So many photos these got overlooked!

More from my Italy albums in picasa - photos that I just discovered that never made it to my blog. A slide show of some views in both Florence and Rome.

Florence family photos

Just want to add a few pictures of my niece Aimee and her husband Eric, our hosts in Florence along with their boys Cyrus 9, and Griffin 6. They really kept me and Anton on our toes what with the latest Star Wars and video games to say nothing of the local Renaissance sights. Kudos to our host family aka local tour guides.

FYI, the first photo was taken while Aimee was making dinner reservations for us for Saturday evening, Sept. 13th. Unbeknownst to me, the white haired man entering the restaurant is the chef, well-known internationally and well-known by us at the end of the evening for shouting out each course as it was served. The evening was one of the best with superb food followed by an evening of American songs from the '60's - mostly Cat Stevens, Paul Simon - sung in English to an Italian audience. Great fun!

Sunday stroll in Boboli Gardens in Florence

The reality of leaving Florence on Monday was beginning to sink in for me. What a great trip it had been, but I'd delayed shopping for little gifts to bring home. Thinking too much about lugging stuff back and its price. Anton took time to shop for something Italian. I'm thinking I can always pick up a few items in Amsterdam between flights. (That was not to be when flight was late leaving Florence and NWA flight departure moved up by 15 minutes. Can you run on a moving sidewalk? Yes! Confirmed our decision to not check any baggage! Amsterdam airport more secure than ever.)

Sunday we headed out for a hike up a hill high above the city for a few photos then on to the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pittti. Nothing like this back in Minnesota. So here are those photos.

Americans in Florence

Here are more photos from Saturday showing what Americans do when they live in Tuscany territory: eat and drink and talk! People gathered at the villa near Inpruneta to harvest grapes, enjoy a meal and drink last year's wine!

Harvesting Grapes in Chianti Country

More serendipity during our travels when Eric mentioned that someone had extended an invitation to harvest grapes at a nearby villa on Saturday morning. How many people get a chance to do that in Tuscany? Anton and I gladly went along but alas the directions we had were for crows. We arrived after the grapes were gathered but just in time for a typical Tuscany meal and enjoying last years wine. These are pictures of the villa and surrounding countryside along with a few posed pics with the harvested grapes. More photos in the next blog showing those who turned out for the event.

Florence - Friday PM visit to Santa Croce

This was the only church we paid to tour and very impressive - been in more churches recently than I care to admit. Sure missed having a tour guide to point out important stuff and didn't even get a brochure showing layout of tombs et al. So look closely at the crypts and see if you recognize important guys in history. 
On the way to join up a tour of David I spotted a display in a cosmetics store and couldn't resist taking the Barack and Roll photo. What's that about?

Florence - Friday AM visit to school

Testing my ability to upload photos taken at Cyrus and Griffin's school in Florence. Aimee drove the 4 of us there for an early morning visit, dropped the boys off, then drove me and Anton back to Florence before she headed to work.

More walking in Florence

Photos from Thursday Sept 18 during some of walking tour - before my camera's battery needed re-charging! Arrgghhh!

Rome - Vatican tour

Guess I need to add a separate post for each batch of photos, so here's a slide show of pictures taken Monday afternoon in Rome.

Rome photos

Finally back at the computer to add some photos from both Rome and Florence. Rome visit way too short, but enough to get a sense of its size and history. The Angeltours group was the best: Vatican and St. Peter's on Monday afternoon, then the Forum and Colosseum Tuesday AM. Walked, walked, walked to St. John Lateran. Been in more churches than I want to admit - building and financing them seems like its own industry. Some things never change!
Rome serendipity Monday for dinner at Oscars Wine Ristorante - slow food meal with olive oil tasting and fresh local veggies. Sorry didn't have my camera with.
Tuesday evening took a taxi to Piazza Narona to find that the fountain is surrounded by scaffolding. Alas, Rome apparently is still under construction.

catching up from Rome

Anton and I just got back today (Wed 9/17) to Florence so I'm still sorting photos and winding down. He's adding something to his blog at Hot Soup in My Eye, so maybe that's the place to look for a quicker update.

Florence day 2 market trip photos

Florence Day 2 Saturday morning

We're up way before USA and like a typical Saturday AM, Cyrus and Griffin are watching cartoons - on the computer, not TV. Learning the vagaries of C and F on the spigots, lack of bagels in Italy, what Geronimo Stilton books to read, and taking umbrellas to the market for the first time in months in Florence. Hope to post some photos later today. Are you bored with this blog yet? Hey we're on vacation and totally laid back so that's as exciting as it gets.

Florence day 1

Last minute trip stuff

When it comes to vacation travel there are still some pretty mundane things to do before heading to the airport: take out the garbage, water the plants, check that nothing in the refrigerator will turn green before I get back. That kind of stuff. Pretty well packed by 10AM, so walked over to Buns and Coffee for a vacation day treat plus a couple cookies for the plane. (TSA won't take those away will they?)
Talked with my mother a few minutes ago for an update on my brother John who ended up in the hospital yesterday with chills and 105 fever. He's up and about today so hopefully he'll be discharged soon.
Anton's trekking over to my place where Pearly will pick us up. If he gets here in time, I'll have him do that other end-of-summer chore: take out my window air-conditioner.
So how boring can a blog be? Even I'm fading, maybe I'll add a couple old photos just for some human interest. Ha!

Pre-trip test of camera

Testing my ability to use my camera with new tripod to take pics and practice upload. Anton says his computer will do this just fine while we're gophers in Italy!

Pre-trip visit in Fond du Lac

Got out the calendar and considered suggestions to block out a couple days in Rome plus weekend trip to Cinque Terra.