On Monday the next bigger town with some decent supermarkets was our target to restore our almost empty food and vine supplies and to watch out for some local products. We first headed for the big Coop supermarket, which is part of a small shopping mall in Sinalunga. There we got almost everything we needed, but then our curiosity made us visiting the local branch of Lidl. Guess what – about half of the products are about the same… Even the pricing of the goods was similar – that’s globalisation in its pure form.

Dinner: soup – sausages – dark chocolate

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Travel at 21:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Throughout Tuscany there is quite a number of monasteries. Years ago we had already been visiting the Abbazia but unluckily it was closed at that occasion. This year we gave it a second try. And this time we had more luck and the Abbazai was open, so we had the chance to have a look at the museum. Have a look at my pictures here!

Dinner: Antipasto della casa – Pizza rustica - Profiteroles

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Sights at 10:18 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Friday night 11:58pm it was done

• the car fully packed
• house and farm secured
• seating order inside the car figured out
• root planning and who drives when figured out.

We were on out way to Italy!

I had to pack my stuff in two instances, since I didn’t have all the necessary goods in Bamberg, but it was not to complicated for me since I don’t need too much stuff on such a holiday: Some adequate clothing, photo camera, my notebook computer and something to read. Not too big requirements. But since the lens of my camera is still broken I had to borrow some replacement. Luckily Jochen helped out and lent me his EF-28-135mm IS. Books to read I had organized the day before, notebook and external hard disk to deal with some media during my holidays I had packed in Bamberg, so I only had to complete my clothing in Truppach.

I had the honour to drive the first part of the about 1000km to Acquaviva/Siena in the southern Tuscany. My father’s BMW X5 is a nice car, but driving on the highway I’d have somehow preferred my limousine. Manual gear shift, less noise while driving and a better holding on bends are my arguments in favour of my car. But I guess complaining about this is just nit-picking because I’m not used to the X5, and I’ve been driving my 5-series for about 5 years… traditionally we didn’t take the Brenner Highway, but the old mountain pass, but I made it down to Sterzing in a decent time. There we had a two hours break, before my father took us down the remaining distance. On the way down there we had a remarkable incident with our BMW navigation system. Between Bologna and Modena it received a traffic Jam through it’s TMC and wanted us to drive some 200(!)km detour. We didn’t listen to its recommendation – and at the end there was no jam at all!

Arriving shortly between 12am we immediately got our flat, and could relax there after a strenuous journey. Later that day we shortly visited Montepulciano to buy some stuff at the local supermarket, and at the end of the day we had a very delicious dinner at the L’Angolo restaurant in Acquaviva.

Dinner: Spaghetti a la carbonara – Pizza L’Angolo - Profiteroles

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Travel at 17:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

…ocean breezes and the sky’s so blue. I won’t be at the seaside on Tuscany, but I’m hoping for blue skies Tonight I’ll be off for that holiday with my parents. So tonight around 10pm we are goign to saddle my fathers car and start for Tuscany! Don’t know, when I’ll have internet access down there, but guess WLAN isn’t a complete new concept for Italians!

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Daily Life at 17:02 | Comments (6) | Trackback (1)

The next highlight this year will be the holiday with my parents in Italy. Once more we will explore the beauties of Tuscany. Two years ago we have spent a really great week in September. Although it made me miss a lot of the actions related to our nude calendar. This year we will stay at the beautiful Borgo delle More from the 16.9.-23.9.. Preparing myself for this event I finally sorted through the pictures I took in 2004 and they are now available here.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Travel at 11:55 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (2)

Guess, you have already noticed, that there is a new logo on the left column of my blog. The European Vlogger-scene is planning a get together conference this autumn in Milan/Italy. Purpose of this event is to promote vlogging. I think vlogging is a real powerful chance for self expression; it’s just more than writing a blog entry or doing a podcast. If you want to get in touch with some of the European vlogging scene this conference might be the place to be. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to make it to Milan, but I’m very interested! Anyone want to join me for a short holiday to Italy?
(Speaking about vlogging: I already gathered material for a first vlog covering the blogger-cup – but unluckily I’m a little too inexperienced too get a fast result out of this raw material..)

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Lost and Found at 12:16 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

When Germany won the worldcup in 1990 Italy was host to the games and achieved the third place. This year it can be the other way around...

Edit 09.07.06: As predicted... Italy made it.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Lost and Found at 13:53 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)