I have returned from Italy (October 2007). I spent two weeks in Italy. I had planned this trip since August 2006, after an invitation from my friend, Ed'Veeje. Below are a few pictures of my time in Italy. At the bottom of my page is a blog I started to write more detail about my trip. I am also adding video as I edit, so keep checking back.

    I arrived in Florence around noon from Paris. I got a taxi and then made my way to the Hotel Torre Guelfa which is in the heart of the historical downtown area:

    My first room at the Guelfa was small and not note worthy. Later in the week, I had a junior suite which was much larger and nicer. While the video captures the room well, the pictures did not.

    This past year, I have read a lot about Florence. I have studied her centro (downtown) and though I have never been there, I feel as if I know her streets and a little bit of her people.

As the taxi took me to the hotel, I saw land marks I had been studying and I knew exactly where I was and how far the hotel was. Studying the streets of Florence was paying off, as I would soon learn from the rental car.

 
I took this picture from the famous Piazzale Michelangelo      

    
The Duomo

    I recently re-read his Divine Comedy and thanks to a dear friend, fell in love Beatrice; Dante's own muse. Dante's Beatrice reminded me deeply of my own muse.

    I strolled Firenze's streets, breathe in her magic, and I was lucky enough to visit with one of her residents, Melinda. I started learning Italian in August 2006 and fell in love with language. While I don't expect to be fluent (I am not so naive), I do hope I can experience meeting some real Florentines.

edit: I did get use some of my Italian, how be it, only a little. It took me several days to get comfortable talking, but with Ed'Veeje's help, I started managing.

Edited: I did just this. I walked the streets of Florence late at night when few people were about, then again early in the morning when the city slept. Each time, I felt alone with her. I absorbed her and allowed the city emotions to wash over me. I would walk looking at the different stones or cobblestone in the streets, wondering how old these were here. What famous people walked over them, like Galileo, da Vinci, Dante, Boccaccio, Michelango, the great Brunelleschi, who built the Dome on top of Santa Maria del Fiore and countless others. I can not describe the emotions and energy I felt. It was unlike anything I have ever felt except for one. I met real Italians and shared meals with them. Something most tourist do not get to enjoy.

    I met Ed'Veeje and Raquel the next day. We rented a car and drove about 3 hours north, west of Milano about an hour and half. Their friend, Ludmilla and her family lived here. Below are a couple of pictures.

This picture taken from a terrace patio looking back at half of their home. My room was the far door on the left on the 2nd floor. Raquel and Ed'Veeje stayed two doors down on the 2nd floor. Be sure to check out the video I posted while staying there.

This is Ludmilla's husband. We are all eating lunch outside. It was very a stereotypical setting as you would imagine, with wine and bread and as you can see, a beautiful back drop.  It felt surreal almost all the time. It just doesn't get any sweeter than this my friends.

We left Ludmilla's Sunday and drove to Colle di Val d'Elsa, which is south of Florence and about halfway between Siena and Florence.  Here are couple of pictures of the view. We had to pick up directions to the villa in this town. Once we did that, we were on our way to Ciliegio House; our little villa for the whole week.
 
Colle Val d'Elsa
 

    Here is a picture of the outside. From here we did small day trips, such as a wine tour of Montalcino on Wednesday. If you know anything about wines of Tuscany, Brunello di Montalcino is world renowned.

We visited to Siena Tuesday, where they run the Palio horse race. They have done this race since 1482. Amazing!  It takes place every year on July 2 and August 16. The Palio is run to celebrate the miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary near the old houses that belonged to Provenzano Salvani.

    Here is what Siena looks like without the horse race:

We also visited these two small walled towns:

Monteriggioni.  We had dinner here and watched the sun set from up the western wall (bottom of picture).
 

We also traveled to San Gimignano.

Center of town

If you would like to read more about my trip, I created my own Blog. After all, everyone is doing it. My blog contains my deeper thoughts of my travel as well as several videos I have posted with more coming online each month.

 
click here: BLOG

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