Italy Hotel Club Vittoria Tuscany

For the last couple weeks my Italian culture class has been on and off again because my professor was hospitalized with pneumonia. This week she finally resumed lectures, however we are in a different class room that is literally right across from her apartment so she doesn't have to walk a long way in the cold. And it is getting really cold in Siena right now.

This, unfortunately, means ...

... He promised we'd return to the old Etruscan town of Montepulciano later this week.
The roads narrowed and became windier as we drove away from the hill town. One road sent us through a wonderland of colors as luscious red, orange and yellow trees sandwiched us. I could've swallowed a fly with my mouth gaping so wide. Even though Vilmo passed this scenery everyday, he didn't seem disillusioned by it all. He was very proud of his Tuscan region ...

... a guidebook recommendation) for lunch – and It. Was. Awesome. Set off a little street, through a small door framed in ivy, this little hole-in-the-wall served up phenomenal Tuscan food. (A sign inside the restaurant stated: “Slow Food Zone.” Hah.) We started out with bruschetta, and from there, we each had a pasta as our first plate (“primi piatti”) – I had a spicy spaghetti with meat sauce, and Murray had the ...

un autre jour, une autre destination! Aujourd'hui, nous somme parties pour Siene. Arrive a siene, nous avons traverse la ville pour y trouver un bureau d'information touristique. une fois la carte de la vile en main, nous somme aller dinner dans un resto, un peu a l'ecart des sites touristiques. Comme dans tout les restorant italien, il y ...

... 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.

Last night we had just made a new itinerary to include a visit to a National Park on the coast, but that was all thrown out the window as we received a text message from Kim's mum saying she wanted to come and join us. Kim was ecstatic!!! Another replan session as we did our much overdue laundry in Grosetto and our trip of Italy was to come to an end sooner that we thought as we had to get to Barcelona in 1 week. It worked out better this way as Kim's mum flies home on the 15th Dec ...

... I get along really well with all of the girls and my actual roommate coincidentally enough goes to Davis as well. So all in all I am very satisfied with my living situation.

A little bit about school, I have Italian language class Monday through Thursday from 9 am to 12:30 with like a 20 minute break (during which everyone usually goes to a bar to drink coffee and eat pastries). As a side note, I LOVE Italian bars. I think it's one of the things that I will miss the most ...

... with the O'Calahans, Orrs, Harpers and Ina. We had a competition where some riders told a story explaining the empty farm houses in the valleys that we rode pass. The evening concluded after dinner when we retired to our rooms.

Italy Day 14

We rose this morning and had breakfast with the Orrs. Today was planned off day with everyone taking a bus into Siena for a day of touring. Kathie and I had a head start from the day before but joined in for the tour also ...

... di Rignana. Finally after not going far enough several times we find the tiny sign to Fattoria di Rignana winery and take the treacherous dirt road down steep slopes to the winery and old farm house. This was easily our favourite place to stay among a group of great places. The views of the Chianti valley were amazing and if it had been warm enough we would have been swimming in the infinity pool instead of strolling the vineyards and olive groves ...

Decided to visit Pisa and see this leaning tower, considering it was only a 20 minute train ride. Once I arrived at the train station I walked for about 10 minutes, crossed the Arno river and came to the Piazza dei Miracoli (miracles). This is where all the tourists come and spend their time in Pisa. The main attraction of course is the leaning tower, also a cathedral, a baptistery and the cemetery ...