Il Cappuccio Citta di Castello

... are teeming with families, young people and older folks just walking enjoying the cool weather, hot coffee and all sorts of chocolate products. I even caught a wedding happening on Sunday. We have another two days here and will return to Rome on Wednesday afternoon….just in time for dinner and a full day of touring before heading back hone on Friday morning.

Best to all back home,

Jorge

... paysage est tres beau, comme dans toute la toscane!!

dans les attraction principale , il y avais le duomo, quelque eglies plus modestes, mais chacune avais un petit quelque chose a voir. puis il y a les ruines d'une anciene arena romaine.

... Osteria Gucini Restuarant: Grilled Veal with Shaved Truffle and Hand Rolled Spaghetti with Smoked Ham, Tomatoes and Cream, followed by Pana Cotta. Our first experience with truffles, more smell than taste!
Next morning a 7.00 am departure from the apartment took us on to the Autostrada, this time, north to Firenze Airport.
After a bit of a delay we were on our way to Spain!

On a drizzly morning we set off in the Panda and in an hour and or so got spat off the Autostrada at 130kmh!
Only about 80km further than we needed to go, so we followed a few back roads to arrive at the hillside town of Cortona.
After parking below the town's walls we were greeted by a posse of cats.
Guess what? Jane has bought another bag. Apparently two was clearly not enough, so now she has to carry the extra one.
The sun finally came out and we found ...

... pizzeria where I had delicious lasagna. After lunch we browsed through the many stands. Sample after sample led to some major purchases. It was hard to pass up the various chocolate products when the smell just filled the air. There was everything from chocolate beer to chocolate “pills” to chocolate pasta!!

Heaven.

I’ll update you soon,

Siara

From Venice, I took the train down to Florence, which is in the well-known area of Tuscany (see the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun"). Upon arriving at the hostel, I ran into Ross, one of the guys that stayed in my room in Venice, so it was nice to see a familiar face. The hostel in Florence was also the best I've had in terms of meeting people. They have a nice big courtyard and garden in the middle of ...

... hallway of nothing but incomplete Michelangelo sculptures... and it's really interesting to see these works in progress. It gives you a little ...

... her camera phone, I assumed she wanted me to take their picture, but then they made it clear that they wanted to take OUR picture, just of us sitting on the sidewalk eating our gelato, with none of them in the picture. Who knows what they wanted it for, but we had no reason to say no. What a perfect end to our weird trip, huh? So now we're back in Rome, and glad of it. Although we had a fantastic trip to Florence, and Rome is dirtier and fewer people speak English, it's already become home.

... is a small world! Florence is so charming. I walked around a bit and stumbled upon Piazza Duomo, the no. 1 site to see here. The thing about Europe is that you can just be walking around, street after street, then BOOM, something so amazing and Monumental will appear and you just stand there with your jaw on the ground, ha, its great! There are a few great museums in town, Galleria Dell Accademia and Galleria Uffizi...and of ...

... said you can't same-day book on the phone, but you can INQUIRE about same day booking a museum counter. I will make sure to look into this early tomorrow so that if it doesn't work out I can make Milan a pass through for the gang in March. I would see it Monday, but it's closed. Therefore, a pass-through is the only other option (once again saving something for next time, but I hope I do get in tomorrow! I DON'T mind seeing it twice ...