Blogs from Volterra, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 3

Alrighty...again, last night i tried to post a long entry, but it wouldn't post, so this time, i am e-mailing it to you so that you can copy and paste it onto the blog for me if that is possible. Thank you! I love and miss you both. Since i only have a few minutes, i am only going to post the highlights so far. Thank you for your patience. Day 1 Seeing Iwo Jima (six soldiers raising the flag) Visiting the Korean War, Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam and World War II Memorials Day 2 Seeing the Tiffany and Hope Diamonds Visiting the Art museum, History Museum and Science Museum (best of all...) Seeing the fireworks from behind the statue of Andrew Jackson Day 3 Listening to woman from the Secret Services come and speak about her ... read more

By popular demand, here's a map of our ride from Siena to Volterra (no altitude markings, alas): url="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=siena,+italy+&ie=UTF8&ll=43.357138,11.14975&spn=0.448325,0.925598&z=10&om=1" target="_blank"http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=siena,+italy+&ie=UTF8&ll=43.357138,11.14975&spn=0.448325,0.925598&z=10&om=1 San Gimignano was one of the beautiful towns along the way. -Eric... read more

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 as Panzinni, Lamole, and Greve. We had the obligatory stop for coffee lattes, and we've ended the afternoon with lemon and caramel gelatos. Wine tasting might happen before our dinner back in the village tonight. ... read more

I woke up this morning and showered in yet another amazing bath with a view of the gorge. Frankie’s parents and a family friend had rented a small, stone villa and we had invited ourselves to stay in one of the guest rooms for five days of rent free Tuscan sightseeing. The house was built into the side of a hill, near the medieval walled Tuscan town of Volterra. The town was so near, if you listened closely at the top of the hour, you could hear the church bells toll. The only way to reach the house was via a long, steep, narrow, gravel driveway with hairpin turns and sheer drop-offs at each bend. Thou beautiful, just thinking of the driveway gave me vertigo. The property was terraced, planted with a mix of olive, cyprus ... read more