Hi all. We are now home again, and I've taken a sampling of the photos we have taken while in Italy and have put them up on a website for your viewing. We really enjoyed our trip to Tuscany and at the end to a region called "Cinque Terres" which boasts a fabulous coastline. The weather was clear, blue skies, and warm temperatures for the entire week save the first day, and our arrival back in Canada brought rain and single digit temperatures. Welcome home. Thanks for reading. Kevin & Julie [View Full Entry]

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Bonasera... Missed a day, but that's life in laid-back Italy, time is not important. We had a beautiful walk up to the medieval village yesterday morning ending in San Gimignano -- a walled village with 17 towers still standing, all dating back to around the 13th century. We then proceeded to Monteriggiano (sp?) for a bierra or espresso. Today, we've spent the day in Sienna which is a quaint university town with a large piazza at its center. The weather still has been holding with clear skies, warm temperatures and cooling off in the evenings. There are lots of tourists still [View Full Entry]

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Bongiorno, we are back.. Our first full day with the group. We had a great opening dinner last night getting to know each other in the village restaurant. We had polenta with mushroom, stuffed rabbit, lamb with tomatoes and wine of course. The espresso at 10 was a mistake as it kept me awake for some time. The villa has a view opening to vineyards below the town of Castellina and is very beautiful and picturesque. It is fenced off to stop the wild boars from eating everything! Today we walked through the hills and valleys and in neighbouring towns such [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Bongiorno... We are back again at the Florence airport to meet up with the Explore! group. We've spent the night in town and have had our initial good and bad experiences... The bad one was an incredably poor dinner aimed at ripping off tourists, the good was our initial experiences of gelato and espressos. Yum. The number of tourists here even in October is mind boggling. We will be happy to head out to the countryside today. Big hello & hugs/kisses to Colin and Emma. Keep reading, those who are interested, and if you are not, let us know [View Full Entry]

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