This morning was a Coffee Class, called Discovery by the MokaFlor company. Our instructor, Gabrielle, was a mid-40's tall, bug-eyed, thin man. We met at 9am. The only other students were a Korean man and an Italian young lady. The Korean man knew Italian and some English, the girl, knew only Italian. So at 2 tables in a small cafe, Gabrielle began to explain ALL about coffee. We learned the origins, types, harvesting techniques, roasting, blending, espresso making, etc. He talked NON stop from 9am-1230pm. He had to explain everything twice, once in English and once in Italian. Only the Lord knows how much coffee Gabrielle had before arriving. Whatever he had, seemed to carry him all day. We also sampled 3 espressos. After that, I was weak in the knees, this stuff was strong!! Gabrielle ... read more

Four years ago at June Park Baptist Church in Melbourne Florida, David Honeycutt and Emily Webb were wed. Thankfully, we are blessed to share this day together, on vacation. David says, Just write something and he will help me spice it up. So here goes. wink-wink. We had lunch at McDonald's, honestly we did. No spicing that up, it was the same ol' thing. Well they did have some interesting things on the menu, like fried shrimp and see the picture of the Mozzerella burger. Anyway, I relished my chance to eat french fries, somehow with no guilt, like I was doing some sort of scientific research. We took a long afternoon walk. Window shopped and stopped at our favorite cafe for Cappuccino and tiramisu. I think the cafe shop girl thinks we are stalking her ... read more

Random thoughts on travel... ~All food tastes better on vacation ~I don't need 4 inches of memory foam to get a good nights sleep ~Afternoon naps are the best ~Kleenex is valuable, and you will pay any price for it ~Hairstyling and makeup, who cares ~It is all about comfortable shoes ~To blend in, walk SLOWLY, only Americans walk fast ~It does not both me to hear the TV next door, talking in the courtyard, footsteps on the stairs. etc ~Italian TV sucks ~All baby carriages are pushed by people in their 70's ~There are no Red Heads in Italy. ~Everyone window shops ~The Asian and Indian population is huge here, especially shop owners ~Italians hate small change (like 1 cent) and also cashing large bills (over 20Euro) ~the smell of Italian Leather is coming from ... read more

Today we finally made into the Mercato Centrale. This is a huge indoor market next to our apartment. This is similar to one of our farmers markets, that most of the city dweller shop for produce, etc. We took a Publix shopping bag with us. I had a plan to get some supplies for the kitchen. The first stop was the Espresso counter to get David's morning fuel. Across from that was the fresh pasta stand. I ordered in 1/2 Italian & English with some pointing involved. We got some gnocchi and some fresh ravioli, with 2 sauces. Next stop was a great place with a very friendly Italian owner. We bought balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, salami, olive oil and chianti from him. Next was the fresh mozzarella and bread. Oh I forgot the vegetables. Now ... read more

Our objective today was to walk from downtown, across the Arno river and up the hillside to Piazzele de Michelangelo. It is a great place to overlook the entire city. Before leaving David had mapped the routing on his phone and we started out. We went about 5 blocks and realized that the GPS was having some trouble finding us. I had read about this before leaving. Apparently, with all the centuries old buildings downtown, GPS is useless. At times we would be standing still and the dot on the map was darting around the screen. So we stopped for lunch. Sounded like a better solution than wandering. At lunch, we consulted our old fashioned map. The route was fairly simply, so we headed out again. A 6.8 kilometer walk put us at the top of ... read more