Under The Tuscan Sun

On Tuesday, we ventured out into the Tuscan countryside for a lovely day trip. Our first stop was an American World War II cemetary, which was quite fascinating. Then, we continued on to San Gimignano (we've been calling it San Jimmy John's), which is a really cool medieval town nestled into the hills. The town is known for its medieval skyscrapers (shown in one of the photos). The other pictures show us with a picturesque Tuscan backdrop and a San Gimignano sidewalk with signs for 'pizza', 'sports', and 'tortura' (which means 'torture')....you really can get it all in San Gimignano!

Road Trip!

Yesterday we rented a car and headed northwest of the city for a day trip. We hit three towns - Prato, Lucca, and Pisa. As for Prato, let's just say that we've been there now...so you don't need to go. It did, however, have a famous biscotti place.....I'm learning that Pallavi is more into the cookies than she is into the gelato.....interesting. Lucca was terrific -- a small walled-in city that was the birthplace of Puccini. And Pisa....well, it's worth a good photo opp, and we had a good Indian dinner (the name of the restaurant was 'India'....clever). Even though we had both been to Pisa previously, I was eager to go again and get our picture at the Tower.....after all, when else would we be able to say, 'We're only 15 minutes away from Pisa....we might as well go get a picture, right?' Pallavi humored me.

The pictures show Pallavi along the city wall in Lucca, an outdoor classical concert in Lucca (the conductor was Indian - strong!), our fairly sad attempt at the obligatory crush/be crushed picture in Pisa, the Leaning TOWEL of Pisa (nice), and Pallavi in front of the Indian restaurant in Pisa.