Blogs from Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 6

Our last day in Montalcino was fantastic. We started the day visiting Abbey St‘ Antimo. Founded by Benedictine Monks. Another beautiful example of architecture with Roman influence. Constantine had something to do with its founding back in 1350. The afternoon was spent touring two wineries: Podere Le Ripi . The winemaker, Giovanni, personally took us on a tour and explained their organic system thoroughly. We were lucky they started picking grapes that day. Very old school in the processes and all hand picked. We sampled their Brunello , Rosa and Bosai wines. Next we toured Masteo Janni Winery. Owned by the family that owns illy and a much bigger producer of wine. They were set up to produce and sell a lot of wine using the newest steel tanks-over a million bottles of wine per year. ... read more

Wow everyone awake & on full speed ahead this morning. There is alot of urgency in the movements outside. We have a good people watching window from 4 floors up. People having a very animated chat on the corner (we could hear them from here over the traffic), someone on an errand can't find a park so parks on the pedestrian cossing, the little dog wants to play with the big dog across the street, little street cafes already filling up with lots of chat, elderly lady with her trolly bag (i could use one of those!), children waiting impatiently at the bus stop, music thumping from a car expecting the driver to be blown from the vehicle, 'ding ding' the tram is approaching, more people in animated chat, the scooters, the buses, every second person ... read more

A little slow off the mark this morning...but so was the rest of Rome. It is so warm here we have a developed a constant shine...no wonder they have lovely skin. Some pretty looking storm clouds but no storm arrived. Out at 9am & the streets are quiet. Using the new Metro is so easy. It does not appear to have affected the other modes of transport as the buses & trams are still constant & full. We enjoy people watching on the Metro, you name the nationality they are there. We changed route at san Giovanni onto the red line to Spagna. Quite a crowd at the 'Spagna Steps' already & so I didn't climb them this time. So we HAD to walk past all those amazing shops on the 'expensive street' with all the ... read more

Saturday & everything as usual like the rest of the week. Workers here tending the tourist industry heading off to work. We really enjoy staying a little out of the main hub. Our apartment is super nice & set up with everything we need. Very quiet until we open the windows & we get a blast of Italy into our dining room. It is quite entertaining...lots of family stuff. The bells ring at 8am & then the noise begins. We are still completely out of kilter...up at 5 this morning breakfasted & out by 8 into Roma Centrale on the new Metro C line to San Giovanni & changeover to A line onto the Repubblica stop. The city was still reasonably quiet for Roma, another 2 hours & it was a different story. The stroll down ... read more

Today was Sharon’s birthday so we are meeting up with Leonie and John (our villa companions) for pre-dinner drinks at our apartment, prior to us all going out to dinner. This morning we went to the Spanish Steps early, to see this landmark. From there we walked to the Trevi Fountain, to The Pantheon and Piazza Navona, where we had a birthday brunch for Sharon. This consisted of a triple gelato (for Sharon), coffee and tea. After this, we walked to Campo dei Fiori, where we had a look at all the market stalls and were enticed into a café to sample a 6 EUR special consisting of a Spritz and bruschetta (olive and artichoke). We did some food shopping for our pre-dinner drinks antipasto plate and then walked back to the Tiber, crossing at the ... read more