Quite interesting that I watched the seasons end of Alias season five yesterday, and once more the series played in Italy (since the whole series involves researching the works of a fictive ancient Italian researcher the story was set in Italy quite often). But this time the film makers got a blatant error into their script. The mountain scene visited in Umbria was set on a big glacier. None of the mountains in Umbria is high enough to have even a little glacier..

The city of Camerino is on the top of one of the mountains at an altitude of about 660m. The town once provided home for a pope and is university town since the 14th century. Walking through the narrow streets of that town there were indeed a lot of students and pupils on the road. It was a bit like walking through the old town of Bamberg, but the other way around. This time I was the alien trying to get pictures of all those nice sights, were all the other people were “just” living there.

Dinner: Pizza Rustica – Profiteroles

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Sights at 08:27 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The weather was a real dream – blue skies, temperatures above 25°C – only the relatively cold water at the swimming pool was a little annoying. Anyway, it was the perfect day to be lazy and to enjoy the sun. I managed to finish reading Gabor Steingart’s recent book, and was busy preparing some blog-postings.

Dinner: Spaghetti a la carbonara – Pizza funghi porcini - Profiteroles

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Travel at 08:24 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Although we’ve been on holiday in Tuscany quite a view times, there are still a few spots we hadn’t visited yet - one of those was the city of Todi. Unluckily I’m a little too tired atm to give a detailed write up. But have a look at Wikipedia’s description here. or at my pictures here!

Dinner: Tortellini Freschi Panna e prosciutto – Pizza Ricca - Profiteroles

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Sights at 10:33 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

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)

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)