Florence, Tuscany and Assisi

September 16-19
Welcome back folks...we landed in Corfu, Greece last night, finally got into the ocean and are finally sitting down to update the world.

Last we left we were in Venice enjoying all the romance and mystic that makes it exactly what you think it should be. From there we took a train into Florence. I would love to say that Florence was wonderful and captivating. We just didn't get it. Yes, Michelangelo's 'David' was incredible. The Uffizi has more art that you can look at in 3 days and Brunecelli's Dome blew my engineering socks off. But the city itself is dirty, run down and in need of some serious "stimulus money". We did our best to really get into what the city had to offer but after being in Amsterdam, Venice, Verona etc. it really didn't do much for us. Maybe we just don't love art that much?

OK, enough of the Florence bashing. After 2 days of art, we headed a couple kilometer's south to the "Chianti Road" - the main artery in the Tuscan wine land. If there is ever a way to cure anything, its the Chianti Road. A little background...there is a main road similar to that in the Napa Valley that almost every winery in the Tuscan Valley feeds into. Unlike Napa, the terrain is made up of rolling hills, hairpin turns and scenic overlook after scenic overlook. Not exactly the perfect wine tasting road but hey - this is Italy. Wine tasting here is free. Pop in, sample a couple of there finest and buy what you want. After a couple tastings, we were informed that there was in fact a wine festival in just North of Sienna that day. ALL the local vineyards were going to be represented. How could we not stop by and take a peek! We did our best to taste them all, and for a minute I almost turned Mika into a red wine lover, but we got drunk! (As did half of the surrounding villages I'm sure). It was a blast and I have 2 recommendations for any Chianti lovers out there:

• Montagliani - Chianti Classico 2006
• Villa Vallemaggiore - Maremma Toscana IGT 2006

Perfect with anything - even pizza!



















After a long nights rest, we began our journey south. We stopped in the small village of Assisi (as in St. Francis of Assisi - the animal lover!) - just East of the Tuscan region. Probably one of the hottest days we had thus far, Assisi is basically built on the side of a mountain so every move included steps..lots of steps! Assisi is a small, incedibly well maintained town (it was recently rebuilt after an earthquake a couple years back) and has the best damn pizza either of us have ever had. Better than anything NYC has to offer - I swear.




















This is just a side note - look at the size of this car!!!!! And it just plugs into an outlet on the street. Come on GM...I know you guys can figure this out.

---ALAN