Zuzu and Tootie's Journey

Florence, Italy

Zuzu and Tootie continue to enjoy their break from us, lounging on the patio and sleeping on the bed.

Our morning began with a fantastic breakfast in the courtyard of our villa hotel.

Cappuccino, croissants, cream filled pastries, yogurt, fresh fruit, and orange juice is the perfect start to any day.

After breakfast, we set off for Florence.To avoid a repeat of yesterday's struggle finding parking in Sien, I researched where to park in Firenze and learned that one can park in the large parking lot of a Coop supermarket on the tram line.

For 1.20 € per ticket, you can ride the tram to the main train station. From there, it's only a ten minute walk to the center of town!

Once I got my bearings, we wandered into town towards the duomo, the cathedral which was very similar to the one we saw in Siena. It seems that marble was an abundant building material back in the day.

The waiting lines to visit the interior were crazy long, so we opted for the free exterior tour. It's quite impressive and, I'm sure, it's even more spectacular inside. This side was recently cleaned and much more impressive than the other side.

Florence is the birth place of Renaissance art, and there is art everywhere. Here, for example, in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio are reproductions of Donatello's Lion of Florence and Michelangelo's David among other great masterpieces.

Further towards the river is the famous Ponte Vecchio which is today a tourist trap of jewelry stores.

There were people everywhere from all across the globe, but not many were shopping.

Once across the bridge, we arrived at the Palazzo Pitti where we walked the Boboli Gardens.

Terraced (read lots of steps) behind the palace, these Italian gardens were designed by Tribolo in the 16th century.

There were some great panoramic views of Florence,

especially of the dome and bell tower of the duomo,

but for the most part they were devoid of flowers and greenery save a few trees.

I guess I prefer the symmetrical gardens of Versailles or the Tuileries in Paris designed by Louis XIV's gardener, André le Nôtre.

It was time to make our way back to the train station to catch the tram back to our car. One street we turned on struck me with all of the scooters tightly lined up. Most definitely the preferred mode of transportation for the Firenziens.

I, unfortunately, did not take any pictures of our shopping experience in the Italian supermarket. Suffice it to say it was an experience, one that gave us a filling picnic lunch that we enjoyed in our room at Villa Sonnino.

Followed by enjoying a gelato while watching the sunset over San Miniato.

Tomorrow, we head north to Venice!

Location:Tuscany, Italy

Vespas, Stairs, and Hilltop Villages

While Zuzu and Tootie enjoy their vacation at home with grandma, grandpa, and aunt Judy, we are exploring Tuscany!

Today, our plan was to visit several hilltop Tuscan villages, but when we discovered that the Piaggio Vespa museum was only thirty minutes from our hotel we changed our plans. It turned out to be a very worthwhile detour.

Located in the industrial town of Pontedera not far from Pisa, the Piaggio Museum (http://www.museopiaggio.it/en/museum.html) contains several models of the famous scooter spanning the years, as well as some of the lesser known (for us) small cars and utility trucks they produced, including one of their stainless steel rail cars as seen below.

Among the various models spanning the years along there are some whimsical creations by artists on display in the former factory and tool shed.

I know, the Tuscan hills are calling, but first we must admire these works of Italian art!

Now that's a Vespa for two!

And this is clearly a car for one small Italian.

Well, that was fun. Now we are off to Siena via Volterra, a medieval hilltop walled city. Yes, these ancient cities are all built a top hills, steep hills with commanding views of the valley below. Perfect for spotting approaching enemies, not so great for visiting Americans, especially these two who are more accustomed to towns just a few feet above sea level :-). We discovered that the parking lots are never located by the main gate!

The climb up the stairs is always worth it, though. Especially when there's a well placed gelateria located just inside the town walls.

The Romans left their mark in Volterra, an amphitheater built into the hillside below the medieval wall.

And a common sight in these hilltop villages, narrow side streets and archways leading to more stairs. No wonder everyone is so thin in these parts!

When we left Volterra for Siena, we had planned on visiting San Gimigano, but we needed to press on. We did stop, however, to admire the city from a distance.

As well as the Tuscan landscape.

Siena is a sprawling metropolis surrounding the old city. Reaching the old city is easy; finding parking is more of a challenge. You are not permitted to drive into the walled city as it is a limited traffic zone, and apparently fines can be hefty. Circling the city, we found free street parking and after a ten minute walk we found ourselves inside the town walls.

No straight lines or grid patterns here; the streets meander and curve around, following the circular shape of the city, yet all seem to lead to the center square.

From the narrow canyons of the city streets you emerge into the large, oval town square, piazza del campo, ringed by cafés and restaurants.

Just two days prior to our visit, the horse race, il Palio, was held, remnants of the dirt track which they lay around the perimeter of the piazza fascinates Wayne.

This is a commanding piazza sloping towards the Palazzo del Comune, the 14th century town hall with its 289 ft tower, il Torre del Mangia.

These flags, which were flying on the town hall and in the neighborhood behind it, celebrate the winning horse and jockey of the horse race. Their prize? A standard bearing the effigy of the Virgin, the city's protectress, which is proudly displayed in the neighborhood chapel.

They take this horse race very seriously.

Not far from the piazza is the duomo, the 13th century cathedral. Very ornate, in white, pink, and black marble, it resembles a large Italian pastry.

The shadows were getting longer as dinner hour was approaching. We found a small restaurant on a steep side street with some tables outside.

We enjoyed resting our feet and filling our bellies with pasta and salad, and a carafe of Chianti for me.

Sunset over the Tuscan landscape.

What a great day. Tomorrow we attack Firenze!

Location:Tuscany, Italy

Tuscany, Italy

Our Italian adventures continue while Zuzu and Tootie are well cared for at home. Thank you mom, dad, and Judy!

Monday morning we checked out of the hotel in Nice and headed for the autoroute, or autostrada as they say in Italy. The tollway in this part of the world runs through seemingly endless tunnels connected by viaducts running high above the deep valleys that plunge into the sea. Some tunnels were so long that the weather changed when exiting on the other side.

We passed around Genova and exited just south where a couple of seaside towns hugged the coast. This one, Sestri Levante, is where the unwell Lord Byron rested for a year on his yacht Bolivar anchored in the Baia del Silenzio or the Bay of Silence. He claimed that the cod fish and wine revived him, perhaps it was the serenity and beauty of the Italian Riviera.

It revived us after several hours on the autostrada, or maybe the coffee revived us. In any case, we were ready to mingle, once again, with the Italian drivers speeding g along at 130+ km/h.

We reached our hotel safely. Nestled in the northern edge of the Tuscan hills, Villa Sonnino located just outside the village of San Miniato welcomed us. Peaceful and bucolic, simply wonderful after Nice.

Dating to the period of Frederico, San Miniato is ideally situated to govern the ancient road from Florence to Pisa and the passage Valdelsa and Lucca. Today, it is a very quiet hilltop town.

One narrow road leads through the center of town passing a couple of trattorias and a gelateria.

No gelato for us, though. It was time for dinner, time to try the restaurant at our villa.

Melon and prosciutto, homemade pasta in a pesto sauce, filled pasta with pears and walnuts, an Italian millefeuille pastry and the specialty dessert of the region (I already forgot the name but it was delicious), and some white wine followed by coffee was our first meal in Italy. Delicioso!

Tomorrow, we explore some Tuscan villages.

Location:La Toscana Italia

Nice, France

I started this journal to document the life of our two rescue vizslas, Zuzu and Tootie. The next segments, however, will chronicle our vacation in Italy and France. Zuzu and Tootie are in good hands during our trip. Their grandma and grandpa, and their aunt Judy are house sitting and taking care of our girls.

Wow, more than a week has passed since we began our Italian adventure. After Wayne's arrival, we rested in Nice for a day. On Monday, we picked up our rental...no, it's not a Renault, a Peugeot, or a Citroen...it's a Ford! Oh well, c'est la vie.

We set off to explore Monaco.

Then followed the crazy commands of the GPS to the Carrefour hyper-marché in the northern suburbs of Nice where we bought bread, saucisson sec, some Morbion cheese, and pastries for our picnic lunch, which we ate in the quiet ate mountainside village of Gilette.