Italy Part Uno, Rome to Tuscany

The Vatican Across the Tiber River, Rome

Piazza Trilussa Bubbles, Rome

While preparing for our trip to Italy, friends invariably said, “Italy, I bet you will get some great pictures!”  My snotty response was usually, “I hadn’t thought of that.  Perhaps I should bring my camera.”  Funny- I seemed to have fewer friends.

Abby, Karry, Cuy and Grayson, Tuscan Sunset

We are now about ten days into our three-week tour, and sadly approaching the end of our six days sharing an idyllic hilltop villa in Tuscany.  We are sharing the house with our children, their significant others and friends.  We have been so busy, dawn to bed, that I have had almost no time to process the over 2000 images (so far) nor to write about our experiences.  This evening, I am sitting on our veranda, sipping an Aperol Spritz, overlooking the rolling Tuscan country-side, while a local chef is preparing

Jeremy & Gina,
Morning on our veranda

dinner for the crowd.  I miss the autumn colors back home, but the food, the wine and the constantly changing evening light is reasonable compensation.  I’m trying to write, but I have decided that my travelogue should focus on the images and not on lengthy descriptions of out adventures.  I am desperate to spend most of the limited time available on processing and posting just a few of the pictures that will tell a more elegant story than my poor prose.  I will be editing these images for months to come, but I’m excited to get to just a few of my favorite samples of the tour.

Roman Forum

For this first blog I will cover our few days exploring Rome.  This is my first time in Italy, so of course, we had to tour the Forum, the Coliseum and the Vatican.  All terribly touristy places, but necessary.  Of course we had to see the Pantheon, the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain.   

Testaccio Window

More fun was a food tour of nine eateries in the Testaccio district of the city, led by a wonderfully knowledgeable local chef, and, the next evening, a dinner in the home of “Chef Barbara”.  Of course, food and drink has been an essential part of this trip.

Vatican Dome

After four days in Rome, traveled by train to Florence and from there, took a rented a car for the trip to our Villa in Tuscany.  Let me say that again, Our “Villa in Tuscany”.  It was just as magical as it sounds.  A lovely house, on an isolated hilltop, with a 360-degree vista across the undulating country-side.  We were here after the harvest, and the fields revealed less vivid greens, and more plowed earth, but it was still breath-taking.  The weather was perfect and each sunrise and sunset offered its own unique character.  We spent our days wandering the narrow winding roads and visiting the classic medieval hill towns.  Beautiful, but I struggled to avoid the frequent gaggles of tourists that tried to fill my pictures.  I would frame the perfect image and then a group would move right in front, holding their selfie sticks high in the air.  Much of my time was spent waiting for the people to clear, but it gave me more time to appreciate the beauty, besides, I was probably blocking someone else’s view. 

Colle Bianco, Our Villa in Tuscany

Enough talk.  Enjoy the pictures.  I look forward to sharing many more views of Tuscany in my next article, as I try to find time to work through all the images.  It’s a great problem to have.

In the meantime I will continue to add to the trickle of images in my Italy 2017 Gallery on my web site.

Ciao!

Jeff Newcomer

partridgebrookreflections.com