Italy 2008

Italy

We’ve made it to Italy!

Report number one – Bologna: The flight was long, grueling and cramped but got us here in one (I guess two?) pieces. We took a bus from the airport to the center of the old city, got off at the first stop and ran into Patty on the crowded sidewalk in about three minutes! She […]

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Italy

A short stop in Arezzo

Report #2 — Only a few short hours down the AutoStrada is the charming medieval town of Arezzo. Cobblestone streets, picturesque shops, and many fashionable women in impractical shoes. We arrived in the rain, and sought shelter at the first restaurant we could find. Ravioli with burro e salvia (butter and sage) for Mike and […]

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Italy

Arriving at Villa Podere Miri

Report #3 — Not far from Arezzo is our villa. We arrived at the gate, and found Patty Matas and Linda Harvey waiting, bleary-eyed from an all-night train trip from Salzburg. We waited, fully cooperative with the instructions that we were NOT to arrive early. It was 3:30. Check-in was 4:30. We waited some more. […]

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Italy

Lucignano in the rain

Report #4 — Eggs for breakfast and then off to explore. A day of pouring rain, so we drove until we arrived at a town — Lucignano — that happened to be between downpours. More Italian doors to photograph. Nothing to eat, though, as everything in Italy is closed between 1 and 5, plus it’s […]

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Italy

Cortona, another beautiful hill town

A leisurely start to the day with cold pizza for breakfast. We were the last of our group to leave the villa, then drove to Cortona, being led all the way by our GPS girl. She is very strict, although her Italian pronunciation is very bad. Cortona is a crazy place, with slopes that seem […]

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Italy

Two days in Tuscany

Report #6 — The Villa Podere Miri is the place to be for painting, reading, palm-reading, swimming and resting. But that doesn’t mean we stay. The day brought a visit to San Sepulchro, another Tuscan hill town, and then a return visit to Arezzo since it wasn’t raining. Some light shopping was in order, but […]

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