We are now in Florence. We checked in and went to see the sights. It was too crowded to go into the Duomo – see pic.

We continued on to the Academia to see the statue of David. Surprisingly that was not a long line so I got to see the original statue and some of the museum. We continued sightseeing and I was able to take a pic of the copy of the statue of David. We then continued to the Ponte Vecchio and take a pic from the bridge. We continued walking and saw the Piti Palace of the Medici’s. We then took a break – see pic. It was around 4:30 and we went to the Uffizi Museum. There was no line so we toured the museum until it closed at 7pm. We then went for dinner at a place known for the brick oven pizza. Naturally all was delicious. We then returned to the hotel – we need to plan our day for tomorrow.

We arrived in by train in Camucia (?) and took a bus to Cortona – known because of the book and movie “Under the Tuscan Sun.” I took a picture of the view, but the picture does not capture how beautiful this area is. Of course we walked uphill to our hotel – we think it is a convent! See pics .

We then went in search of “Bramisole” the villa prominent in the book and movie. It is a long, long walk uphill. In fact we walked past it and up to a church on the top of the mountain. When we walked back, we stopped at a little store to ask how to find “Bramisole”. We had passed it on the way up, but the directions were not clear. At the store we met an Australian couple who were also looking for the villa. They offered us a ride and the 4 of us found Bramisole – see pic .

We got into town and walked around looking at the little shops. This is really a nice area and nice town. After all the walking we stopped for a snack. Marsha had mozzarella and tomato andI had “bread with cheese and truffle oil”. We walked around again and went back to the hotel to get sweaters. Yes, it is cool in the evening and great weather during the day. Then it was time for dinner. Marsha had bread soup – I forget the Italian name and I had spaghetti.

Tomorrow we go to Florence.

We got up and went to breakfast at the hotel. There was chocolate fondue on the breakfast buffet plus chocolate croissants and cakes. Good breakfast. Then we thought we would try to go to a winery in Torgiano which is about 20km from Perugia. We walked to the train/bus station and found that we had to go to another bus station that went to different cities. That bus station was in the center of Perugia so we decided to walk – bad idea. It was a long, long walk up hill all the way. At least it wasn’t hot. When we finally arrived at the top we found a historical fortress and a really nice section if town. See pic and view of Perugia from the top of the hill.

We then found the bus station and the bus to take us to Torgiano and hopefully a winery. The trip to Torgiano is 1/2 hour, but we weren’t able to get to a winery. However, there is a wine museum in town so we went to see that. It was closed for lunch so we stopped at a little local cafe and asked for a glass of local wine. They brought us the wine plus snacks and it was only 4 Euros each. While we were in there it was raining, but when we left for the museum it had stopped. We toured the museum – see pic.

By the time we were done at the museum it was time to get the bus back to Perugia. We got on a city bus to take us to our hotel. We were going to eat at the Chinese restaurant close to the hotel, but it was pouring rain so we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. I had tortellini with asparagus curry sauce and Marsha had artichoke stuffed ravioli. Needless to say Italians can do pasta. Then we decided to share a dessert which was called “English soup”. It to was great. Tomorrow we leave for Cortona.

We arrived on Rome around 4pm, checked into our hotel and went out sightseeing. We were staying near the Coliseum so that is the first pic.- then we walked to the Pantheon- then we went to the Piazza Nadona and we finished the night at the Trevi Fountain- pics of me and Marsha throwing in our coins.

I also took a picture of a museum. We had eaten so much earlier that we didn’t eat dinner. I also have many more pics on my camera.

We returned to the hotel – I wrote the section on Lenola then. We got up in the morning and went to the Spanish steps. From there we went to see a famous obelisk – many pics on my camera for this day. From there we went to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel and then to see St. Peter Basilica. There is a picture of the Pieta that is in the Basilica. We then climbed to the top of the Dome (pic of Square from Dome). Too many pictures to send. We then walked back to the hotel – across Rome and crossed the Tiber River by Castle Sant Angelo.

We then went to the train station got a train to Perugia. We got to our hotel – the Etruscan Chocohotel-around 9pm. This hotel has everything chocolate and has everything decorated like chocolate. We stopped in the bar and had chocolate with Grappa and chocolate with peppers. See pic.

We then went out looking for sodas and found a Chinese restaurant behind our hotel. They only spoke Italian, but we managed to get sodas. We have no idea what is in Perugia, but we will find out.

We traveled for 34 hours to get from Greece to where we are in Italy. Taxi to bus, bus from Athens to Patras, ferry from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy, train from Bari to Rome and 2nd train from Rome to Lenola which is an hour south of Rome by train – my guess is approx. 60 miles. Franco, Marsha’s friend picked us up at the train station and took us to his apt. Lenola is his boyhood home and he returns every year for a month – he lives and works in the US. After Marsha and I got cleaned up he took us out to dinner. There are pics of the two restaurants where we ate, but it seemed rude to take pics of the food. Lenola is a small town in the mountains – roads are very curvy. The food was delicious – made with local ingredients. We had homemade linguini with porcini mushrooms, squash blossoms, I had mixed grill with sausage, some kinds of meat on a skewer and goat. It was all great. The next day we got up early because Franco took us to the Amalfi coast – very near Naples and Vesuvius. Talk about winding roads with sheer drop offs . These roads were the worst and they are narrow. There is barely room for 1 car in each direction and people park on the side of the road. We thought Franco may have scraped his car on a wall while trying to let a tour bus pass in the other direction. There couldn’t have been more than a 1/2 inch between the car and the bus. We had stopped for a very light lunch because we were going out to dinner again. Franco had bought fresh Buffalo mozzarella for us. We were stuffed, but went for dinner and we each had a pizza. We were so stuffed we couldn’t finish the pizza. Again it is midnight and we are in Rome. We only have 24 hours here in Rome so it is the whirlwind tour. I will attach the pics and send this message, but I need to get some sleep.