A Room with a View

These two are our views from the room at Hotel d'Ingleterra

This is me, drinking nice, cold spring water from a fountain (made from an ancient Roman bathtub) in Rome!

our driver and our guide for the first day in Rome...they chose their own poses.

Al approaches the bridge, the only access-way to Civita di Bagnoregio in Umbria. Here is what we saw inside the little ancient city
Lunch under the pergola in Orvieto:
Castello di Velona as viewed from Piero Palmucci's vineyard, Poggio di Sotto, which makes excellent brunello wine. And below, Piero and his cellar

This is a view of the enotecas (wine shops) in Montalcino Roberta, our guide at Boscarelli, outside Aquaviva, near Montepulciano Here I am, grinning at the start of an unbelievable dinner at Banfi. The kitchen was amazing, incredibly clean and run by a German chef. The breads were all made in house. The appetizer was polpo (octopus)

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A Room With A View was my favorite movie for a very long time. The romantic, idyllic love story, a Merchant-Ivory film, waxes poetic about Italy. I had never been to Italy until Al and I went last week. It was so rich with color, history and art; it was very overwhelming. The entire time we were there, it was HOT HOT HOT. A heatwave definitely colored our trip with an ochre hue.

We didn't have time to see everything I wanted to see (Cinque Terre, Venice, and others would have to wait until our next trip), we did squeeze in a wonderful itinerary of Roma, Umbria, Florence and Tuscany.

Al was still very engaged in work via his blackberry because of http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13498935/ this.