Tuscany bound

[Jeff Gilder]

Kay and I are leaving today for a couple weeks in Italy. We will be staying in the Tuscany region for a week in an apartment in a little town of 3000 people. We will be taking day trips from there....then to Rome for 3 days to meet up with our friends Biate and Patrick from Switzerland. We will end our stay with 5 days on the Amalfi (sp) coast. I'll be post ing some pictures and video from our findings.
Jeff

[Jeff Gilder]

We arrived in Casole D' Elsa yesterday and met the owners of the apartment that we are renting for this week. The apt is in a castle on a hillside in this walled, midievil ciiy with an incredible view of the Tuscon countyside out the back door. We went to the "coop" supermarket today to stock up on veggies and wine for our stay. The chianti here is fantastic....I can say thqt after the first bottle. Almost no one here speaks english....so we are struggling with that. Tonight we will go to one of two local hang outs to shoot sme pool and toget to know some of the great people of this town.
I'll post more as we go
Jeff

[Jeff Gilder]

Today we went to Pisa to see that famous leaning tower. Personally I don't know what all the fuss is about....you know...with this "out of plumb" building. I'd be much more impressed if this thing was standing there after 900 years ..still inside the bubble. In my opinion...one of these days it's gonna come tumbling down...that's why I didn't climb the sucker. Not impressed!
After visiting Pisa we went to Volterra, an ancient walled city on top of a big hill. This place is stunning! I'd love to go back and spend more time there.

[Jeff Gilder]

Yesterday we visited Siena and Pienza. Siena was Ok...a great place to shop if you are a shopper....I'm not. Pienza.....awesome.
Today we visited San Gimignana....my favorite by far. You'll notice this after I get the pic uploaded. I couldn't put the camera away here. This is a small, walled, hilltop, midievil town full of midievil skyscrapers. The view from the top of this town were stunning....I only hope the pictures reveal how beautiful this place really is.
On the way back to Casole D'Elsa we stopped in a small town called Poggibonsi. This little town is quite charming, but not as old a San Gimignano.
Tomorrow is our last day in Tuscony....not sure what we will do. We leave Friday morning for Rome to meet our friends Beate and Patrick from Switzerland. After 2 days in Rome, we head for the Amalficoast for 5 more days.

[Jeff Gilder]

It has been afew days since i have been able to update my blog. Our 3 days in Rome were very busy and we have been having internetproblems at our villa in Masse Lubrense.
As for Rome.....awesome! Much nicer than I expected...a beautiful city with more to see than one can imagine. We did a tour of the Vatican with Angel Tours, who did a spectacular job. Our guide, Jimmy...a youn g Irishman,was fantastic. Of the many interesting site within the Vatican....St. Peters Basilica was by far the most impressive. We toured the Collesium, the ruins of the Forum, went to the Spanish Steps, and to Trevi fountain. Driving in Rome was unbelievable.....you'll have to see it for yourself, if you haven't already.
We left Rome on Sunday and drove to Masse Lubrense...a drive of about 4 hours. Our villa is a small 1 bedroom apartment with 2 terraces. I'll put up a video tour later.
Since arriving in Masse we have driven the Amalfi coast through Possitano (SP) and Amalfi.....through Sperano to the ruins of Paestum. I will post some pictures later. Yesterday Kay and climbed to the top of the volcano Mt. Versuvius through wind, fog, and sleet only to find that there wasn't enough visibility to see into the crater. Afterward we went to the city of Pompei to view the ruins let by the devistating eruption of Versuvius in 79....can't remember if it was AD, or BC.
tomorrow is our last day here...we plan to visit Sorrento andthe island of Capri...weather permitting. This has been a great vacation, but I'm looking forward to getting home and back to work....yea right.
More later.....