Pieve di Cerreto

Off to Italy for the summer

Carolyn — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:00:01 +0000

Bella and I will be in Europe from 29 July - 18 Aug, with most of the time spent in Pieve di Cerreto. I think this trip I’ll get Bella enrolled in the same language course David and I took in Lucca. They have a class starting 4 Aug. We could take it for one or two weeks… If anyone’s interested in joining us, let me know! .

corte della campana

Il mio Telefono — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:00:04 +0000

Tonight we had our wine tasting class at La Corte dei vini. three very different white wines, and two excellent “little brother” tuscans, and we learned what the marketing term “super tuscan” means. this was our final bottle.

Inviato dal mio telefono

david cucinarà

Il mio Telefono — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:00:08 +0000

Inviato dal mio telefono

barga duomo

Il mio Telefono — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:00:04 +0000

Inviato dal mio telefono

wiener wheel

Carolyn — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:00:05 +0000

Vienna was fun! We got there, exhausted after 4 flights that started for me om Friday at 6 am from Vermot, to LGA, to ORD, to FRA, where we arrived an hour late at 6 am Saturday, then spent the morning wandering around, eating frankfurters and visiting the market, the cathedral and the female impressionists exhibit. Around noon, it looked like it might start raining… we thought we could head back to the airport for our 4:30 flight… but we got distracted by Leondardskirche near the river, and then the dragon boat races… until it started pouring rain! So we RAN back to the station and dried off in the Lufthansa Senator’s Lounge before our flight.

When we arrived in Vienna Saturday evening, it was sunny and warm. We walked to our hotel, which was at the Stadtpark, and noticed the GenussFestival going on and decided to come back after a shower and nap to check it out. We made it back in time to sample deer sausage and beer, and then some apricot spritzer and cake. Wandered around the central area and ended up at Traumland.

Sunday we went back to the GenussFestival for breakfast, walked over to Prater Park to ride the rollercoaster and ferris wheel, then met Johannes and his friends at (gasp) Starbucks, and finally ended up at the Weinerberger lake for a swim in the sunshine! Made to our Florence flight with plenty of time to spare, but just as we were about to board a big thunderstorm rolled in and delayed us by 2 hours. But, it was all worth it — they served foie gras on the flight!

for our next trip…

Carolyn — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:00:03 +0000

Can it be?? And soooo close too!
The World’s Best Chocolate

trattoria melo a roma

Il mio Telefono — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:43:35 +0000

Finally found a pretty good restaurant in Rome tonight! The hotel clerk said via Travestere was the place, but we didn’t make it that far. Instead we stopped at this place in Piazza Venezia. It probably helped that we were pretty hungry, having only had truffle finger sandwiches all day. The food wasn’t amazing, but it was tasty enough, better than anything else i’ve ever had in rome. This wine was excellent. And dessert was fabulous! Especially the Cassata Siciliana…

santo spirito

Il mio Telefono — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:43:36 +0000

Bella and I gave patricia the 2-hour firenze tour: hertz office to train station, to duomo, to ponte vecchio, to santo spirito and the truffle sandwich shop.

I hadn’t been in Santo Spirito before, and we were particularly impressed by this painting:

il pescatore

Il mio Telefono — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:00:02 +0000

Fish heads!

croatian blackberry wine

Il mio Telefono — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:00:05 +0000

David & I picked up this wine at the market in Zagreb last month for a few kuna. Honestly, I was a little afraid to try it… the old guy selling it just had a few bottles and some random junk on an otherwise empty table. All the bottles were different. Not even a real wine cork… it was some plastic screw-in thing. Surprisingly though, it’s quite good. A perfect dessert wine with a slightly tangy but heavy blackberry taste. Now I’m wondering where I can get more of it!