October 20 Our primary purpose in coming to this area is to see the trulli (plural, trullo is singular) which are the traditional homes in the Itria Valley of Puglia. A few words about the trulli > they are constructed from roughly worked limestone excavated on-site in the process of creating sub-floor cisterns and from…Continue Reading “Alberobello, Martina Franca & Locortondo ….a triumvirate of Trulli towns”
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October 19th We leave Vieste refreshed and ready to take on more adventures, it has been a nice stay and our AIRBNB was very comfortable…having a balcony really ups one’s game. The weather continues to hold with sun and more sun. One last look at Vieste and the drive begins… It is about 4-hours of…Continue Reading “Vieste to Martina Franca…by way of Monte d’ Saint Angelo and Trani”
October 15th A lovely morning with temperatures forecast to be in the mid-’20s. Today we are staying in the vicinity of Zagarolo with a visit to Palestrina which is situated about a 39-minute drive. Back in the day, it was a summer resort area for Roman nobles with the likes of Horace, Pliny, and even…Continue Reading “Zagarolo…..a visit to Palestrina & onwards to Puglia (Vieste)”
October 14th A lovely morning, hearty breakfast of eggs, etc. and we are off to Tivoli….it is a short drive and we are parked and are good to go before 10:00. Today we are visiting Adrian’s Villa (Hadrian’s Villa) and the weather is ideal for our sightseeing tour. To add some context: Hadrian was Emperor…Continue Reading “Tivoli … an ancient Villa and some Gardens”
October 13th The morning looks very cloudy with a fine mist, not a very promising start. Nevertheless, we have “skip the line” tickets for the Vatican so, after breakfast, Ivano drives us to the train station and we head for Rome in a packed commuter train. Most folks are wearing masks as are we, 30…Continue Reading “Rome….. a day tour”
October 11th Cool morning and sunny we are pumped ..Laura arrives exactly on time and ferries us to the parking lot …nice lady, we say goodbye and we are off. It is approximately 150 kilometers or some 2.5 hours to Zagarolo which is a suburb of Rome. The drive is pretty good as we use…Continue Reading “Todi to Zagarolo (Rome)…..and a very cool adventure”
tailor fountain photo unfinished duomo October 8th The morning dawns cool and foggy…autumn is coming and coming quickly. Below the Duoma dominating the Piazza di Popole. Today we will check out some sights in Todi and with the sun burning through the fog it should be a gorgeous day… Lots of walking today so we…Continue Reading “Todi …our last few days”
October 6th A lovely morning about 17C with a promise to rise to 21C by mid-day. Today is another day trip as we are heading to Civita di Bagnoregio, about an hour southwest of Todi. Nice casual drive with no drama and easy parking. This is another hilltop village but with an interesting twist as…Continue Reading “Todi …day trip to Civita and visit to the Cantina Colle Ciocco”
October 4th A gorgeous sunny fall morning and we hustle to get our stuff together, today we move on to Todi about 160 kilometers south of our current location. Arriving in Todi we are supposed to meet our host at the Perugina Gate which is the entrance point to the Centro Historico and of…Continue Reading “Borgo Tuopina to Todi …onwards to Umbria, a hilltop convent and Assisi”
October 2nd With the return of some better weather, we head out for some more touring of Chianti country, it is beautiful countryside and we are just taking it all in with rather modest objectives… A sunny day and lazy lunch in Panzano in Chianti….it was kind of funny to watch a shimmering black Ferrari…Continue Reading “Borgo di Tuopina …..Arezzo our last day trip with a bonus village”