Blogs from San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 5

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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano July 7th 2010

We awoke the next morning and enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at the B&B - egg, cheese, meats, buns, fruit, all delivered in the breakfast room by a charming Italian “mamma” who you could tell just loved her life and loved serving breakfast to her guests. We planned to spend the morning in Lucca, so we started walking around some more.. We played a game trying to find a street without a single bike on it - alas, we failed. There were bikes everywhere. We even saw the mail being delivered by bike! We explored the Duomo, saw the Tomb of Ilyria del Caretto, and visited the ruins under the church of San Giovanni. We spent an hour in the Museo della Cattedrale, where we saw a gorgeous golden cruicifix and several other unique items. We hit ... read more
Lucca - the tower with the garden on top
Atop Lucca
Lucca Bells

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano June 14th 2010

San Gimignano Today was the "sleep in" day, so naturally, Dad and I got up early and took full advantage of the beautiful day by taking a jog around the Tuscan countryside… It was such a lovely day, warm, but breezy. We wound up going out for nearly 1.5hrs! We did get lost a good number of times, and would slow down to find our way again, but it was still a great start to the day. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and laid out by the pool while Mom and Anna slept through the early afternoon… Then we had a light lunch at the hotel, which was fantastic. Everything is fantastic. I'm in Italy, blogging in Italy, and I feel like I haven't talked anywhere near enough about the food. Everything is ... read more
Relais Santa Chiara Hotel in San Gimignano
Relais Santa Chiara Hotel in San Gimignano
Relais Santa Chiara Hotel in San Gimignano

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano June 13th 2010

San Gimignano After leaving Marina di Carrara, we spent several hours in the car to San Gimignano, but stopped in another little town called Lucca, where we trudged through the rain to get some good shopping deals! Dad bought some cigars, and mainly we just picked up some neat accessories, like funky rings and hair things, etc. In the next segment in the car, the roads started to wind… and wind some more… and Fillippo apparently has a death wish, or he just really enjoys the smell of vomit while driving, because he took those twisty turns on those narrow little roads awfully recklessly!! It is the Italian way... Well, I am sometimes prone get motion sickness, and it's never all that bad, I certainly have never actually been sick because of it. It's usually just ... read more
Lucca
Lucca
Drive to San Gimignano

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano May 12th 2010

Geo: 43.4703, 11.0438 GÜN 14 günlerden Çarşamba Dün gece yine yağdı. Allahtan sabah biraz açıldı. Ben hemen tezgahı açtım. Yazılarımı hesaplarımı ve notlarımı tamamladım. Sonra Ayşe uyandı. Ufak tefek bir şeyler atıştırdık ve önemli bir karar vererek iki yağmur arasında Şahbazı(bizim minibüsü) düzenleme kararı aldık. Yatakları toparladık . Silkeledik etrafı bir güzel düzenledik. Eskiler boşuna dememiş kervan yolda düzülür diye... biz de gide gide daha organize olmayı geliştiriyoruz. Gerçi dönerken de organize olmak var ama bizimki bu kadar uzun sürmedi. Yıkandım. Traş oldum ve hatta Şahbaz'ı yıkadım. Öğleden sonra programımız olan San Gimignano ya gitmeğe karar verdik. Daha şehri yeni terketmiştik ki bir yağmur ..bir afet ve inanmayacaksınız bir de dolu... read more
San Gimignano amblemi
tek cadde
meydana doğru

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano May 1st 2010

DAY SEVEN - BY ROBYN Because Sandra had been sick for a few days and we were sick of Jenny’s company, Pete and I decided to go solo on Thursday (only joking of course Jen). Peter got up at 600am and went for a walk all around San Gimi, for his morning photo shoot of daily life activities. Found the old Italian lady stacking wood, previous day she was stacking all the wood with her husband sitting watching having a cigarette, very chauvinistic we thought. After breakfast we walked back into San Gimi waving to our old Italian lady friend who sits on her balcony waiting for us as we pass. Before we knew it we were wine tasting (what a surprise) then we realised it was only 11.00 am in the morning, oh to be ... read more
Sunrise view during the day
Sunset San Gimi
My attempt at creative photography

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano April 29th 2010

Day Three Nobody told me that parking a car in Rome could be so much fun. Watching the Romans do it is even more fun, more like touch parking, bit of push here and a bit of push there. Getting the car into the car park took three of us and 187 point turn, getting it out took just me but again a 187 point turn, but no bumping of cars on my part. Still once the car was out, we loaded up our luggage and out of Rome we drove. Not too hard, just road signs are a bit deceiving, and speed limit, well what speed limit, everyone just seems to do what speed they want and toot if ou are going too slow even if you are doing 120 kms. We stopped at a ... read more
View of old Sienna
Garden Hotel Siena
San Gimi 069

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano March 24th 2010

March 24 - Wednesday Another nice day. This time we where greeted at the break of dawn with song birds. I turned over and slept another couple hours as the bed with the duvet was the most comfortable yet. We still got an early start, with our first stop being Cortona. We walked all over town and to the top of the hill, and found none of the settings from the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" that was supposed to take place here, but wasn't filmed here... a Hollywood fiction. We had another gelatti with two more flavors and bought some souvenirs and a gift for my wife Linda. It was then off to Montepulciano for lunch. This is where some of the best Italian wine comes from, so we sampled several with lunch. We bought ... read more
The town hall and main square in Cortona
Climbing the narrow alleys in Cortona
Taking a breather on the way to the top of Cortona

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano March 10th 2010

It is Wednesday morning and we are stuck at the farmhouse. Around midnight last night the power went out and as of right now it is still out. Of course by the time you read this we will be back online, but I wanted to write it down now to capture the moment. Without power not only is there no electricity, but there is no running water and no heat. The water all comes from the well and is pumped by electric motor to the farmhouse, so no toilets or showers. The main heat at the house is provided by hot water running through radiator units in the rooms so if there is no water we do not have any heat. There are 3 fireplaces at the house, however only one can be lit because of ... read more

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano March 10th 2010

(Wednesday March 10 at 1230 pm) Hallelujah. The power, heat and water are back on. We are still farm-bound because of the mud on the road, but everything else is back to normal. The snow is melting quickly. Our hosts made a huge lunch for us. We started with a bowl of ribbolita soup (veggie/bean soup with bread). After the soup they served a huge bowl of pasta and a bottle of wine. Thinking that was it, we were about to head back to the room when they brought out the focaccia bread and a platter of sausage and potatoes. Holy cow - way too much food. Then came the cake - this put us way over the top. Serious food coma. Anyway, all is well and back to normal. Weather permitting, tomorrow we are off ... read more
Snow is melting quickly
Getting clearer
Still snow in the hills

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Gimignano March 9th 2010

(Tuesday March 9) The first picture on this page is the view from our room as I write this on Tuesday March 9 at about 3pm. The 2nd and 3rd pictures are from last night (Monday) when we went to dinner at an Osteria in Borgatella, a small town outside of San G. It was cold (hence my snow hat) but completely clear of clouds and no sign of snow. Grazia (our hostess at the farmhouse) told us it would probably snow today and warned us to stay close to the farmhouse in case the dirt road became impassable. We brushed off her warning thinking - how bad could it really get? At 8am the snow started falling. It didn't really look like snow -- just a few flakes here and there. Around noon it was ... read more
Dinner at Osteria in Borgatella
Dinner at Osteria in Borgatella
San G. weather at Noon




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