ONE WEEK IN FIRENZE Our week consited of: Feasting on cheap pizza and wine while watching sunsets on the steps of Piazza Michaelangelo - Strolling through the open air markets near Piazza San Lorenzo and the endless stalls filled with leather jackets, purses and florentine stationery - exploiring the Piazzas of the Oltroarno and searching in vain for the mystical calzone of the gods, eaten during James and Erins 2001 trip - Sampling Tuscan ribollita soup and drinkiung carafes of the house vino at Trattoria Marione on Via della Spada - Realizing that every Italian takes their year [View Full Entry]

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IL PALIO The Palio di Siena is a truly medieval moment. It is a no holds barred horse race where riders representing 10 of the citys 17 fiercely competitive neighborhoods battle it out for yearly bragging rights during 3 laps around Sienas main square-Il Campo. Over the many years, Palio competitors have bneen know to whip and throw each other from their horses, and the rules state that a horse can still win the race without a rider. On rare occasions riders have been killed in this 90 second melee of an event. Several hours before the race, spectators begin to [View Full Entry]

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CINQUE TERRE What we are about to write should be kept as quite as possible. The Cinque Terre is already heavily touristed, so just tell your closest friends: This is the ONLY coastline that either of us has ever seen that ACTUALLY rivals the California/Oregon coastline. And add to that, colorful clifftop villages, water warm enough to swim in, terraced vineyards from seashore to mountain top, and knee-buckling, jaw-dropping hiking trails. This place really is out of a story book. These are the villages from north to south: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. [View Full Entry]

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DUBROVNIK Dubrovnik was amazing. Europeans call it the Carribean of Europe - not too far from the truth. The water was warm, the food not too shabby, and they actually sold beer by the liter. Nice! We spent our time exploring the gorgeous old town, baking our bodies in the sun, and diving off the numerous rocky outcroppings and beaches. We are actually in Florence now, and will give an update of the Cinque Terre soon. We are diggin Italy right now. OK, off to eat some boiled beef paninis dipped in meat juice....Ciao! [View Full Entry]

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By the way, in case anyone was wondering, TravelBlog dot org crashed and lost the pictures and text to several of our blogs. Awesome. Hope all is well with everybody. Matt and Erin [View Full Entry]

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HRVATSKI HOSPITALITY PICTURES TO FOLLOW WHENEVER WE GET TO A MODERN COMPUTER!....... After 36 consecutive hours of travel (thats a 6 hour jaunt from Nice to Milan, a 3 hour hop to Venice, a 7 hour overniught scoot to Zagreb, a 5 hour shuffle to Split, concluded by a 4 hour shimmy to Dubrovnik), we were picked up at the bus station by the proprietor of "Rooms Antovnic", a 72 year old Croatian woman named Katie. Still in a daze from our trip, Katie used the few English phrases she knew to manuever us onto the public bus and take us [View Full Entry]

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PROVENCALE HOMEBASE: X-EN-PROVENCE The summer days are long in Aix (pronounced like the letter X). The sun rises softly but eagerly around 5am, shines strongly and persistently throughout the day, and finally runs out of steam sometime after 9pm. With over 16 hours of sunlight, a person can pack an obscene number of activities, sights and meals into a day. But the thing we liked best about Aix is that you feel equally satisfied doing as much or as little as possible with your day. (We both preferred the latter) Our schedule was, with a few deviations, as follows: Wake [View Full Entry]

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Isle Sur La Sorgue Market Europe » France » Provence Alpes Cote d Azur » Vaucluse By kamaaole kama hele July 24th 2007 Matthew and ErinISLE SUR LA SORGUE MARKET The Sunday Market at Isle Sur La Sorgue is f [View Full Entry]

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Red Earth of Roussillon Europe » France » Provence Alpes Cote d Azur » Vaucluse By kamaaole kama hele July 23rd 2007 Matthew and ErinRED EARTH OF ROUSSILLON Apparently, the earth in and around the village [View Full Entry]

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Gordes - Incroyable! Europe » France » Provence Alpes Cote d Azur » Gordes By kamaaole kama hele July 23rd 2007 Matthew and ErinGORDES - INCROYABLE! Not much to say besides, "Go here before you die." This wa [View Full Entry]

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