Tuscany

We left Rome in a very nice, large motorcoach driven by a charming driver named Gianni. We drove through Lazio, Umbria and lower Tuscany to the town of Cortona. The land we passed through looked just as it should: olive tree groves, grape vines, ancient villages on hilltops, here and there a castle. It was a beautiful ride, lasting about two hours.

If you recall the book or saw the film "Under the Tuscan Sun" you will recognize Cortona as the setting of those. It is a classic, beautiful ancient Italian town -- Etruscans lived here hundreds of years before the Roman empire was formed. There are large stone piazzas, thousand year old churches, many charming shops and good restaurants. We were disappointed when a restaurant refused to honor our reservation -- apparently we were "outbid" by a larger group -- but we all found a good Italian Sunday lunch.

When we left in mid-afternoon, our destination was Sienna, but when we arrived there we discovered that the town's bus parking was completely taken up by football (soccer) fans who had come to see Sienna play a German team. We decided to go instead to San Gimignano, near our hotel for the evening.

San G. was wall-to-wall with tourists flocking into the many shops, and we added 16 more! Our group had a very good time searching for special items to bring home or to give as gifts.

Our hotel in San Gimignano is called Villa Ducci. It is a country hotel in an old farm house in the Tuscan country side. When we arrived three gentlemen carried our luggage in while a lady welcomed us all and told us our room assignments. Later we shared a dinner of traditional Tuscan foods and wines, which everyone seemed to enjoy.