Heaven on Earth

So much to say, so little time. Greetings from Pisa! And yes, we just had pizza in Pisa. After two fun filled days in the Tuscan sun we have landed in town for a short stay before heading to Cinque Terre. More on the Tuscan sun later from Kristen. Pisa, unlike many of the places we have stopped, is not spectacular in any way. Sure, the leaning tower is here (and amazing I might add), but outside that it leaves much to be desired. We landed here around 6:30 p.m., took the famous "holding up the tower" pictures and plan on calling it an early night. But you can put another check on the life's list of things to do and see for us.

Mom, I know you're waiting for it, so HERE IT IS!!!

                                         

Tuscany, or where you can find me when I never show back up for work, is probably THE most beautiful place I've ever visited. WE started down the Chianti Road two days ago and it just got better and better the further we got in. Our first stop was the vineyard called Vignamaggio. Mona Lisa was born here and they filmed the movie Much Ado about Nothing in it's garden and villa. The views were BREATHTAKING. The pictures are NEVER going to be able to do it justice.

WE stopped and had a yummy typical Tuscan lunch in Greve, the tiny capitol of the region. Tomato soup and crostini. The Tuscan country was typically very poor, except for the rich rich lords who owned the vineyards so the food is very simple. It's probably the best we had eaten so far!!! WE followed the Chianti Road and it's brilliant views to Siena. We didn't have long to stay but got a feel for the walled city. It sits on three hills and is a bear to figure out. It feels almost like you're in a theme park! It still very much has a medieval feel. Everything is gray and hilly.

The ABSOLUTE highlight of the trip so far has got to be the Castle del Serre! We drove out to this little tiny town called Rapolna Della Serre. The castle sits at the TOP of the town, up a VERY steep incline. We were met at the castle gates by Salvatore and his son Antonio. Little did we know that we booked the castle on it's way to the top! Salvatore is basically a millionaire entrepreneur and this is his bachelor pad! He bought the castle for 1.8 million euros and has spent god knows how much updating it!!! We stayed in one of the five rooms that have been renovated. He took us on a personal tour of the rest of his castle that he still has to update. That's SIX STORIES of castle that will all be updated to it's 1500's glory. Did I mention that he also collects priceless antiques and the castle's going to be full of them. He's also built a modern bar complete with glowing embers to resemble the burning embers that used to be the castle's defense, a wine tasting room built out of a WW2 bomb shelter, and a castle top swimming pool and bar. This place is AMAZING and Salvatore made the experience wonderful! He loved Blake and kept calling him his Texan friend without the Stetson hat.

Salvatore made a fortune in the restaurant business in San Diego. He evidently has a place named Salvatore's still there. We're going to google him and see how famous he REALLY is. We also had the BEST dinner at an old farmhouse. We had the place all to ourselves and the dinner included champagne cocktails, filet for both of us and creme brulee with fresh blueberry gelato for dessert. All this for the price of crappy pizza in Rome. Let's just say that we were happy and relaxed enough when we left the castle to just call it a trip right then. You guys DEFINITELY need to come when you visit Italy next year. He's opening up some amazing suites in September.

After waking up to an early breakfast this morning we hit the ground running again making a trip to San Gima...Gima...GimaBuBu as Kristen calls it. Really the name is hard to say. They call it the Manhattan of Tuscany. This medieval walled city at one time had 72 towers with guards on patrol. These days that number has been reduced to 13 but it is still an impressive sight from far away.

Leaving San G. we took the scenic route towards Lucca and Pisa. It was a drive filled with small towns a plenty where the streets were only wide enough for one of the two lanes of traffic. A definite driving adventure. We stopped in Lucca (see the picture below), a city surrounded by 40' walls to ward off attacking herds. The walls are still intact today, all four miles around the perimeter. People come from far and wide to ride bikes and walk the walls. This is a picture of me with the Lucca Lion high above the city walls.

Of course, after Lucca we arrived in Pisa. We look forward to our next adventure on the Italian Riviera. Glad we can take you guys along with us. Finding an internet site in C.T. may be difficult tomorrow, but we will definitely be back in Venice. CIAO FROM PISA!!!