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30 Sep |
Last Day in Rome Italy, Vacations
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Well, here it is the last day in Rome, and Edie is sick. So she is lying in bed resting, while I decided to come down to the lobby, and play on the internet.
I guess it’s a good thing she waited till the last day to get sick. It would have been a real bummer if she had gotten sick earlier. It must have been all the walking we did in Rome, Florence and around Tuscany.
But all the walking is done now, since we’re staying at the Rome Airport Hilton, and it is only a short walk to the terminal.
Once out of Rome, things calmed down considerably. We even found a wine festival, in the city of Panzano in Chianti, which was having a tasting of all the various wineries in the area. There were about 20. And as you might expect, some of the wines were very good and some not so good. It was still fun and a good way to taste a lot of wines without driving too much.
We only stayed in Tuscany 4 days (originally scheduled for 7) and then headed south towards Rome, and visited Montalcino, and then a little town called Bourgneggio in Civita. Both towns were really quaint towns, and made the entire trip to Italy worth while.
Next time I think we’ll go some place that is not so hectic. Maybe to Tahiti or Hawaii again, we’re we can just lie around the beach, and do nothing except eat, drink and sleep, and maybe play a round of golf if the urge should hit.
Ok, that’s it for now. I just wanted to give a quick update since it has been a while since I had found easy access to the internet. I will give a complete report, with lots of pictures, once I get home and back to work, where I can really relax. 
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22 Sep |
Update from Italy – Part II Italy, Vacations
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Now that we are away from Rome, things are slightly better, but even Florence has too many tourists (and Americans), but if you stay away from the major toursit attractions, The Ponte Vecchio, Uffizzi Gallery, and the Galerie d’Academia it really is a pleasant city.
Our hotel is just on the outskirts of Florence, not far from Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence. Not sure why it is so famous, since it is simply lined with jewelry shops. You don’t even realize you’re walking over a bridge, until you get to the very middle, and there is gap left open for viewing.
While there are some historical sites, and some beautiful architecture, basically Florence is just one great big factory outlet mall. But the food is better in Florence than in Rome, and if you stay away from those majror attractions, it’s not nearly as crowded, and Florence is a relatively nice city.
Tomorrow we’re off to the farm house in Tuscany where we’re staying. We are really looking forward to that. A chance to taste some good wines and sample some traditional Tuscan food, and maybe relax just a little, although today we are just going to relax and people watch.
High season ends today, so we’re hoping things will calm down considerably.
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20 Sep |
Update from Italy Italy, Vacations
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Rome sucks!
From having to deal with an ATM card that won’t work, unbelievably enourmous crowds, a traffic system that constantly seems like it is on the verge of gridlock, to a body clock that essentially ends my day at 6 PM, and has me wide awake at 2 AM this vacation has not gotten off to a good start.
I can only hope things will get better once we get to Florence (we leave today), and then on to the farm house in Tuscany.
Beyond that, I will say the people are friendly, mostly speak English (they have to in order to deal with the inordinate number of Americans here), and the first pizza I had, although thinner than what I remember, and the application of toppings different, tasted identical to what I remember pizza tasting like when I was growing up in Pittsburgh.
So things aren’t that bad.
Stay tuned for more updates. Maybe??
