2008-04-17

Eating gelato in Cinque Terra :)

Eating gelato in Cinque Terra :)

2008-04-13

Left Florence Behind for the Tuscan Hills

I just got done with 8 days in Florence where I went for CHI this year. It was amazing and I had a great time finding new cute restaurants in all the nooks of the old city.

Yesterday I finished the week with a whirlwind tour of the big sites. The Bargello, Uffizi, Michaelangelo's David, and The Science Museum. It was pretty cool to see art from my highschool textbooks live and in person, especially David and the Birth of Venus.

After the long stay in Florence I am very happy to be in the Tuscan countryside right now, and officially on "vacation". We rented a little Fiat for the trip, and it took us about an hour to get of the city of Florence. And we HAD GPS. At first I couldn't even figure out how to put the car in reverse. It's a stick shift and to get into reverse you had to press a button, how was I supposed to know? So after going down a few one way streets in the wrong direction I finally pulled up to a hotel to ask them if they knew how to put the car into reverse :) Luckily the woman at the hotel desk was much smarter than me. But we made it. Finally.

Volterra is amazing. We are staying in a huge room with our own kitchen, dining room, and terrace. The view is beautiful and it's very quaint. Can't wait to eat a huge Italian meal tonight. And there are two - yes two - wine bars with wifi right nearby. Technology. Cuts into vacations to make you feel like home. On that note - I'll end this blog post. Ciao!