Videos

I've been saying I'm going to post some of the videos from Italy and just haven't managed to find the time yet. I will start with my favorite, in the event I never do anymore.

Christine's Photos

And finally- I posted my photos.  If you have any interest in seeing all 357 of them.  Click here.  Next on my agenda is to post a couple of videos, so stay tuned.

Mom's photos

I'm not 100% sure if this will work, but I think it should.  Mom has posted all her pictures to the Kodak gallery.  Click here to see them.  I'll get mine up there soon.  I am hoping to compile our pictures and make a nice book for each of us.  

View from the airport food court

Heading home

We are at the airport in Florence. I'm eating my last slice of
Italian pizza margirita. Our flight is delayed by a half hour -
guess I could have laid by a pool a while longer this morning!

Jean and the tower

And we got here all by ourselves! Heading back to Florence now.

Christine and the Leaning tower of Pisa

She is seriously taking pictures while laying in bed

Room service

Amazing cheesecake! I'm calling it me dinner and yes I'm eating it in
my bed.

David

Tonight we had a cocktail reception and private viewing of the David.
AMAZING! He was so bigger than I expected.

Water

Mom with her 6 euro water.

By the pool

Believe it or not, mom is not only in the water, but actually said, "I
hope it's cool today."

Rest!

Today was a great day, San Gimignano was wonderful and the wine tasting at the vineyard was so neat, but we are happy to be able to sleep in tomorrow.  We are tired!  Yesterday's long day to Rome is still taking its toll on us.  We did not sign up for the excursion to Sienna, but will be doing facials at the hotel spa.  We hope to sleep in, take our time at breakfast, maybe go to the pool then for facials at one.  I may try to run in the morning- to burn off  some of the one million calories I have consumed since being here!  After our facials- we may venture to downtown Florence to do some shopping, then tomorrow night we have a private viewing of the David!  

Real Photos- not from my phone

View from the Punta Vechio in Florence.

The bathroom in our room- its beautiful.  All marble.  The door to the left is toilet.  To the right the shower.

At our first night welcome reception dinner

With our bikes in Lucca- before getting left there.  We could have used them later in the day to chase down the bus!

Mom at the Colosseum.

The Colosseum- inside

The Colosseum- outside

After lunch in Rome yesterday.  

A field of sunflowers- taken through the bus window.

Us in San Gimignano today.  Beautiful little city and amazing views of the Tuscan country side

Beautiful flowers from my husband for our 8th Anniversary.  

Another beautiful view

From outside the gates of San Gimignano.

Gate into San Gimignano

San Gimignano

Eat lunch

This is the view from our table at lunch. We saw the Colleseum and
will head to the Vatican.

On the road again...

...Well train this time. Heading to Rome.

Left in Lucca

Well after the bike tour we had lunch with the group then the plan was to get back on our bus and head to Pisa to check out the leaning tower, but instead we thought it would be fun to run around Lucca trying to find the bus.

Not kidding - we got left in Lucca. After an hour and half of trying to track down the bus, or then a phone number for a tour guide, we had finally resigned to taking a bus back to Florence, when we were connected with someone from the travel group company who had stayed behind to look for us.

Turns out the bus was parked in a different location from the drop off point - but somehow we missed that announcement, and went to where we were dropped off in the morning. We hung out there for a while, and eventually with the help of the tourist information folks figured out the other bus pick up zone. Problem was it was clear across the little city and it was about 90 degrees. We hauled. Mom even ran, but by the time we got there they were gone. Later we found out that was the time that the drove back to where we had just been to look for us. So we circled around each other for a while, and finally the group left us, but did leave someone behind to eventually find us and guide us to a train station and buy us tickets back to Florence. SO we did not see the leaning tower, but at least we made it back to the hotel! And so far no one has pointed and whispered when they see us - those are the ones who were left in Lucca!

We may try to make it to Lucca on our free day Thursday, we will see what we are up for by that point. I can laugh about it now, but Mom will need a couple of years I think.

Tomorrow is the bullet train to Rome- bright and early. Mom is I am sure already sleeping and will complain when I wake her when I go back to the room. Hopefully our adventure today wore her out enough that she will be able to get back to sleep!

Bike tour of Lucca

Last night's dinner was great, but we got locked out of the toilet in
our room last night. We both slept great. I ran this morning and we
had a nice breakfast. Now we are in Lucca and I talked mom into the
bike tour. So far so good no crashes yet. Onto Pisa this afternoon!

Dinner

We are off to diner. It looks like they have set up for a wedding. Its so beautiful. Wireless in the room is going to be a problem, so posts may come less frequently than originally expected! I will do what I can though. Stay tuned.

On our walking tour of Florence

Well we arrived. We hung out by the pool and relaxed then cleaned up
and hit the road for our walking tour. We look like perfect tourists
with cameras and headpones.

Flight two

Dulles to Frankfurt. It appears we'll have a crying kid one row in
front of us for this 7.5 hour flight. We hope he goes to sleep.

Flight one

Portland to Dulles

3 Days

We depart for Italy in just three days.  Mom bought me a travel journal which I am pretty sure I won't use, but it got me thinking that maybe I will blog about our trip and that way folks at home can hear/see all about it too.  I have set it up to automatically email many of you when I create a new post, so this first entry will be the test.  I will have my computer and iphone with me so I should be able to post a little something each day, provided I can find the time.  We will be going, going, going,  most everyday!

Watch out Italy here were come!