Jbrewco

Day 22, Tuesday, June 3 Our last full day at the farm stay and the weather was very nice so we decided to hang out there for the morning and then venture out after the afternoon siesta break when all the stores reopen. Our first stop was the blog bench to post our latest blog and check email. Our next stop was a spot Jim noticed on our way to Parma a few days earlier, another cheese and cured meat store called Fattoria. The store specializes in cured meats of all kinds but also sells Parmesan cheese of various ages, and local wines. Jim was surprised to find the store had shopping carts and he wished he could fill one up and take it all home. Unfortunately U.S. Customs laws do not allow cured meats to ... read more

Day 17, Thursday, May 29 See the pictures from the previous blog, Jim jumped the gun on posting the pictures from our day, he was on a meat and cheese high! This is our first full day in the area and it has been reserved for a full-day food tour to see how Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and balsamic vinegar is made. The email we had received advised us to meet our personal guide at a restaurant just off the Autostrada in Parma but the instructions were not very clear so we left a little early just in case. There are three exits for Parma and our instructions were to exit off the Autostrada in Parma and look for a particular restaurant and wait in the parking lot for our guide. We decided to split the different ... read more

Day 13, Sunday, May 25 The weather on Sunday was warm and sunny so it was a chance to sit out on our patio and enjoy the sun. Lisa was on high alert looking for Frank the snake but he was nowhere to be found. There were however a number of small lizards all around us, and ants of various different sizes. Flying insects are of various sizes included some large bumble bees that sound like 747s and Jim swore he saw numbers and letters on the side of one. With no real plans for the day Gianna suggested we visit a small Enoteca (wine bar) in the village of Monticiano to taste some local wines, about a 10-minute drive from our house. So with four good tires we jumped in the car and drove to ... read more

Day 9, Wednesday, May 21 Lisa has been dreading this moment. We are leaving Sorrento with a rental car. Because we are preferred members with Europcar we are upgraded for free to an Alfa Romeo. Nice car BUT we have to get out of this town. Lisa is convinced that we will not have the passenger side mirror in the next 5 miles. She is wrong but it only took 13 minutes to jump the curb. She wasn’t timing any of this by the way, (Like she could have done better!). Jim got an overview of the toll system in Italy before we left Sorrento. We weren’t sure how many toll booths we were going to have to go through but we knew we were going to be on the road for about 5 hours not ... read more

Day 5, Saturday – Rome on our own. After three days of tours it was finally a chance for us to just wander around Rome on our own (although we walked most of it already). While in the area of the Colosseum we did not get a chance to see the Circus Maximus, which was a sports arena that could hold 200,000 spectators. This is where major chariot races were held. So instead of walking we went to the Termini Rail Station to get our train tickets to Sorrento for tomorrow and a day pass for the metro which includes the bus lines as well. A guide from our previous tour explained that there are a couple of reasons why there are only two metro lines (A and B) underground. First of all, the Italians are ... read more