Correction

I received a free gift from Tripadvisor...a free Shutterfly photobook!!  I spent way too much time selecting pictures and rearranging them and then 2 days ago I deemed it ready and sent the order.  One option is to also post it on your blog.  I did all that and then today saw my proofreading oversight.  I have labeled a castle (neushwenstein?? might be the spelling) as Cologne Cathedral.  This is worse than the fact that I forgot to label the last two pages but I can fix this on my printed copy with a pen.  For anyone who might look at it online suffice it to say that the last two pages are in Assissi and Cortona.

Travels

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Late additions

We were unable to get pictures posted as we were traveling by plane, train and automobiles yesterday so here are some sights in Milan.  Susan may have more to add as my camera battery dies before I did!

Glamour at McDonald's

Everything beyond the main center of Milan was not much to look at but the people were.  Everyone looks great and Fashion Week was to beging the day after we left.



Cathedral in Milan



This was taken on the roof of the Cathedral in the previous picture.

The end of the adventure...

Tuesday 9/21: We took a train from Florence to Milano, Tuesday morning. The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Milano at about 10:30. We have now seen the ugliest train station in the world. It is huge and ornate and totally tasteless. It was built by Mussolini in the thirties. It is pretty efficient. They say the one thing he accomplished was getting the trains to run on-time!

We took a taxi to the hotel, a Sheraton. After checking in, we went to the central city and had lunch in the most amazing McDonalds. It had electronic kiosks for ordering and paying and a very sophisticated modern decor. The cheeseburger had an oregano bun and mozzarella cheese. Not bad...

After lunch we visited the Duomo which is huge and very ornate. We took the elevator to the roof and enjoyed the view.

Later we had espresso and tiramasu on the roof of the Rinascente department store. We spend some time shopping, and saw the preparations for Fashion Week, which starts tomorrow.

We had room service and went to bed!

Wednesday, 9/22: we awoke at 5:30 and took taxi and train to the airport. With some confusion we managed to check-in, get our Value Added tax refunded, spend the rest of Euros in the duty free shop, eat breakfast and make our plane. We are somewhere over the North Atlantic at the moment. We are scheduled to arrive in Newark at 1:30 Eastern and Cleveland around 5:00.

The trip was pretty problem free. No strikes or weather anomalies! I hope it wasn't too boring for those,of you who followed the blog.

Thanks for watching.

Cheryl & Susan

P.S. I will post some Milano pictures, later.

Sent from my iPad

Monday update

Monday, 9/20: Monday we took the train for Cortona. The train only went as far as Camucia. We had to take a bus to to Cortona. This turned out to be an event since the train station was closed and we had to find a Tobacco shop that sold bus tickets. Then we had to find the correct bus stop. Eventually we made It to Cortona, and it was worth the trip. We can understand why Frances Mayes fell in love with it and bought Bramasole.

After a day in Cortona we spent our last night in Florence. We had a nice dinner, packed and went to bed.

We are now on our way to Milan. We leave for home tomorrow morning!

Sent from my iPad

Painter in Cortona

Street in Cortona

Piazza de Republica, Cortona

View from Cortona

Sunday update

Susnday, 9/19: After many days of major activity we decided to take it easy today. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we went shopping at Rinascente, we had espresso at the rooftop cafe. Nice view. See pictures.

We also saw Michelangelo's chapel at San Lorenzo. We had lunch at Kate's favorite restaurant in the San Lorenzo Market. Later we went to the Leonardo Da Vinci museum where we played with models of many of his inventions.

We stopped for espresso and dessert at a cafe before walking Accross the Ponte Vecchio and along the river. When we returned to the hotel we found a bottle of wine and a card wishing me a happy birthday. We enjoyed that and some other goodies on our patio, before going out for pizza which we ate in our room.

Today, Tuesday, we are off to Cortona.

Sent from my iPad

I said bidet sir!

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF4RFFuUmew&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my iPad

Birthday wine

Our hotel

Big door!

Can't have too many gloves!

Gold on the Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

Polizia Problems!

Can we help you?

Limoncella

DaVinci's bicycle prototype from the "de Vinci Museum"

Cheryl blogging from our patio at the hotel. The hotel sent a bottle of wine for my birthday!

Whatever?

Nice view from Florence!

The Leaning tower of Florence. We didn't get to Pisa!

View from cafe on the roof of the department store in Florence, Rinascente. You don't get this at Macy's!

Chinese Restaurant in Florence

Day Trip to Assissi

Saturday September 18

Back to the train station early this morning to go to Asissi, the birthplace of St. Francis who founded the Franciscan order.  The town is small and confusing (to us) but very beautiful.

View of Assissi from Rocco Maggiore*

* A castle with a bar that sells chicken potato chips. Yummy!

We loaded up at this shop

There was a rain shower while we were in Assissi but it was no problem as we dropped in to a charming little  restaurant for lunch and by the time we finished the rain was gone.  Susan had pasta with truffle sauce and Cheryl had
chicken caccitore.  Very Italian.  When we go back to Florence we made a change of pace and headed to a Chinese
restaurant.

First full day in Firenze

We got off to a late start today.  The room was so comfy, dark and quiet we barely made it to breakfast in the hotel and our reserved time at the Accademia to see Michaelangelo's David. Photos are not allowed of the original in the museum but I am posting a pic of the copy that is outside.



We then spent a good part of the day perusing all the fabulous shop and lunching between the Accademia, the Duomo and our hotel.  Dropped a few things at the hotel before heading for some gelato and the Boboli Gardens.



View of the Duomo from Boboli Gardens


We made it back to the hotel for a comlimentary"happy hour" where we chatted with two couples from Japan and Vancouver. We then ate Pizza nearby and an early night.  We are back on a train for a day trip to Assissi tomorrow.

Boboli Gardens

Thursday in Cinque Terre



 Thursday, Sept. 16

We started the day in a rain which meant we had to drag along jackets and umbrellas.  Walked by the beach which was pretty much left to the waves and could not take the boat I would have liked.  A stroll turned into a hike when we got on the trail to the next town and found it too daunting AND we had not bought a pass.  We did a turn around and didn't get busted.


Monterosso al Mare


We took the "milk train" to Vernazza for lunch where we were served by a cranky olf Italian who saw our book ans said he'd known Rick Steves for 30 years. Our 10 minute train ride back turned lengthy when the train was delayed for one full hour causing a rush up the hill to get our luggage and  a taxi back to the station for another train ride to Florence (Firenze).




Vernazza


This train was not so nice and Susan claimed the last passengers were livestock of some sort!

We arrived in Firenze at about 8 PM and are very pleased with the Hotel Davanzati where we will be for the next 5 nights.

I've had enough of this trail

Trail at Cinque Terre

The rest of Wednesday

Wednesday, 9/15: The rest of our journey went fairly well. We met a a woman on the train who manages all of the Stuart Weissman stores, worldwide. She is American so was anxious to chat. She lives in Milano. She showed us the catalog of next seasons shoes.

We arrived in Monterosso al Mare at about seven, went to our hotel which is beautiful. We a nice dinner in an outside cafe. I had seafood ravioli (see photo). While we were eating a catholic procession went by. Must be some sort of saint's day. I think the whole town was in the procession. There was even a band.

Today we are going to check out the five towns (Cinque Terre).

Sent from my iPad

View of religious celebration in Monterrosso

Seafood Ravioli

Sunset in Monterosso

View from our balcony in Monterosso al Mare in Cinque Terre

Genova Train station

Nice train station, one of many,

Mas du Petit Grava - farmhouse at the small ruins

Entrance to our B&B

Gordes - another small hill town

View of Rousillon

View from ochre capital of the world. Looks like Sedona, in places!

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Cheryl in a hill town in the Luberon

View of l'Apilles in the Luberon

View from the Marquis de Sade castle. now owned by Pierre Cardin

View from ancient hill town