Craig and Amy in Italy (and Domaine Tempier): Off we go...

For the next couple of weeks Amy and I will be traveling through the Tuscan countryside and towns...Florence, Siena, Pitigliano, Lucca and inbetween. We will then be in the Cinque Terre for a few days before going to the south of France to visit my dear friends, Jean Marie and Catherine Peyraud, of the great winery, Domaine Tempier, near Bandol.

On this trip we will see some of the world's greatest art, walk in some of the most beautiful hill villages anywhere, eat great food and drink fantastic wine. We will go on long hikes to see Roman ruins and hamlets that seem to hang in mid-air over the sea. We will meet family in Umbria and old, dear friends in Provence. We will sleep in a nunnery, in a farmhouse and in a villa over the Mediterranean. We will eat great pasta, fish dishes and many local specialities. We will be in the land of pesto, bouillabaisse, white beans, lamb, pasta and gelato!...some of the world's truly great cuisine.

And we will try to do all of this on a budget. Just how much fun and how much good food and wine can you have these days in Europe (almost $1.50 to the Euro) on a budget? We plan to find out. Now I'm not talking hostels here. We're to old for that! But we will be staying in nunneries, farm houses, and small B&Bs. We'll eat picnics for lunch everyday. We'll order the menu de jour and the house wine. This is what we plan on doing. So tune in every once in awhile to see what the heck we're doing. This is the first trip to a non 3rd world country we've gone on together. But I can't think of a better place I'd rather be then in central Italy and the south of France.

Michelangelo's David