Sunday, May 15, 2016

INTERMEZZO

This post is a bit of a catch-up as days have gone by in a blur and it's impossible to remember it all, we do so much! The photo is taken in Pisa showing the baptistry and  part of Pisa's Duomo. Duomo is Italian for 'cathedral' and that means there's an archbishop in charge. So, after leaving Rome we spent our first day in Umbria and slept at Hotel Fortuna in Perugia. Day two and day three of our Back Roads tour was in Tuscany with two nights at our glamorous villa about 80 minutes' drive from Siena. I had a bad cold so I was a bit under par, but I still managed to thoroughly enjoy our cooking class where we learned to make focaccia bread and pasta. It's much easier than I thought!!! I spent one entire afternoon and evening in bed, and that did the trick, because I never looked back after that. I shopped like a madwoman in Florence and did nothing cultural (sorry folks, I've seen the David, the Uffizi Palace, etc. on previous visits) so this time I sipped espressos on rooftop balconies, people watched and drank in all the fashion.
After Florence, we went to Lucca and stayed at a wonderful hotel for two nights in the old city with frescoes all over our walls and ceilings. Steve and I had the Camellia room, and it was lovely to 'hang' there in between visits to Pisa and a Puccini concert in a local church. After that, we went to a degustation dinner at a local haunt, all paired with organic Italian wines, and another night of carousing elapsed.  I woke the next morning, surprisingly bouncy, and thoroughly enjoyed our day at Monterosso, Cinqueterre, before heading northwest to the Italian Riviera.

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