Chapters
My husband and I took a three-week trip to Northern Italy in the fall of 2000. We spent our first week in various hotels, primarily in Tuscany, getting acclimatized to the style and pace of Italian life. Our second week we spent in a rented farmhouse near Lucca, our third week in a villa we rented on a Piemonte hillside that overlooked a tiny town called Cessole.

Though much of our visit was plagued by rain -- including major flooding during our week in Cessole -- we still saw enough sunny days, ate enough fantastic food, and enjoyed enough spectacular architecture and scenery that we are already dreaming of our next vacation to this beautiful country.

Our story begins in Bergamo

See Military brass bands in Bergamo

Check out Siena

More of Siena

Devil's Bridge, was a medieval architectural wonder.

We spend our second week in Barga

See more of Barga

High in the hills above our rented farmhouse stood the ancient village of Sommocolonia

On a drive through the mountains above Barga, we found a fortress

We visited Lucca, which was about 45 minutes drive from our Barga farmmouse, three times that week.

Our third week we spent in Cessole, an even more rural setting in the Piemonte region of Italy.

Among the things we discovered near Cessole was an old monastery that was undergoing restoration.

Aqui Terme was the closest city.

We also visited Alba

And Savona

Ever wondered about the the facilities in Italy?

After three weeks of traveling, we were ready to go home.