Strangers in a strange land

Ciao! And welcome to Italy - where people speak the "Romance" language and practice romance at every chance they get. There was so much romance in the air (especially the air waves) that Italian radio DJs cut the songs short just to talk some more. Seriously.

But it's fair to say that the gusto (from the Italian word "gusto") that the Italians have for life gets put into everything: their buildings, their art, and, of course, their food.

We started our trip with a short flight from Frankfurt to Bergamo, about 45 minutes from Milan. Once in our rental car, we headed south through the beautifully craggy mountains of northern Tuscany (Apuan Alps) to Pisa for the too-dorky-to-resist photoshoot of Kate holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

After that gonzo moment (from the Italian word "gonzo"), we drove to Florence and spent the better part of two days taking in the colors, smells, sounds, and tastes of city pollution. Actually, the polution aside, Florence was wonderful - we saw the David, the Birth of Venus, masterpieces by Michelangelo, Rafael, and other ninja turtles and, most importantly, a small town in the outskirts called Fiesole where we had a bottle of wine that must have been laced with lead(because it made us do this):

While in Florence we saw the beautiful Ponte Vecchio, a working market bridge that apparently was very close to being exploded during World War II.

We also saw lots of replicas of statues, including this one which looks surprising lifelike.

We also had a good time gazing facetiously at some old charming towers. (Facetiously, by the way, is the shortest word in English that uses all the vowels (and the letter "y") in a row.) This picture shows Giotto's tower, right next to the magnificient Duomo - the second largest dome in Christiandom.

After that fun fiasco (from the Italian "fiasco"), we went to Sienna, a charming Tuscan town where tourists and torture museums totally tamed the trance my espresso put me in. After a quick stroll around the old piazza (which was swarmed with birds) and some sort of old churchy thing, we headed back up through the Tuscan mountaints for Bergamo, the city with the airport. Delightfully, we found it was more than that. Truly, it's one of the most European towns I've ever seen - perched atop a mountain overlooking Milan on one side and the southern Alps on the other, this cobblestoned town was ripe with narrow pedestrian alleys, churches, and, for some reason, candy stores that stayed open until after 11 p.m. on a Monday night. It is definitely a city that I'd like to see again.

In all, Tuscany was great. Blue skies. Warm weather. Lots of cute vespas dotting the streets. And some great Italian cooking.

Thanks for reading.