The interlake ferry run by the Navigazione Laghi has a schedule of sorts, but it is posted in Italian only and the boats are often late!  The ticket-sellers and boatmen are sometimes helpful but seem to lose patience quickly with dumb tourists and their dumb questions. Despite concerns about long line-ups for tickets, we had…

We left the coast this morning and headed north.  We stopped in Milan for lunch and to visit their beautiful duomo.  The Milan cathedral is known world-wide for its hundreds (thousands?) of sculptures both inside and out. An elevator took us up to the roof to see the marble pinnacles and flying buttresses.  Each spire…

The Via Garibaldi is a narrow alley containing multiple former palazzos belonging to the Genovese gentry.  Most of the houses date from the early 16th Century and are now banks or offices.  This converted Palazzo is now the consulate for Monaco.  Three of the most beautiful palazzos have been turned into a combination of museum…

Genova was likely established in the 5th C BC and ranks among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.  The Casa di Colombo is a restoration of the 2-story home where Christopher Columbus lived as a teenager (the original was destroyed by a French raid in the 17th C).  Other countries have claimed to…

In addition to being a wine region, this part of Tuscany is also famous for pecorino cheese from Pienza, a tiny town about 15 minutes from here. We had a charcuterie picnic at Caseificio Cugusi at the base of the mountain and sampled some of their amazing sheep cheeses. Romans introduced hard cheeses to Europe. …

We spent today wandering around the hilltop village of Montepulciano and touring more of the wine cellars. The Piazza Grande is the cultural and historical heart of town.  The Palazzo Comunale (town hall) in the Piazza Grande was inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The travertine marble well in the grand square dates from…

Pitigliano is a walled clifftop town partially carved out of volcanic tufo rock.  The town is best known as “the little Jerusalem” due to the historical presence of a Jewish community (mostly people fleeing Rome during persecution). There is evidence the town was occupied in 1061 AD but was likely inhabited during the Etruscan times…

This morning we visited the Cascate del Mulino, a natural hot spring made up of a series of waterfalls flowing into terraced travertine pools.  We played under the waterfalls and had a relaxing soak.  This afternoon we visited the local Mambrini Viticoltori Winery in the tiny town of Poggio Murella.  Our tasting was conducted by…