Italy, Te Adoro

Italy is awesome!

We arrived in Florence around 6:30 Monday evening.  I'm glad this was the last stop on our trip because if it was the first, we would never have left.  I told everyone in my travel party that the hotel accomodations would improve with each stop.  Our two room suite at a villa located on an olive plantation just over the hill from Florence did not disappoint!  The views are spectacular, the room itself is something I could live in forever, and the grounds are well worth the expense.  Anyone traveling to Florence should stay at this hotel.

The villa serves a continental breakfast, but lacks a restaurant.  After we checked in and unpacked, we walked down the hill for about a mile to eat at a local trattoria.  The pesto ravioli was so good we ordered seconds!  And you can't beat the price - four meals (plus a fifth), a bottle of wine, three bottles of water, and three desserts was under $50.  We were told that wine in Italy is cheaper than diet coke.

Tuesday we spent the morning at San Gimignano, a medievel town in Tuscany built a mere 1,700 years ago.  The village walls still stand, as do many of the interior buildings, though they now contain present-day services, including a hotel and a pharmacy.  Most important for us, it has a shop that twice one the World's Best Gelato competition.  Everyone but my wife had three scoops.

From there, we visited a local winery for a quick tour and wine tasting.  The Tuscany region is famous for Chianti.  The winery served us beans in olive oil, tomato, bread, and several types of pork, with a different glass of wine for each of the six course meal.  I ended up buying a case each of the Chianti Classico and their Merlot.  They would never have cleared Indonesian customs, so they will be a delightful present awaiting us when we return to the US.

After the winery, we stumbled back to the car, then back to the village of Scandicci, which is down the hill from our villa.  This trip into town made us 4 for 4 on grocery store visits on our vacation.  We now know how to buy lemons (for tequila) and baby food in four different countries and languages.

Wednesday was our trip to Rome.  For me, this was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to.  I wanted to see the Coliseum and St. Peter's Basilica.  We were able to see those and much more.  We started at St. Peter's, where we ate lunch and walked a bit around Vatican City.  The pope was unavailable to see me, so we moved on to the Coliseum where there is a neighboring architectural dig uncovering more parts of ancient Rome.  (NOTE:  To bypass the lines, pay the extra 4 Euros for an audio-guide or a guided tour - if you make more than $8/hr, the time/cost trade-off is in your favor).  From the Coliseum, we visited the Trevi Fountain, then moved on to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.  We ended our day at the Spanish Steps.

St. Peters:

Coliseum:

Ancient Ruins:

Trevi Fountain:

Pantheon:

Spanish Steps:

Driving around Rome is like driving in a museum.  Every corner you turn reveals another splendor for the eyes.  If you plan to drive, make sure you call ahead.  The inner portions of Rome are closed to private vehicles unless you call ahead, pay a fee, and register with the local traffic police.  Rome experiences so many visitors every day, they have to do this to keep traffic from becoming ridiculous. 

We left our villa at 9 AM and returned at 11:30 PM.  It was a long day with lots of walking, but well worth it...though, things do get quite redundant after a while.  By the time we got to the steps, we were thinking:  "is that it?"

Our last full day in Italy is today.  I am watching the kids sleep while my wife and niece are spending the rest of our vacation money in Florence.  I never actually set foot in the city of Florence.  Tomorrow, my niece leaves on a noon flight for Chicago and we leave at 7 PM.  We leave Europe with great memories and a long list of places we must return to in the future.