FATTORIA GHEZZI Arezzo

Florence a delight, the architecture like nothing we have seen. We picked up a rental car and headed to Siena. Robyn was the navigator (only twice around a few roundabouts so far) and Chris had a senior moment, stalled in the middle of the road, still working out which side to drive on, wipers going full tat in lieu of indicator and trying to find the button start to get us moving again – hilarious and loads of laughs. Eventually found the way to ...

Good Morning!
Everybody's vote for favorite city has been Siena....overall. Great parking, a fantastic dome, a terrific plaza, and the most spectacular view of Tuscany. From the top of of a dome building, we could see miles and miles.
Lucca was great because we were able to enjoy it in the daylight this time.....with good maps, we were able to get in ...

... The various groups of people failed to meet up in time, so the group I was with decided to head to our vantage point and hope everyone else knew where to go. Miraculously, somewhere along the walk, the two other groups managed to meet up with us at the same time, from different directions. We called it The Perfect Storm. It was weird, and one of many things adding up to a 10/10 night.

The ...

... Florence they seem a lot tamer here).

At each turn Siena kept on showing off its Gothic style.

After a hard days walk we found Nannini's a Sienese institution serving some of the best cakes and gelato in town.

Later that day making our way back to the train station we jumped on the right bus going the wrong way, so our 10 minute bus ride turned into an hour long scenic drive of Siena. We don't feel it is necessary for everyone to do this, oh and we also missed our train.

... too, and it really contributed to the experience. We also toured the Pitti Palace and stumbled upon some famous art we didn't even know was there. Among the cheap wine and free food, we learnt cool facts about this medieval place and the ruling of the Medici family. Also, (we didn't go into any) but Florence most likey has the best shoe shopping in the world. And a shoe museum. Just saying......Italy was off to a sweet start.

Now.. your Rome update!

Jus and Mur

... I was a walking zombie when we finally arrived. I was so exhausted I could barely eat dinner. I know that is a shocker. I decided I should go to bed early...

Day 2 came along. I woke, oh yes, with a major upset stomach. It could have been a culmination of things like stress, not drinking enough water, exhaustion, or I caught a bug on the plane. So, yesterday was a ...

We got into Florence only after minimal confusion in the Venice train station. Florence in Italian is Firenze, so this caused us to scratch our heads for a bit before we actually realized Firenze was our destination. Our pensione was very conviniently located and we hit the ground running. Since it was late afternoon, we decided to see the sights close to our hostel first. We walked the two blocks to the Galleria Achidemia which houses Michelangelo's David ...

... such was the sense of movement in the sculpture. David was supposed to be mounted about 90ft up on the side of a building so Michelangelo built David with that perspective in mind, compensating for how people would be positioned - eg. his head is a lot bigger than it would be if it were in proportion, but if he's been 90ft up on a building, it would look perfect. (Clever fella that Michelangelo...) Another interesting thing was that typically, artists never ...

... but then couldn't find the house. So, we think we were walking on his street, but who knows. The rest of the day was spent walking around the city. It became freezing cold when the sun set, so we spent a good amount of time at a bar (ie: cafe) eating pizza, looking at the newspaper, and watching soccer on the television. The local Arezzo newspaper had a picture of Roberto Benigni on the cover, which was ...

... much that we want to see here. Tomorrow, we're taking the train to Arezzo to see some of the town and then visit Stephanie, the tour guide from our first trip to Italy. We will be discussing....Italy, Art, Culture, and....Real Estate! We'll post about it as soon as we can. About to go get some gelato :-)! Ciao, Nicole and Matthew