May 17

Florence is wonderful in itself, without venturing outside of it. But we did venture out into Tuscany. We stayed at Villa Il Crocicchio, an old farm in beautiful Tuscany. Mike would have been content to just finish the tour by staying here. They had horses and ponies for us to feed and pet. We could have ridden them too, but no one in our group did. The ponies loved when we would feed them fresh grass and flowers from the other side of the fence. There was a pool that some of group swam in. It was just so relaxing to wander through the orchard, and look at the beautiful Tuscan landscape. We sat outside and drank some of the best wine we have every tasted. There was a cloudburst, so our whole group huddled under the gazebo, and talked while sipping the perfect Il Crocicchio wine.

Relaxing with the group after arriving in Tuscany. Then we had dinner, or shall we say a Tuscan feast. It was the best food of my life. Most of it was grown on the farm. Just a simple dish of fettuccini with pesto was wonderful. Every dish was a masterpiece. The best way to describe staying at Villa Il Crocicchio, is total relaxing contentment. After dinner we went downstairs to their karaoke bar. We were definitely surprised by the talent of our group, and our hosts. While down there listening to each other we sampled some grappa, a hard liquor made from the leftovers of making wine.

Our room at Il Croccichio was a very nice, large studio apartment. It was the highest room in the building and had wonderful views of the Tuscan countryside in three directions where it also overlooked the courtyard below. We could easily spend a week or more, in a pleasant place like this.

May 18

We spent the day in Florence. At the Galleria dell'Accademia, we saw Michelangelo's David, along with some of his other works. There were so many sculptures. I looked in awe at all of them. We toured the Uffizi Gallery, and enjoyed the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. We also went through the richly decorated Duomo, and saw the famous bronze doors, the “Gate of Paradise” of its Baptistry. The tour group split up, and we grabbed some lunch to go and sat on a curb to eat. We wandered through shops and the market while considering whether or not to buy leather jackets. We wandered over to the crowded Ponte Vecchio, looking at all of the shops.

Sandwich bar in Florence. Gates of Paradise Baptistry doors.

The Duomo. Duomo Dome. Mike on the Ponte Vecchio

On our way back from Florence, at the train station where we met our bus, we got to see an interesting conflict. Someone had parked illegally, blocking traffic at the bus station. This caused traffic to pile up behind our bus which was parked nose in, so we could not back out. A semi-truck came down the road and could not turn around or back out. The police came to “take care” of the situation. First of all, several of the drivers were not at their cars. Some people tried to pick the cars up and move them by hand. When the drivers returned they all got into a shouting match with the policemen. It was very interesting arms flying up while they yelled at each other. Finally people started to move their vehicles, and it all cleared out. My understanding is that yelling at policemen does not help the situation and will almost guarantee a ticket, but in Italy, it just seemed like business as usual.

May 19

On our way from Florence to Rome.