Siena and James Bond

We arrived in Siena on Tuesday, May 13th, after a very long multi-train ride from Manarola (changing at La Spezia, Pisa and Empoli). While not my favorite town at first (our hotel room faced a noisy street, so lack of sleep had something to do with it), it did grow on us as we found a few pubs we liked overlooking the piazza, and a beautiful church on the outskirts of the center of town, and our day trip to San Gimignano.

Another highlight was watching the filming of the next James Bond movie (see the notice to the left)--and seeing a very spiffy Daniel Craig in a white tux. Here are some of Stacey's photos (don't worry: I'll sent out e-mails once I get Mike's photos up here!):

Above is a view of Siena from the Church of Saint Catherine's, a quiet oasis in a rather busy little city. Below is a view of San Gimignano, a cute, much smaller town about an hour bus ride from Siena. This is where "Tea with Mussolini" was filmed. This is a walled city with a wonderful walking path outside the wall.

Cinque Terre (the Five Towns on the Italian Riviera)

Cinque Terre was our favorite place in Italy perhaps because it was the least crowded, the most visually stunning, and the place where we felt entirely relaxed. We rented an apartment called Maria 3 that I found online (casa5terre.com): it was the top floor of a house on a cliff (86 steps from "street" or harbor level). Tom and Kirsten from Portland were in the downstairs apartment. We had several "decks" including two that were above the apartment level, all overlooking the Ligurian Sea. We ate one of our favorite meals here, saw an art opening (I need to find Luigi's web address to share), walked the wine trail, Mike hiked the Cinque Terre trail and I put my feet in the Ligurian Sea. Here are some photos from Stacey's camera (Mike's photos to be posted eventually, perhaps in a slide show!). Above is the ocean facing part of Manarola--our apartment was on the other side of that rounded building at the edge of the cliff (I think!). Below is sunset from the lower deck of our apartment.

Here is Mike on the beach at Monterosso.

To the left is a view of Vernazza from the boat we took between towns.

And here is the Manarola train station (you have a choice of boat, train or hiking between towns):

Lucca's downtown ambience

I forgot to mention that just like Brooks St. in downtown Bend, Lucca's Piazza San Michele also has a dude sitting on the street with his dog and, instead of a cat, a rabbit! The rabbit would clean the dog's ears once in a while! The man was dressed in a colorful costume and playing music (Mike: I think you have pics of him?). Clearly, I was more interested in the bunny/dog friendship....

Lucca (days 9 and 10)

Lucca is a 75 minute train ride from Florence--a small town that we just loved. The town is surrounded by a city wall that was made into a biking/walking park by Napoleon's wife (thank you Josephine).

We arrived late morning and got just a little lost trying to find the Piccolo Hotel Puccini (the streets are narrow and not well marked--we would have enjoyed the "being lost" more without the backpacks and the warm temps). But we arrived at our only 3-star pensione (we haven't quite figured out what made this place 3-stars, though it was nice) eventually, dropped off our stuff, and immediately headed to the city wall, walking part of the 3+ miles. Above is a picture of Mike that I took from the park overlooking part of the town.

You'll have to wait for Mike's pictures of Lucca: most of mine are only so-so. Mike climbed the tower in town (that was his plan: to climb every tall thing in every town) to get an ariel view, but this tower has trees growing on top of it!

By 7pm all of the day trippers are gone and Lucca becomes a real town. We had a lovely (and inexpensive) pasta dinner with wine and some leftover paneforte that we bought in Firenze (better than fruitcake, but gelato is still my dessert of choice in Italy).

Most people travel by bicycle in Lucca (very few cars are permitted within the town walls) or by walking. The hotel was down the street from Puccini's House (closed for renovation) and Piazza San Michele where we ate breakfast each morning at "Robby's" bar--that was the owner's name. A group of art students sat near our hotel from 9am until 4pm at least sketching the top of San Michele in different lights while their instructor walked around (we had seen him the night before sketching other areas of Lucca). We were amazed at their stamina!

On our second day we rented bikes, bought picnic food and enjoyed the beautiful weather and park. We visited the amphiteatro and walked all over town. Lucca was a wonderful oasis, but we hadn't yet been to Cinque Terre yet: that was next!

The Ponte Vecchio at Night in Florence

I took this photo of Ponte Vecchio on our first day in Florence.

Stacey's Favorite Venice Pics

Mike's photos are much more polished than mine, but since mine are totally unedited, I can get them up here more quickly (even though I have nearly 400 photos, Mike has over 1000)! So, above are some of my favorite photos from Venice:

Top: View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge (we were staying not far from this bridge)

Middle: Mike posing in front of a canal in Burano, an island that is a leisurely boatride from Venice, famed for its lace making. It is much smaller and more intimate than Venice, with colorful houses and many many fewer tourists (since it is a shorter boat ride away, most tourists go to Murano, the glass making island).

Bottom: View of two gondolas from a restaurant we were eating at near the Accademia Bridge.