Umbria and Tuscany - April thru June, 2005

Ilana and David escaped to Italy the day after she left her job. It was the perfect decision; a complete and extended break that restored body and spirit.

We focused on nature and small towns in Umbria and Tuscany, avoiding for the most part the major cities and alternating days in the woods with local festivals and wandering stone streets and narrow alleys. We stayed in small rural Agriturismos (working farms) and spent a week in monasteries.

Our first two weeks were among the best of the trip. We had a small apartment at Agriturismo Ca' Mazzetto, a beautiful organic farm perched high in the hills northeast of Perugia. We were warmly welcomed, well looked after, and made to feel completely at home. It is an excellent base from which to explore the hill towns of Umbria.

The middle portion of our visit was organized by Ciao Tours. They found a couple of great places for us to stay and arranged some wonderful events, such as our wine tour of Verrazzano Castle and the 5-hour cooking lesson and lunch at a private home outside Florence.

In our last couple of weeks we headed north to the Garfagnana, the less-populated moutainous northern edge of Tuscany and then south to Pitigliano. A brief stop in Rome with good friends eased our transition to the long flight back home. It was a terrific trip, and we'll definitely be going back.

It was a long trip (eight weeks) and a day-by-day account would be tedious. We've organized the site by subject areas instead. Much of the text is taken from the e-mails Ilana wrote and sent home during the journey; forgive us if it seems incomplete at times.

We have selected 277 of the 386 pictures taken during the trip. The images on the web site are "snapshot" format, about 1/4th the size of the originals. If you have a particular favorite, we can send an original by email.

Let us know what you think, and enjoy the tour. Click on the "Take the Tour" link in the upper-left corner of this page or any of the destination links below to get started.