Tulip Inn Mirage Hotel Florence

... B we had booked… it was a restored castle on top of the hills in Tuscany… after much winding roads on what appeared to be a single road to nowhere we found it and it was worth the effort…..we sat on to of the hill looking at olive groves and the hills beyond.. Magnificent…. Dinner was a Florentine steak.. Yes just one steak between 4 of us.. The biggest T-bone in the world… amazingly tender .. View from top of mountain great….

... br>
Later that night was probably the most interesting part of my time in Cinque Terre. I went out at around 9 to find something for dinner, and as I was walking past a café on the main street in Riomaggiore, I came across an Australian I had met over two months earlier in Hamburg. That is a long time and a long distance. Europe is way too small…

But thankfully the Australians are back. I feel much safer now.

... on the same day as me, so we got to spend quite a bit of time together.

Six of us took a day trip to a little town called Siena, about an hour away by bus (with no traffic). We explored the town all afternoon and stumbled across a fantastic little restaurant in a park, far away from the tourist crowd. Nobody there spoke English and it was easy to tell that the only other people there ...

... 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

... do it for us, even in the best of times and we think it is pretty easy to say that this is definitely the best of times.

Our BREAKING NEWS! As we may or may not have told you we have decided to stay in Italy with Dino's family until at least January (Yeap you heard us right). We had planned on travelling through only summers (we didn't plan very well), so we have minimal winter clothes and with us ...

... br>
Still haven't gotten a cell phone, and I'm not sure if I will. Pretty expensive for a slap-in SIM card for my existing phone, so I'll continue to shop around. Skype is my friend! It's gotta be the greatest communication tool invented in a while :-)

So, back to Florence -- there are basically two ways to town from the hilltop apartment that I'm renting South of the city -- either through Piazzale Michelangelo (which was the last ...

... i worked on my essay and then was craving the tomato soup calle pappa al pomodoro. it is a tomato soup with Tuscan bread in side. it is amazing and i needed to get that today. one of my roommates went to get dinner with me and i ordered it. it was one of the cheapest ones i have seen.

when i got home from dinner i skyped with my mom and then got ready to go to this pool that is open at night to the public. it is a long walk but ...

This week, my old soccer coach, Kevin, his daughter Ashley, boyfriend Rob, his friend Bob, and Bob's son Nick, came to Florence for a short visit.  They were only here a few days but it was nice to see some people from my neck of the woods.  My ...

... pensione itself is quite impressive. It's a big apartment/hotel type place that has tall ceilings with beautiful fresco paintings. I'm living in a quad with three other girls. The room is huge and we have our own bathroom, which has been nice. The lady who owns the pensione is named Manola and she has adopted us all as her own. She is here everyday and goes home in the ...

... Pitti, Dave and I crossed over the river via the Ponte Vecchio, the most well-known of Florence's bridges. Jewelry shops line the bridge, and I enjoyed looking in the windows. Fortunately for Dave, I prefer silver and white gold (everything was yellow gold), so he was safe from me wheedling him for some overpriced trinket! We locate the palace and gardens - and the gardens go straight up, forever, it seems. Finally we reach ...