Sunday drive to Bellagio

Our drive to Bellagio was 5 1/2 hours. We drove through Milan and then the last hour was some of the most harrowing driving that we have had on our trip.

The last leg of our drive was on mountain roads that could barely hold 2 small cars much less a regular car and a truck. I also realized that the Italians like to drive faster than the speed limit and will pass at any time. But God was so good we made it to Bellagio safely.

I couldn't get out and take a picture but when I think about my heart still starts to race.

Day trip to Siena

On Saturday we took at day trip to Siena. Siena is in Tuscany as well and is another beautiful medieval town.

This the famous Piazza del Campo. They have famous flag tossing contests and festivals in this piazza.

Siena has two beautiful cathedrals. One is the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Siena. It is a beautiful church. This church to the left if the Basilica of Siena. It has several statues carved by Michelangelo and several lovely frescoes. Siena's crest colors are black and white so then church is made in a black and white stripe for loyalty. Jim and I took an audio tour of the church. You can learned so much.

On our walk out of town Jim found these massive pizzas. Two pizzas took up one display case. So we had to stop and taste the amazing pizzas. Yummy!!!!!!

Under the Tuscan Sun

Thursday we arrived in Tuscany. What a beautiful place. We are staying in San Gimignano. It is called the Manhatten of Tuscany because of the towers. Our hotel is Villa SanPaolo. It is lovely!

This is the view from our room. It was so peaceful.

The hotel had a beautiful restaurant and spa. Just not enough time to enjoy everything.

This is the main piazza in San Gimignano. Great place for a quiet dinner or a glass of wine. San Gimignano makes a great white wine. It can be very busy during the day but when we went early evening it was very quiet.

This is the outside wall of San Gimignano.

We had a wonderful time exploring San Gimignano and the surrounding towns.

The Vatican

We spent the morning picking up our car for the remainder of our trip. Then we took the shuttle to Rome in hopes that we would be able to see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. When we arrived the line for the museum was 1 hour long and it was 3:00 and the museum closes at 4:00. So we decided to go into Sts. Peter and Paul. Well God is so good to us. While we were in line we were approached by this Indian man who asked if we were American and would we like a tour of the Vatican in English. It was definitely reasonable.

This is St. Peter's Square. It is called this because the oblisque in the center commemorates where Peter was crucified up side down. The square is enormous. It can fit 250,000 people at one time.

Our tour guide, Grant, was a gentleman from South Africa who has studied art in South Africa and in Rome. He was a very good story teller.

This is a 2,000 year old statue that was found in Michelangelo's time. They asked Michelangelo to authentic it. They said that when he saw the quality of the workmanship. Michelangelo cried. Amazing.

You cannot take pictures in the Sistine Chapel so they have these story boards outside the chapel showing all the different panels on the bottom and the ceiling itself. It was humbling to walk through the chapel.

This is Sts. Peter and Paul Basilica. It is beautiful inside. All of my pictures didn't turn out because I used the wrong setting.

The Vatican was how we finished our time in Rome. What a wonderful experience.

Tuesday wandering Rome in the rain

Rome in the rain can be very interesting. We left the hotel in the bright sunshine with a few clouds in the sky. When we arrived in Rome 30 minutes later it was pouring. We had no umbrellas. So we hopped into a cafe for a snack in hopes the rain would stop.

It stopped just long enough for us to get two umbrellas and off we went. We were trying a new way to find a new piazza for lunch but just happened on the Pantheon which was a pagean temple but now is a shrine to many martyred saints. We found a wonderful cafe and had lunch because again it was pouring. The painter Raphael is buried inside.

Off we went to see if we could find the Piazza Papalo. Well we found the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps. God is so good to us.

Here is the Trevi Fountain. It sits in the small piazza and is simply gorgeous.

These are the Spanish steps. Again they are just in the middle of a small piazza. But again they are beautiful. We got lost a few times but my husband was caring for me asked for directions and we made it back to the shuttle bus stop to get home and get dried.
Again a testimony to God' s goodness we actually were just wandering and found all of these lovely famous areas.

Monday in Capri

We left very early in the morning to catch our tour to the island of Capri. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Naples and then a hydrofoil ride for 45 mintues to Capri. We arrived around 12:00. What a beautiful island. There are two towns on Capri island. The port city of Capri and then a town on the top of the island called Anacapri. In one of the guide books it said "Capri drivers are either good or dead." I can understand why. The road are very windy and narrow and at times when two tour buses approach each other they can't both fit. OOPPPSSS!!

This is a beautiful path way in
Anacapri that Jim and I thought was really romantic.

We had a wonderful group for our tour. There was a mother and daughter Cathy and Carol from North Carolina , two friends one from Baltimore and the other from Arizona and a couple from Lima Peru. The guide Franscesca spoke 3 different languages and did a great job of giving us the home flavor of Capri.

It was a long day from 6:30 am to 10:00 pm but well worth the trip.

Rome here we come

We arrived in Rome on Sunday May 18th. The hotel we are staying at is lovely. Rome Park Marriott. After a little rest time we took the shuttle to Rome and walked around for a few hours. We saw the Vatican, several piazzas, The Fort Sainta Angela here

are a few pictures. This is a bridge going over the Tiber River near the vatican.

The first picture is the Vatican. We are going there on Wednesday so will have more picture from there. Tomorrow we go to Capri. Long day but great fun. Love to you all.