campo, Siena’s civic and social center ever since it was staked out by its "Council of Nine" (a bourgeois group responsible for much of Siena’s construction) in the mid-14th century. The Piazza del Campo itself is colossal, and is divided into nine parts to represent the Council. In the upper part of the square lies the Fonte Gaia (Happy Fountain!). From there, the entire square slopes downward like the basin of a ...

nous sommes rester a florence pour terminer notre visite la ville en allant aux jardins boboli et bardini, situe dans la cours du palais pitti. Deux grand jardins qui a cette date n'ont plus autant a offrir qu'en ete. il n'y a plus de fleur, et la moitie des arbres n;ont plus de feuille, mais on a pu constater l'ampleur de la propriete en passant tout l'apres midi a ...

... kitchen.I went down later that eveing to chat to the people staying there and marvel at the double bed inthe kitchen.

Really quiet in the off saeason with a lot of places noteven bothering to open or open reduced hours.

Was sitting outside the only bar in RioMaggore and Jess who I shared a dorm room with in Salzburg walked past. Turns out she's staying in the same dodgy room as me again!

Was lucky there was a bunch of good people ...

... grew to 5 days inadvertently when the next host's accommodation fell thru in Florence. Our room, skilfully booked on-line! overlooked the waves crashing below. One wall of the room was a rock face, you entered by descending a wooden ladder, br*************s overlooked the sea and green shutters opened onto the plethora of coloured wooden fishing boats. Just past them was was the church steeple that chimed every half hour preceded by the other church bells that were 10 ...

... the Via dei Calzaiuoli, the oldest street in the city, and the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge full of shops "hanging of the edge" and the National Library. The view from the the river is very pretty but unfortunately it started rainning and it got really cold (you can see in the pics that sunddely we are all bundled up) so we had to quit the tour and find shelter, which ended up being our hotel. Later at night ...

... to the Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza... the science museum of Florence. Once inside we realized this was a gold mine. There was barely anyone inside of the museum, which consists of two floors of Renaissance clocks, telescopes, scientific instruments, surgical instruments, globes, maps, gadgets and Galileo's finger. Someone hacked his right middle finger off before he was buried, and it's in the museum. How cool is that ...

... and potatoes and apple strudel and then toured the city. Then we got back on the bus and stopped in Munich where we had dinner of...Pork and potatoes and apple strudel. But this time we ate in a restaurant that looked like the dining hall at Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Keeping with the Harry Potter theme we caught our overnight train to Florence. The train wasn't like Harry Potter at all. We were all a little disappointed. I woke up and we were in ...

... us over to another guide whose name I don't remember, but who had an incredibly annoying voice. It did cut through the crowds, that much I can say. This is my second trip to Florence - which is still wonderful, even though it was crawling with tourists. Last time I was there (OK, it was twenty-eight years ago) there were people around, but this time there were huge lines to see the statue of David at the Accademia and to get into the Uffizi. I ...