Italy, here I come again!!!

Just a quick note for my blog friends who don't yet know this...I've booked a trip to Italy this summer with my Mom!  We fly over to Rome (3hr layover in Frankfurt) and fly home from Milan (3hr layover in Frankfurt).  Four weeks in bella Italia, be still my amore-struck heart!!

We'll stay in Rome the first week, exploring the city and perhaps taking a daytrip or two to places like Tivoli or Ostia Antica.  I haven't booked accomodations yet, am waiting for that "this is the place" feeling.  Which exact feeling struck me as soon as I came across the ad for our home base in Tuscany for the second and third weeks of our trip.

I've reserved a fantastic house in Cetona (click here to see the ad on Homelidays).  The owner's blurb is this:

"We have a completely renovated and tastefully decorated 3 level home, built on the remains of a 16th Century tower in the Tuscan hill town of Cetona. The house sleeps 4 people and is situated near the village centre on a panoramic street just a minute away from the central square with markets, shops and restaurants. Our house has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a kitchen-dining room with a quite large dining table, 2 living rooms with fireplaces, study and balcony on the top floor.Outdoor terrace garden with climbing roses, herbs and potted plants. We have also a large vegetable garden in a with a lots of olive, apricot, fig and apple trees. A gazebo with a big barbecue is - on request - at you disposal."

And the photos and testimonials seem to back that description up.  I am delighted at the thought of staying in a place built on the remains of a 16th century tower - how cool is that??

(Public domain photo of Cetona from Wikipedia)

The medieval hill town of Cetona also sounds wonderful!  As does the surrounding area, lots of places to explore.  Cetona is a short drive from Chiusi, so we can take some daytrips by train, if I don't feel like driving everywhere. Although I am looking forward to tooling around in our rental car, stopping wherever strikes our fancy, with no particular plans in mind.  Sheer bliss!



Our final week will be spent...somewhere...  We haven't decided yet, although will spend our last couple nights in Milan since we'd like to see the Duomo, and perhaps da Vinci's Last Supper painting, plus we are flying out of Milan when we return home.  And my daughters have placed their orders for their souvenirs to be purchased in Milan.  They don't care what I bring home for them, just that it must come from the fashion capital of the world, funny girls! :)  But I don't think we want to spend the whole week there, it's not a big draw for either of us.  More likely we'll stay the majority of the week in Bologna or perhaps Verona...or perhaps Mantova...however will we decide?!!?  (But what a happy decision it is!)