http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Italy , Tuscany , Volterra en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:54:27 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:54:27 UTC Well we seem to be the victims of climate change here in Tuscany. Apparently this is the wettest spring in memory. It has rained every day since we arrived but there have also been moments even hours on occasion of sun. With the continuation of great coffee the rolling hills of Tuscany ancient villages risotto funghi etc etc etc one really can't complain about the weather.We had the us http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-278995.html Italia summer 2007 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-224652.html It is cold here it snowed today but the natural terrain and the good upleep of the old town areas makes it gorgeous. Bad busstation labeling makes us angry but nothing so bad that a bar or lindor wont fix.We were in Siena climbed a tower and could see at least 160 degrees of terain with no Highways scaffolding cranes or anything of the sort we sat there for 20 mins and only left because of http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-220139.html This weekend was my Tuscany getaway and I was very excited. I woke up early to meet the tour bus in Piazza Italia and was on the way to Chianti sound familiar...maybe because of their wine Chianti is Italy's most famous red wine. It used to be easily identified by its squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket called fiasco but now can be found in normal bottles. Anyway we drove through the curvy http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-209370.html Alrighty...again last night i tried to post a long entry but it wouldn't post so this time i am emailing 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 1Seeing Iwo Jima six soldiers raising the flagVisiting http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-181572.html Yesterday was a great day. We started out with a downhill ride from Volterra to a nearby tourist town and took a shuttle back to the hotel which meant that I had plenty of time for the hot tub suana and emotional showers. Emotional showers are showers but with multiple sprayers colored lights and pipedin music. You set a program and they blast you with alternating hot and cold water fro http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-177469.html By popular demand here's a map of our ride from Siena to Volterra no altitude markings alashttpmaps.google.commapsfqhlengeocodeqsienaitalyieUTF8ll43.35713811.14975spn0.4483250.925598z10om1San Gimignano was one of the beautiful towns along the way.Eric http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-177193.html The longest and hardest ride of the trip was today as we rode from Siena to Volterra. Roughly 90 km and 4 MAJOR climbs the last into the old city of Volterra. I don't even want to think about that climb which came with a soulcrushing headwind until I post the pictures. And right now I'm writing from the slowest computer still in existence so I'm not going to elaborate for the moment. Suff http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-176912.html 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 beauti http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-94003.html I woke up this morning and showered in yet another amazing bath with a view of the gorge. Frankiersquos 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 yo http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Volterra/blog-91776.html