April 2012

<strong>Friday</strong>Today we can sleep in! We had a <a href=”http://tuscany.nyporter.org/Tuscany/Friday/22679069_HWgj5R#!i=1817206194&amp;k=B46PF8h” target=”blank”>leisurely morning</a>, followed by a pasta-making class. With some help from Romeo’s and Federica’s daughter Emily, Tim, Joe, and others made the pasta for lunch – from scratch. The process sure seemed simple; we were walked through each step by Federica and provided close supervision…

Thursday Arcidosso, the Fortress on the hill. This is a tiny village of only about 1400 people, but I managed to get some photos of a few banks whose name I recognized from my wire room days. Conner took his customary drink from the local water fountain. If he doesn’t end up with dysentery or…

Wednesday Again we got up early and headed out on the bus for a 2 ½ hour trip to Florence (Firenza).  Here we toured the city on foot.  We saw a large statue of Salistro Bandini, the monk who invented credit. (If he had only known what problems that would bring to people and nations…

Tuesday The day arrived sunny and warm (although it was cool in the morning when we left for Siena, a “short” 2 hour ride from the Villa Poggiarello.)  We visited the famous Piazza del Campo, the main square where the various neighborhoods of Siena have for 450 years held a horse race twice a year,…

Up until Feb 11, 1929 the Vatican essentially controlled Europe.  Mussolini changed all that.  He gave them 1 square mile of the city in Rome to call their own.  Now about 1000 people live in Vatican City.  There are three main gardens in the Vatican – Italian, French and English gardens maintained by 35 gardeners. …

Sunday morning, Marco (Rome Connection) with his three vans (and drivers/tour guides Max and Philippe) loaded us up and took us around the city. We had a terrific tour of the Coliseum – cutting the line significantly – group travel has its conveniences! Max got us up to the second level (we took the elevator…