Hotel Minerva Arezzo

... hundreds of tables filled with all variety of goods – carvings, swords and spears from Africa, blown Venetian glass and delicate lace as thin as a spider's web, hand-woven silk from India in crimson red, turquoise blue, forest green and black as night. Dealers showed stamp, coin, book and photo collections as well as rifles, various fighting instruments, gunpowder, bullets and an assortment of holsters from past wars. Also on display were many pieces of restored and new ...

... time but, ultimately, growing from 50 in the mid-seventeenth century to more than 130 years of 1798-99 (between 3 and 4% of the global population). Their life is not always easy. Especially between the mid-seventeenth to mid eighteenth century (the age of the Counter-Reformation), are made subject to a variety of oppressive measures that are reduced greatly when the Grand Ducal throne halls the enlightened Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine (1765-1790) and disappear with the French ...

... at the "Drunken Rooster" (that is the English translation) so we headed over around 6 had a couple of glasses of wine in the town centre before our meal. David ordered a fresh pasta with meat sauce dish and I had pizza. We sat outside and enjoyed looking over the town of Gaiole for our final meal in Tuscany. Once we were back at Le Miccine we did some final packing and David loaded the car with most of the luggage before our 3:30 a.m. wake up call.

... earlier in the week. David made us pasta with bolgnase sauce and we once again tried another kind of bread but still YUK!

We did have clear skies tonight so we walked up to the pool area to get a closer look at the stars. They were very bright and beautiful so we enjoyed looking at them.

... hill towns of Tuscany.
The next day, we were off on a day trip to Siena. While the bus ride from Chiusi to Montepulciano was peaceful, up winding hillsides, this one was a little different. We were fortuante enough to be on the same bus as the 200 high school kids from Montepulciano... apparently they get out at 12:00 in Italy! So the bus was filled with rowdy kids, which would have been ...

... by their own team.

It was a little difficult to determine who was winning by the scoring system but the teams & crowd soon let us know after each round. Mandy's team won with two perfect scores by the 3rd round. My team had a chance to win but only scored a 2 in the 3rd round.

another late night but lots of fun

... When the man said a bottle was leaking, she got up in disgust and tightened the cap. That's when I noticed window sign in English: "Don't throw bottles out the window." It had a picture of a bottle in a circle with a diagonal line through it. It was a relief to reach Roma. Arriving Was More Fun After our final breakfast in Roma, we caught a cab and confidently walked into Fiumicino. Why not? We had ...

... florence to venice. If you have a pass, it costs you 15 euros to reserve a ticket. Then you pay about 40 euros worth on your pass. Said goodbye to Jana. Got my 3 hour trip to Venice Stand by me is playing while i write this. Do you know that stephen king wrote that about himself. He was the main kid. There ya go aye. Thankyou internet movie database, and thankyou chuck norris. In naples, Walker texas ranger was on in italian. I dont know how i felt about that.

... dozed there, and there were no people around. I wandered in, climbed a scaffolding walkway that hung above a passenger platform, and layed down my sleeping bag. The quiet eery-gray railyard was one of the coolest places ever to sleep. The next day, a pony-tailed twenty-eight-year-old Brazilian lumberjack named Maurico gave me a ride and said I could sleep at his house. He cooked us rice and beans and meat and eggs and lettuce: all mixed together, Brazilian-style. The ...

... suppose). Some that I recognize are Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Ghiberti. In fact, you basically have to step on the graves to get around, and it's a little disconcerting. Galileo's Tomb Michelangelo's Tomb inside the Basilica After checking out the famous tombs (Michelangelo's tomb has sculptures of three women, who are supposed to ...