Relais Il Chiostro Pienza

Hello everyone,<br>We had such fun today!! The square had it's first ever market day or flea market. It was filled with cheeses which by the way Percino was our favorite and the fresh sliced procuitto was unbelievable. We just walked around all day. The first part of the day we did two loads of wash and dry which cost $18 us dollars. Then we had wine free and paid and had a great time. We then came back to ...

... him questions about taking pictures without flash. He said we could not and then started rewinding the tape to see what we were doing in the church. We left quickly. We then went to a meat market that was named in Rick Steve's book that has the original owners and is suppose to be really good. We went in and they had cheese on the top of the counter like Schnucks and stuff when they are giving samples so I reached for a piece and it was a womans in ...

... Once it is finished and the black screen appears again do not close out as now you can hit the white arrow and watch it without interruption because it is fully downloaded. So hit the arrow the first time and walk away then come back and when it is the black screen again hit the arrow and you won't have any interruptions.<br>Chow

... if we were on the right bus for Via Del Tozzi, they said, "no, no". Now what? So I went back up to the driver and he told me "momento". I waited and a few minutes later we came to a stop and he told us to wait for #5. Then he parked the bus right there and walked off. We thought he said 50 minutes. Whew, we did not know what to do. We were looking at the schedule on the wall in Italian ...

... there are more locals than tourists and every one likes to get out and about and socialise.<br>Jane manged to root out an 80 year old gold watch which belonged to the shopkeeper's uncle.<br> <br> <br>We wandered in to a terrific display of old radio and movie equipment dating back to Marconi. John &amp; Pat will appreciate the photos.<br> <br>For our last night we went to ...

... dellightful cafe for lunch: Margaharita Pizza, with a thin crispy base, belissimo! This cafe is well known as a meeting place for Hollywood stars.<br><br>Cortona has very narrow and steep streets, purrfect for pets.<br>Finally we arrived back at Arezzo and after booking a haircut for myself tomorrow (the hairdresser doesn't speak English so that will be exciting) I am sitting at the La Dolce Vita cafe writing this entry while Jane is off looking at the shops (gulp)<br>

... some pecorino cheese. It was pretty neat to see a place that does work similar to what I may end up doing one day. I really liked that it was a small place too, they only produce about 6-7 thousand bottles per year. They talked about how they focused mainly on quality instead of quantity; something that the United States needs to get back to. Ever since the Nixon years we have focused all efforts on high quantity at low costs and what did we get ...

... drastically better, which goes to show what 2 years can do to a great bottle of wine. After the wine we tried 4 different olive oils and rated them according to color, aroma, and taste. And during the whole ordeal we ate pizza, parmigiano, and salami to fill the stomach (even these things didn't stop the girls from falling down the stairs on our way out). I am on someone else's laptop so I'll try to find an internet cafe tomorrow in Florence.

... Tuscany is replete with small hilltop villages, each using the advantage of a high-walled acropolis to keep an eye out for neighboring would-be attackers. For the modern day traveler (or biker) this means beautiful vistas at the beginning (descents, hooray!) and end of the day (sometimes daunting ascent after a full day on the bike). Pienza is absolutely beautiful. A small village of 1500 people which today survives on tourism and perhaps somewhat on its local ...