BnB photos

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Thanks all to making this years BnB a great success.  It was an amazing day of eating, drinking, and even sledding. 

The beer that was brewed will be available for consumption in 3 weeks.  I'll keep you posted.

On tap is Minted, and Tis the Saison. Next up on 12/20 will be Whiteout: A White IPA

Until then,

Sip Well my Friends,

D

 

 

We are now home and glad to be back.  A bit jet lagged but feel good.  We had an unforgettable honeymoon filled with many new experiences, foods, cities, cultures, and so on.  Thank you all very much for all your love and support throughout the entire wedding-honeymoon.

Ciao,
David and Connie Chaffee

5/8 traveling home

Well. An amazing trip had to have one flaw. Our last flight got delayed and we missed our connecting flight to SD. So, the honeymoon continues in lovely Detroit! Yep. Shacking up at the best western in Detroit Michigan.

5/7 Tuscany Tour

A great day to end the trip! We took another tour out under the Tuscan sun. We visited Siena, San Gimignano, Tuscan farmhouse, and Pisa

1. Connie at the medieval city of San Gimignano
2. Connie shopping at Maria's
3. Connie holding up the leaning tower of Pisa

Florence 5/6

Our last day on Florence! We have had such a great time in Florence. Tomorrow we will get on a bus and head up to Pisa, for our last night.
Today we took it easy, went shopping, took naps and had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Zio Gigi.
All three pics are of Connie and the duomo. It is such a great site.
Ciao

5/5 cinque terre

Today was a rough one. We were up earlier today for our long day tour to cinque terre. 8 am our bus left and the rain came.
It took us nearly 2.5 hours to get to the national park, and it was raining harder.
Most everyone was a bit discouraged, since yesterday it was 80 degrees. So everyone bought ponchos and hit the cities.
We made the best of it and ended up seeing all five cities and even got a boat ride. Unfortunately we weren't able to walk any if the trails due to weather. But, we still got a great experience and appreciation for the area.
We finally arrived back at Florence at 8:30pm tired and hungry. So we scarfed down pizza and wine, and are calling it night
Tomorrow we finally have a free day. We planing sleeping in, doing done last bit of shopping, and gearing up for Pisa the following day.

Chianti Tour part II

1. Lamborghini. Yep, they first started making trackers before cars.
2. The house where Mona Lisa lived
3. Wild Boar. I ate you!
4. American memorial. So peaceful and beautiful!

Chianti tour part I

Another amazing day in the Florence sunshine. Here are some pics from our tour. BTW, our guide, Alessandro is single and loves American women.

1. Baby olives soon to be pressed to olive oil in November.
2. A picture of two good looking Americans in San Gimignano
3. Crazy butcher. Best meal of the trip!!!

Florence for Foodies Tour

These are some pics from our first lovely day in Florence. We arrived in Florence at. 8am from our overnight train. We then rushed to our foodies tour. Over 5 hours we sampled Florence's best foods; espresso, pasteries, wine, meats , cheeses, vinegar, olive oil, truffle, gelato, and more

1. D holding up sign for gathering
2. Espresso drizzled with chocolate. Much needed after a sleepless train ride
3. Best gelato in town. We sampled 7 of 20 flavors. Mmm pistachio
4. Our tour ending at a wine bar.
I forgot to mention. I tried a veal sandwich which was superb. And even wild boar. Mmmm salami.

Chianti Tour Part II

1. Dinning at the crazy butcher. He runs a butcher shop selling meats but from 12-3 daily you can eat here. Menu has 3 options. The food is simple, but fresh and absolutely delicious.
2. Connie enjoying espresso after eating, what we think is the best tiramisu we've tasted.
3. Alley way in a castle where Da Vinchi painted the Mona Lisa
4. American memorial of 4,000 men that died in Italy during WWII

Chianti Tour part I

I just had one of, if not, the best tour of my young life. Connie and I met our guide, Alessandro, for a 8 hour tour of chianti region.
We saw panoramic views of Florence, San gimignano, Tuscan countryside, and more. We went to wineries, ate at "the crazy butcher" for lunch, had the best Italian food, tiramisu, espresso, we went to the castle where the Mona Lisa was painted, and went to the American WWII memorial. OMG!!!

1. Connie and I above Florence to start the tour. Florence has a population of 400,000.
2. Connie and our guide, Alessandro, with San Gimignano in the background.
3. Connie and I on a farm in chianti country
4. Aging balsamic vinegar. As you can see, there are bigger barrels on one end and smaller on the other. The vinegar starts in the big barrel 50 liters, then every 5 years gets transferred until it finishes in the 20 liter barrel. The total aging is 25-30 years. A 4 ounce bottle costs roughly $80-100.

5/3 Beaune and Florence

Yesterday, 5/2, we spent the entire day traveling around the vineyards and valley of Beaune. We were taken to old churches, castles, and the land. Their undo much culture and history behind the Bourgogne people.
After the tour, we began our trek to Florence. We took an overnight train from Dijon, lasting close to 10 hours. It was both our first time on an overnighter. All in all it wasn't to bad more roomier than an airplane but still could never get quite rested.
We arrived in Florence at 8 am to sunshine! Our first real sunny warm day the entire trip. We immediately ditched our luggage and joined our tour at 9.
Our tour included eating around Florence. For 5 hours we snacked on amazing meats,cheeses, bread, espresso, gelato, wine, olive oils and more. We were amazed how much we really ate and learned about Florence. We also got a good hour in to see the David!!!! This is my second time viewing this masterpiece. It still blows my mind. Absolutely amazing. It's almost 17 feet high and over 500 years old. Just awesome.
Tonight we will lie low and rest up for our wine tour tomorrow with Alessandro.
1. Wine tasting in Beaune with Jean Louise.
2. Florence market
3.Connie at Florence market with purchased goods

5/1 Beaune

1. A small beautiful park filled with ducks, green grass, and trees.
2. Entrance to the town
3. Beaune's version of a California burrito; yum
4. Old grape press at Joseph Drouhin cellars.

5/1 Beaune

Beautiful Beaune! This is outside our bedroom window.
Today is starting if great. Vincent, our house guide, brought us breakfast in bed. Wow! Honeymoon style! Bold coffee, Nutella croissants, yogurt, cheese and salami. Yum!

France...

France= amazing!! From the city to the countryside... Learned about the history of the Eiffel Tower and Henry the 14-16th... Started our day traveling from Paris to Beaune a town south of Paris... Beaune is more countryside... They have amazing wine and the B&B we r staying in has an Amazing wine cellar with a hot tub which we will be experiencing tomorrow!! We visited the hospice de dieu, an old hospital that nuns ran from donations!! They were the nurses, cooks, pharmacists, you name it They did it all...

1. Dave and I on top of Eiffel Tower!!
2. Saw our co-worker nicki in Paris!! What a small world!!
3. Nurses kitchen at the hospice de Dieu..
4.&5. On our walk back to our B&B...