Siena Google alerts

Most of the alerts I get in my inbox are concerned either with football (soccer for us New Worlders) or personal blog journal notes. While I usually skip right over the sports stuff, frankly I find it fascinating to read so many other experiences on traveling in Tuscany. Here's some of the latest -- the links are added for your convenience. I certainly don't endorse or vouch for any of the sites listed. Frankly some of them are tacky and probably misinformation is rife. Still, it's a fascinating trip through cyberspace leading, usually, to central Italy.

By Daniel Thompson(Daniel Thompson) (video of photos) http://videoarchivebydanielthompson.blogspot.com/

Tosc-Mex or Tusc-Mex (Tuscany, Italy + Tex-Mex cuisine) -- By bapopik@aol.com(bapopik@aol.com)
Six Tuscan localities have been made UNESCO protected sites: the historical center of Florence (1982), the historical center of Siena (1995), the square of the Cathedral of Pisa (1987), the historical center of San Gimignano (1990), . . .
http://www.barrypopik.com/

Defining the limits of exceptionalism -- By homoeconomicusnet
In southern Europe, says Marco Ventura, a religious-law professor at the University of Siena, Catholics are now more worried about the perceived advance of Islam than about maintaining old entitlements for their faith. . . .
Homo economicus' Weblog - http://homoeconomicusnet.wordpress.com

Italy 2007 - Siena/Orvieto/Rome -- By Mark
The plan for today was to make it a leisurely drive from Siena to Rome - by way of Orvieto and Civita. Before heading on the road, we tried one last time to find breakfast in Siena. We found a cafeteria not far from our hotel that had a . . .
The T3sk3y Defenestrator - http://t3sk3y.com

Siena and San Gimignano
As a school we took a private bus to Siena to see the beuatiful duomo of their city and to get a taste of a town much smaller than our own. We were broke into groups of about 20 and were given private tours where we learned about Siena. ...
Travel Blog | Travel Journals,... - http://www.travelblog.org/

siena tower fishy myopia
This view is from the tip of the tower at Piazza del Campo - Torre del Mangia. I made a collage...
TrekEarth - Travel Photo Gallery - http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/

Matchday 24 preview, Cagliari vs. Lazio
By Kevin Walker(The Gaffer)
AS Roma - Fiorentina Atalanta - Siena Cagliari - Lazio Empoli - Catania Livorno - Napoli Sampdoria - Inter Milan Udinese - Genoa AC Milan - Palermo. Headlines from Italy last but not least headlines from Italy on Ronaldo's status ...
Serie A Talk - http://www.serieatalk.com/

Italy Hotels
By Monica Pileggi(Monica Pileggi)
Via ES Piccolomini, 35 53110 Siena, Italy Phone: 0577-283930, Fax: 0577-270009 Email: mail@oliveta.com http://www.oliveta.com http://www.emmeti.it/Welcome/Toscana/Senese/Siena/Alberghi/Oliveta/index.uk.html http://www.country-tours.com/ ...
Travels with Monica - http://monicapileggi.blogspot.com/

Amore Eterno…. Italy on Super 8mm
By Bliss*
This past September we had the great pleasure of getting a last minute call and traveling to Siena Italy to film an intimate vintage inspired wedding weekend for Danielle and Paul. What an AMAZING experience it was! ...
WedFACT.tv - Wedding Filmmakers... - http://wedfact.tv/

Siena
Three Weeks in Siena.
- http://www.travelblog.org/

Watch Basketball - Euroleague - Top 16: Montepaschi Siena v ...
By admin
Siena, Italy. Round: Euroleague (EL) 2007/2008. Venue: Palasports Mens Sana (Details). Start Date: Wed 27 Feb 20:45, (GMT 19:45). End Date: Wed 27 Feb. Siena proved it is for real by disposing of Efes Pilsen on the road. ...
- http://www.ibrahimkoknar.com/search

School for Biotech Industrial Innovation Management 2008 is on
By Andrea Monti
The School is an initiative of the University of Siena, Italy, funded by the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena in the framework of the Siena biotech pole. Last year I have been invited to give a speech on “Copyright and ...
Digital Thought - http://blog.andreamonti.eu

Antonio Fabbri.
Montelifre, Siena -Italy.
Pixelpost - http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/

vacations for cheap
By JESS
ITALIAN MOSAIC ESCORTED TOUR $1160 This fully escorted nine-night tour of Italy visits Orvieto, Siena, San Gimignano, Greve, Pisa, Assisi and more! A professional Tour Director will accompany you while touring and you'll enjoy the ...
US - http://forums.myspace.com/93.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewforum

Weekend Travels - Siena, Italy
Siena, Italy This weekend the 50 of us embarked on our first excursion our destinations for the day were Siena and San Gimignano. The thought of two cities in one day was a little daunting, all the walking in one and then back on the ...
TravelPod.com Recent Updates - http://www.travelpod.com

Spring closer to being “sprung”!
By John Ockey
The trip went exceptionally well and I think really gave the students insight regarding another facet of Italy - very different from Siena. Since then, students have been busily getting into classes and into their social lives - meeting ...
IES-Ablog Siena - http://blogs.iesabroad.org/Siena

Top 10 Places to See Before You Die
Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Prato and Siena, offer more cultural highlights than some countries as a whole. The way of living does the rest to attract every year millions of visitors. Elba, the island of Napoleans first exile, is only one of ...
Trifter - http://www.trifter.com

Euroleague-Montepaschi Siena=84-Panathinaikos=75
By admin
The breakthrough season of Montepaschi took a strong step higher on Wednesday with a no-doubt-about-it 84-75 home win over defending champion Panathinaikos in their Group D showdown in Siena, Italy. Siena raised its first-place record ...
Basketboltr.NET - http://basketboltr.net/

Taste of Italy. First installment.
By Tsai Sisters(Tsai Sisters)
Pici pasta with a pesto and meat ragu. In the back, handmade gnocchi filled with cheese! First dinner in Siena, Italy! Beef carpaccio with a light orange sauce. Lots of wine EVERY SINGLE night. Posted by Picasa.
This is how we roll - http://tsaisisters.blogspot.com/

Cantina e chiuso!

Il cantina è chiuso e vendono soltanto all'ingrosso!

Cantina in Piazza, just a few meters from the Piazza del Campo on Casato di Sotto, is closed. Our friend Aimone Piazzi now sells his wine only all'ingrosso (wholesale) out of their office on Via Pescaia.

We're sorry to hear this -- we've known it was going to happen someday, and that this has been coming on for some time now. We can only hope that his next venture will be even more exciting than the last one. And frankly, we can't wait to sit around a table of good food, with two or three bottles of vino passing up and down, and hear Aimone talk about the thing he loves so much: good and great wine.

It seems just like yesterday that we walked into the cantina for the first time with a class form Dante Alighieri to hear a lecture on Italian wine given in Italian by an Italian in Italy. How truly wonderful! And we quickly discovered, like so many others over the years, that we had also found a home -- quiet, hushed conversations, so much food to snack on, so many wines by the glass, and thousands of bottles to buy. Think Cheers but in Italian and serving wine instead of beer and you've got the idea.

And always, always, there was Aimone and Alessandra helping the rest of us find our way toward enjoying the fruits of life.


Now Alessandra is a mama (and what a carina bambina Costanza is!) and Aimone is plotting his next move.

We can't wait.

Ciao tutti!

Self-catering Apartments in Italy

If you're like me you're always looking for the best value in self-catering flats in Italy. There simply is no better way to experience a new place than to live as close as you can to ground level, so to speak.

And if you're like me you probably get quite a few Google Alerts coming in to your inbox every day, bringing you news and adverts, listings and the latest blog notes on what to do, what to see, where to eat and where to stay in Italy.

Well lately I've received several "alerts" about accommodations listed on a website called RealAdventures.com and thought I would check it out.


The particular link was listed as Tuscany 13th century villa selfcatering apartments (Italy).

So I clicked on the link and it brought up the following page:

Note the price: "starting at US $630 per week." Well, if you click on the "Rates" tab, as I did it brings up a new page which shows the actual rate card:


Note that here the price spread is quoted as "$959 to $1.875." Hmmmmmm. I think maybe I'd keep looking.

Buon viaggio e divertirsi moltissimo!

Siena to Bellagio, June 1994

In June of 1994 Susan and I went to Italy for the very first time. We had no inkling at the time, or even for some time afterward, that we would return again and again, spending increasingly more time in a land that, to us at any rate, came to typify the very best of Europe. After saying good bye to Dick and Dorothy in Siena -- the four of us had rented a small villa just north of Siena for two weeks -- they headed south to Rome by train and we headed north to Lake Como and Bellgaio by car.

Romano talks with Roberto Bechi

In February of 2005, during an extended trip to Siena, local guide and Siena expert Roberto Bechi and I began videotaping a series of interviews of Tuscans talking about living and working in Tuscany. This is, I believe, the very first one we did. Roberto's good friend "Romano" operates the last bottega in Florence, the Casa di Tessuti, or "house of treasures," a store where they sell absolutely incredible fabrics. And of course, Florence began her life as a source for some of the world's grandest fabrics.