Il Baio Relais & Natural Spa Spoleto

... today. That has to be my favorite saint. Very busy here even though end of season. No wireless interent. We have one more day and we start home. I think we are ready to get home. It has been beautiful here and I have learned so much, but all good things must come to an end. See you all next week I hope.

... was more of a motel than a hotel but we liked it.<br> Dinner was alfresco at the hotel and we had more success with wine discovering a lovely Italian cabernet sauvignon which we continued to enjoy after dinner. We all gathered for drinks under the moonlight out the front of our hotel after dinner and it turned into quite a late night. We really enjoyed ourselves though, getting to know people better and having some good laughs.

Wednesday, We are alone in an Italian villa. It was magical. We slept in and then had breakfast on the veranda.<br><br>I made a picnic lunch out of the things we bought yesterday and feeling very brave we drove to Pettino. It is a small mountain village about a half an hour away from M &amp; J's house. Reaching Pettino, we blinked and were out of town. Turning around and heading back down the hill to find a place ...

Today Mike takes us for provisions for our picnic we are planning for Tuesday. They leave for NY today and we will be on our own. Mike has us drive so we get the feeling of Italian roads and drivers. He takes to the local butcher, Hugo, an artist with meat. He makes beautifully aged prosciutto, 15 months, compared with the 2 months in the US ...

... br>When we got to Orvieto I got off at the train station, and there was a train to Florence leaving in 15 minutes. And I was able to buy a ticket and get on the train. I was very thankful to not have to wait very long. I had done an awful lot of waiting around today, and not much sightseeing. <br><br>I used the 2.5 hour train ride to prepare some blogs. But there was also a beautiful sunset along the way. I arrived at Florence about 9 pm and took my bags straight the hostel.<br><br>Ciao!

... well that had been dug a few centuries before when a pope had fled to the town for some reason. He feared being put under siege, so he had the well dug so that the town had a supply of fresh water. That way they could withstand a siege indefinitely. <br><br>The well was very well designed, there were two sets of spiral staircases that went to the bottom, so you could have one-way traffic flow. You go down one set of stairs, cross a bridge at the bottom, then go up the other set ...

... first of many we are going to see. After visiting their friends&#8217; charming little artists&#8217; apartment we are off to lunch, more wine and great food. <br><br>Back home to jump in the pool and take a much needed nap.<br><br>That night Mike makes us wonderful pesto pasta, drank more wine and talked into the warm Umbrian night. After our hosts went to bed we made love while moonlight showed in the window and the crickets chirped.

the francescan monks must have been part mountain goat.this palce is unbelievably hilly.also it poured with rain and thundered and we got drenched.we slept in an 1800 year old nunnery in single beds of course<br>we went to the church of saint claira and saw her tomb

We are excited to visit the Basilicas of two famous saints, for which both have cities named after them in the Bay Area. San Francisco was named after St. Francis by the Franciscan monks and Santa Clara was named after St Clare. Both St Francis and St Clare were born into wealthy and powerful families and both turn their backs to ...

... etc. Of course I thought of I will just by a few various plates that would go together, BUT you know me it did not stop there................................so about 2 hours later I was done! Okay what is really cool is that I basically designed what I wanted with different patterns and different colors. "Bob" so he called himself, said "special price for ...