Italian Style

One of the fun things I had the pleasure of doing earlier this fall was taking a trip to Italy with a group of five other friends.  We rented a fantastic house (http://www.priello.com/)  up in the hills of the upper Tiber River Valley near the small town of Caprese Michelangelo in the far eastern reaches of Tuscany, where Michelangelo himself was born.  This was my first real vacation in almost 5 years and I have to say, no cell phone, no computer, and no television for an entire week was absolutely divine!  Our beautiful house was surrounded by Tuscan farm land and we backed up to a several thousand acre national forest, complete with wild chestnut trees (the chestnuts were ripening while we were there and I roasted them in the fireplace almost every morning!), wild boar, porcupine and all kinds of other critters, not to mention diverse plant life.

I took more than 1300 photos in the 10 days we were gone and still have many to go through and cull, but I've put together a few of the better ones and thought I'd share them with all of my readers.  I'll show you some of the plant life a little later on, but here are a few of the better landscapes and other shots I took while we were there.

This was sunrise on the first morning we were at Priello, our house in the Tuscan countryside.

Another sunrise shot, with teasel.

This was the largest and oldest chestnut tree on the property.   There were many others, but this was the granddaddy!

Another view out from our house.

The leaning tower.  If you're close by, you have to see it.  The cathedral and baptistry are also magnificent!

A kind of cool black-and-white shot of the outside of cathedral of Pisa.  The leaning tower is "behind" the church and was built as a bell tower.

The town of Lucca.  Exquisite.

The vineyards at Poggio Amorelli, Chianti, where we did a wine and olive oil tasting!

The medieval walled town of Anghiari.  I love the way the statues atop this school are looking out over the city.

The driveway leading up to our little abode, Priello. http://www.priello.com/

Jerome playing with the goats at Valle di Mezzo.  This farm was owned by the same guys who we rented our house from.   They are in the business of making goat cheese and I can tell you, it was fabulous! 

La Bottega, a small restaurant in Volpaia, Italy.  We ate just across the street at a restaurant owned by the same family, but I loved this little entrance garden!

That's all for now!  See you soon!