Viva Italia!

Tomorrow we leave for our first ever Italian holiday! Considering Italy is one our neighbors while we live in Switzerland, it's about time we get down there. Kirk has been to Rome once or twice for meetings (while we were still living in DC), but I really haven't spent anytime there. Actually, I did spend a couple days in Naples when I was 21 during my study abroad semester in Vienna, but it was such an awful experience that I try to forget about it and often deny (aka lie) ever having been to Italy. We will be spending the week exploring Tuscany and Umbria. We're driving down there, and we've been told that having your own car is the best way to travel through the region since so many of the towns are not connected by train. We're planning to stay in Parma (home of Parma ham and Parmesan cheese) tomorrow night on our way down to Castellina in Chianti, where we'll stay for the next 4 nights. We'll use that as our base for exploring Tuscany, and then spend the remainder of the week in Spoleto, which is further south in Umbria. It all looks incredible so I have no doubt we'll have an amazing time. What could be better than good Italian food, lots of wine, and gelato! Kirk has even promised me that he will not be taking his laptop along, so it truly will be vacation for him as well.