A Day in Tuscany

     Today we spent the day in Tuscany and visited three different cities.  Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa were all our stops.  It was nice getting out of the busy city for a change and seeing the countryside of Italy.

     Siena was first on the agenda.  Known as one of the first places to introduce banking we stopped at one of the oldest banks.  Another interesting Siena fact is that the city of Siena is divided into 17 districts aka contratas each represented by an animal. Twice a year they run a horse race around the central plaza in which the horses represent each district.  The district winner gets to have bragging rights as well as the right to fly there district flag for one week.  The race was just run and the Goose district were the winners.  This race is serious business among the Siena people.  Preparation for the race involves blessing the horse in the church (yes IN the Church) of that district and the horse is guarded 24/7 against sabotage.

     From Siena we went to the town of San Gimignano.  The town still maintains many of their medieval structures.  In addition they are known for their wine and farms.  We had lunch at a local farm/vineyard and had 4 different types of wine, a white, two reds, and a dessert wine.  The food and wine was both very good.

     Our final stop was Pisa, where we saw the famous leaning tower.  It was pretty cool sitting next to the leaning tower of Pisa and having a gelato.  After a very long day we arrived back at Florence at 8:30.  We had dinner and pretty soon I'm going to bed.

The stable the horses are kept under lock and key before the race in Siena

Where the horse race is run

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Wine Barrels

Grapes

James feeding the cows

Our group in San Gimignano

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Florence by foot

     It's our second day in Florence and I am in museum overload.  There is so much to see here.  Today we tackled 3 museums, Pitti Palace, and the Duomo.
     Our adventure began at the Bargello Museum, which houses sculptures and art work from many famous artists including Michelangelo.  My favorite piece was a small sculpture of the crucifixtion of Christ by Michelangelo.  The detail can't even be described.  From here we headed to the Uffizi Museum where we again saw many paintings and sculptures.  Artists included here were Danti and Botticellis.  Everyone liked Botticellis' Birth of Venus.
     From the Uffizi we headed to Galileo's museum.  This was my favorite museum by far.  Despite some grumbling by one of our younger touries we headed in.  They had several of Galileo's inventions including the telescope.  I was so amazed at the knowledge that this man had.  He was truly ahead of his time.  Inside we even saw his middle and index finger.  They also had his tooth.  Upon careful inspection it appeared to be a lower bicuspid.
     We then crossed Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) and walked to the Pitti Palace.  We did a quick tour of the artwork displayed there and then toured the palace rooms.  I loved the throne room, unfortunately it was roped off and we couldn't try it out.  We proceeded to the Bobili Garden and saw some great views of Florence.
     Finally it was time for a Pizza and a local cocktail made with Grapa, Prosseco and sparkling water.  We are now just resting up until dinner.

Inside the Duomo

 

Sculpture of Mercury inside the Bargello

 

Galileo's Finger

The Pitti Palace

The Boboli Gardens

Day 3 Traveling to Florence

So we finally made here to Florence without much trouble.  Once we arrived at the train station out guide was going to take us to the hotel.  We passed a man holding a sign for James Guiterab and no one else had a sign close to any of our names.  So I approached the man who apparently spoke no English and asked if he was picking people up to go to the Laurus.  After much pointing and miming along with my limited Rosetta Stone Italian we were on our way.
     Florence is a very busy city with very narrow streets.  We took a quick tour around to get our bearings for tomorrow's tour.  Looking forward to seeing everything here.  Now I must go and get ready for dinner.

Our Second Day in Venice

     The four of us had a wonderful morning/afternoon touring the city.  After breakfast we went to St. Mark's Basillica.  The detail inside was amazing.  Pictures were not allowed to be taken however which  was upsetting because I would have loved for everyone to see how ornate and beautiful it really was.  Several relics are housed within the Basillica.  We actually saw the bones of many different Saints.  From there we went to the Correr Museum and the Doge's Palace.  It was amazing to see how they lived back then.  There were paintings on every wall and ceiling of just about every room.  The boys favorite part of the palace was the prison area. 

     After lunch Mother and I headed out to do some shopping while the boys went on a walking tour of the canal.  We had a great time, but I had to stop myself or there wouldn't have been any room left in my suitcase and we have 4 more cities to see.  Christmas shopping for me has apparently started.  I can't wait to give these gifts, I think they're going to be a hit.

     We're all just resting in our rooms now before dinner.

Out shopping

 

 

An alcove outside the Basillica

The Doge's Palace courtyard

Detailed view of the Palace from the Courtyard

 

 

Day 1 of our Italian Vacation

So the plane ride to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful other then James and I freaking a woman out when we started talking about taking our eyes out.  We were actually discussing our contacts, but we call them our eyes.  I just had visions of us sitting there on the plane with vacant sockets where our eyes should be.  We only had an hour to make our connection to Venice.  Needless to say I had to dash into a sprint through the Airport and tell them we were there they were literally closing the gate as we had arrived. 

Venice is beautiful.  We toured around St. Mark's square this afternoon and had some pizza.  Prosciuto and Funghi (that's ham and mushrooms for those not well versed in the Italian language).  My husband likes to be the tour guide, unfortunately his sense of direction is bad and we wondered around quite a bit.  I did force a break for some gelato though. I saw some great shops I'm planning on going back to for shopping.

Now we are back in the hotel relaxing before dinner.

Styles and Smiles Fashion Show

I had a fabulous time on Sunday September 25th with the other ladies of the Massachusetts Dental Society modeling for the Styles and Smiles Fashion Show.  The event took place at the Boston University Castle, which was just gorgeous inside.  We wore two different outfits from Lyn Evan Potpourri Design and finished up the show in scrubs and clogs. 
Attendees were all member from the Massachusetts Dental Society.  When they arrived they enjoyed a cocktail hour with passed hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar, followed up by a buffet style dinner.  After everyone enjoyed their meals the real entertainment started with the fashion show. 
All proceeds from this event went to rebuilding the smiles of abused women.

25th Anniversary of Mrs. United States

On August 3rd and 4th I had the opportunity to attend the 25th Anniversary of the Mrs United States Pageant held at the Hilton Resort in Las Vegas. I was there to cheer on our New England States Massachusetts and New Hampshire, represented by Courtney Nappa and Nikol Lauze respectively. I also had the chance to meet up with some of the women I competed with last year, including our beautiful Mrs. United States Rachel Jullieret. It was a really fun two days.

One change this year was that each delegate wore a state costume. Everyone was so creative in their choices. They also invited all the former Mrs. United States back to perform a special number with Jay Joseph the host. I also really enjoyed the opening number that the contestants performed in their red dresses to Ricky Martin.

We also squeezed in some quality fun time with my husband and step-son, while in Vegas.