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Background: Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.

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By Arrpoo
July 2nd 2009

Tuscany Day 4 Europe » Italy » Tuscany

First Floor

We had scheduled with Niccoletta, the owner of Stomennano, to give us a tour of the property in the morning. She spent about two hours describing the history of each room and walked us around the property. Amazing their history that dates back to the Etruscan days. Stomennano started out as a small church, the current building was added to the original church structure. Queen Margherita occasionally stayed at the property when traveling. Additionally Dante’s Divine Comedy references Monterrigioni from the view of Stomennano. Lots of history. I haven’t mentioned our hosts. Ni [View Full Entry]

By Kasari73
July 1st 2009

Lauterbrunnen & Florence Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

Monday 29th was our full day in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland - up early as usual and after having breakfast and making our lunch we were off on our walk to the train station in Lauterbrunnen to go up to the Jungfrau, one of the highest points in Europe. The train trip in total takes 2 hours including stops and goes THROUGH the mountain!! We go through various stops and short tunnels all the way up the hill and then once we get VERY VERY VERY high up we then go straight up and through the mountain. Once in the main tunnel there [View Full Entry]

By Arrpoo
July 1st 2009

Tuscany Day 3 Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Piazza del Campo

Fifteen minutes south of Stomennano is the town of Siena. Siena is the home of the Palio , which lucky for us was taking place the same week we were in Tuscany. We all loaded up and went to Siena. The place was packed, it took us 45 minutes to find a parking space and I’ll tell you the parking was tight, especially with a nine person van! We parked at the Soccer Stadium thinking it was away from the crowds but I think everyone else had the same idea. As we drove around we had inches to spare, I had [View Full Entry]

By Arrpoo
June 30th 2009

The West Coast of Tuscany Europe » Italy » Tuscany » San Vincenzo

Populonia

During our down day we conferred with Nicolleta, our hostess, on some places she might recommend we visit on the west coast. Her recommendation was a little town on the coast called Populonia. Trying to go to either the north coast or south coast would have meant all day in the car. As it was we spent all day in the car anyway. Populonia is an old Etrusian city that pre-dates the Roman times. It was this great old castle style lookout with a small town nearby. Unfortunately it was hazy enough that we couldn’t see [View Full Entry]

By Arrpoo
June 29th 2009

Day One in Tuscany Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Discussing the Rain

Day One in Tuscany We all decided that it would be nice to have a down day and hang out at the villa and chill by the pool. We did a little grocery shopping in the morning, cooked some lunch and we ready to head to the pool when the sky opened up and began dumping buckets of rain on us. No real exaggeration here it was raining so hard that it began flooding into the villa. Martin and Shelly had a room on the top floor that was a watery mess from the storm. They ended up moving to an [View Full Entry]

By Arrpoo
June 28th 2009

On to Tuscany Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Monteriggioni

Today we woke up at a reasonable time and felt pretty good about getting a decent night’s sleep. We took the water taxi to the train station and boarded our train to Florence. Our final destination being a little villa outside of Monteriggioni called Stomennano . Up until now our train rides have been uneventful and timely, not today. We should have expected problems when we couldn’t find our car or seats, they had changed equipment. Once we got reassigned and on our way it got a little stuffy in the car; oh the air conditioner is broken [View Full Entry]

By TeesaRo
June 27th 2009

Prima Settimana Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena

Glamour Shot
Glamour shot of the Duomo in Florence that I took a week or so ago. Tasty.

Ciao a tutti! We've just finished our first week of work for the 2009 season, and the weather has totally thrown everything for a loop. We've had relatively cold temperatures, plus plenty of rain, thereby turning the entire site into a huge mud pit, punctuated with large holes full of standing water. It's slow-going with heavy clumps of dirt to lift, tools getting coated, and shoes caking and sticking in the mud. My storerooms are a bit different from where I worked in 2007. We use a garage up near the museum that is owned by the Commune of Murlo. We [View Full Entry]

By OliviainItaly
June 26th 2009

You know those guys, traveling disasters and Finals! Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

June 19 My wonderful alarm never went off this morning. WONDERFUL. So all my hopes of going to Cinque Terre today are eliminated. Something like this would happen! ARGH After sitting in disbelief for a while we decide to walk around FLorence. The city we've been living in for a month but have basically yet to roam. We go to the market. The day is good for us present wise. Get gifts for whoever we needed to get gifts for and just relaxed. I bought SlumDog Millionaire so we watched it on the computer once we got back. Lounging felt so [View Full Entry]

By Team America
June 22nd 2009

Divine Intervention Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

I checked out of my hostel in florence today at 10. Headed to the train station to hop on the train to the beach town "Rimini." When I got to the train station, every train headed north was delayed a minimum of 3 hours. This was due to a train derailing. The train that derailed was going in the direction of Rimini (same train tracks). If I had not gone out last night and decided to take the later train, I may have been on the train that derailed. I took this as a sign to stay in Florence for one [View Full Entry]

By Team America
June 21st 2009

Fishing with Dynamite Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence

The weather has finally started to agree with me! After a solid month of clouds, rain, and cold, I can finally say that it is too hot to wear pants. Shorts are a necessity, and no matter how much walking I am doing, thongs (this trip has been an immersion in Aussie culture, and they call them thongs not flip flops) are being worn. My skin tone is no longer a sort of opaque cream, and I can finally dress how I do back home...such a relief! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to start the debriefing o [View Full Entry]

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