The Worleys

Here are some photos of the villa. Seven bedrooms, eight full baths and large living and dining ares. The villa was built in 1797 and re-furbished about 12 years ago by a family from Boston, Massachusetts. It was beautifully furnished and offered tremendous views from several of the rooms, especially the main dining area. The lanscaping was spectacular.

Overlooking the villiage of Bagni de Lucca which was the little town nearest our villa. We had several memorable visits to Bagni and learned a little of the culture of rural Tuscany. And the pizza was outstanding!

This fellow has three passions in life...Italian cooking, George W. Bush and Leah Worley. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the US and President Bush in particular and was very pleased that Pat and Leah (especially) returned to his charming little restorante in Florence. However, he still did not comp our lunch! We had a great time and very much enjoyed his hospitality.

This is our Roman guide, Gionni Musala. He started our tour in a park overlooking old Rome. What a guy!

Our trip has come to an end! We have eaten wonderful Italian food. We didn't have time to go to Hard Rock Cafe. So where did we end up eating lunch before we got on the plane? You guessed it -- McDonald's. The French Fries were actually better than ours. The menu was a little different, they did offer some Italian things, too. And Coke Light from a fountain! We loved Rome. We didn't get to see it all -- time and my ability to walk for long limited us. It is a beautiful city. The Trevi fountain was beautiful at night. We both dutifully threw our coins into the fountain -- who knows? It may work! Our entire trip to Italy was so wonderful. We want to do it again. We had the best of both worlds -- a wonderful time with family in Tuscany, and a romantic second honeymoon alone in Rome. Bravo Italia! Judi and Mike

Our tour of the Vatican included attending the Papal Audience, which is held each Wednesday. Our tour guide told us to get very close to the walls around the seating area, which we did. We were able to get a pretty good picture of the Pope as he rode by on his way to the podium to give everyone a blessing. That's Mike's head in the foreground. He hoisted me up on a chair for a better view.

We actually walked to the coliseum! Something everyone should do. We managed to get a English speaking tour guide, and really enjoyed learning about the place. When we finished there, we finished up by walking up to Palatine Hill for another tour, and then a trip to the Forum. Lots and lots of walking that day. On our way out of the Forum towards our hotel, we found the Prison where they kept the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter in chains. Very small place. Now there are steps down to where the prisoners were, but then they dropped them through a hole.

Our hotel was newly remodeled. But you would not know that by the elevator we used to get there. The hotel was only one floor, only 11 rooms, and family owned. We would stay there again. We felt like we were in an old time movie every time we used the elevator.

We have now arrived in the Rome part of our trip. Rusty and Patsy dropped us at the train station in Pisa. We had a nice train trip. Our hotel was close to Termini station, so we grabbed our suitcases and started walking. As we were reading the directions to the hotel, it became clear that the printer had shaved off the right side of the directions! And there weren't any street signs -- you had to read the street names on the buildings. We had a nice walking tour of central Rome before running into two other lost Americans with baggage in tow and a better map. We were only one or two streets off. After checking in, we decided to find the church. We had better directions for this. Turned out to be quite easy. The next morning we began our first day in Roma by worshipping with Romans. Such friendly brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a small church, as you can see in the pictures. We took the picture of the worship area as we were leaving. Surprisingly, we got a lot out...

All the bedrooms in the villa were wonderful. One had an added room with a small kitchen, another had a large walk in shower, another was on the same floor as the kitchen and dining room. The downstairs was like its own home. There were 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, plus a living room. Our bedroom was downstairs. It, too, was unique. We had angels watching over us as we slept. We also had a patio that lead to the front yard. Judi and Mike

The Villa came with everything you could want or need. It even came with a dog. He loved us. We brought him treats and gave him left-overs. This dog was so friendly! So the guys gave him a name -- "Fromaggio" Here you see John taking a break from cooking steaks to get in a picture with the dog.

Another amazing thing -- you have to pay to use a shopping cart in the grocery store! This one cost 2 Euros. Since there were 8 of us, we just all picked up a free handbasket when we went in the store. We didn't find out until later that when you returned the cart and hooked it up, you got your money back!

The first word I learned on arrival to Italy was "uscita" for exit. A while later I noticed these signs of a little man running. It took me awhile to connect the two, even though they were many times posted together. Must be a blonde thing. When I first saw them, I thought they were directions to the restroom. Every time Pat or John disappeared to go the restroom, it seemed like they were heading in the direction in which the sign pointed. So I called it "The Running Man". It wasn't until later I learned the true meaning.

Just one last view of our favorite gathering place -- the dining room. The big window here is the one you saw earlier with all of us looking out. Favorite memories of this trip naturally occurred here. We ate good food! It was so nice to come home and eat a home cooked meal. Rusty and Patsy made some wonderful Risotto, we had fish, we had steaks, we had pasta and pizza. And of course a few Italian desserts.

It was really interesting to finally see the tower up close! I don't know why I thought I needed to take a picture, though! There was also a street market. If I am not mistaken, Rusty ended up buying a watch -- but I only got a picture of Pat looking at watches! Pat didn't buy one!

I have probablly misspelled this name, but it represents 5 coastal cities in Italy. In this first picture, we are all setting out for a 30 minute walk from one city to the next. It was a beautiful walk and I don't have pictures that would do justice to the area. Just a shot down one of the main streets. Everywhere you go in Italy you see laundry hanging out! There was a cafe on our path as well. But this pic is just to show you the area.

One of the highlights of the trip was our chef! She is pictured serving in the last picture. She was absolutely the greatest cook! She prepared a three course meal for us. What is pictured is just the appetizer course! Every course was that much food! And of course it was all topped off with Tiramisou. The food was beyond description. I would do it again!

How many Worleys does it take to lock the villa door? Depends on how long it takes us to find the right key!

As you know, I was recovering from an achilles tendon injury. Just for fun -- thought you would like to see some of the views I got during this trip! I was always in back! Not that everyone didn't take their turn keeping me company. This is such a great family! No one minded slowing down for me! Judi

You can't be a good tourist unless you eat! And we all loved finding spots to eat. This restaurant experience was quite exciting. We all pull up into this small strip shopping center to eat at the restaurant in the picture. Some of us are already in the restaurant getting seats. As the rest of us got out of our cars, suddenly we were being invaded by the police! It looked like a raid was about to happen. There were at least 12 Italian Tax police heading for the same restaurant! Turned out they were just stopping for lunch at the same restaurant. We girls had our picture made with the restaurant owner. He was a lot of fun.

Who knew we were near the Pinocchio park? These are the statues of Geppeto and Pinocchio outside the park. We did some shopping, but did not actually go in the park. The thing that sticks in my memory most about this place, was the toilet in the cafe. We stopped and had expresso and a roll. We decided we might should use the restroom before we left. Oh, my. This experience kept me from drinking very much the rest of the trip! The toilet was in the floor!

Our first shopping expedition was probably to the local grocery store. Here we are picking our cheese and fruit and crackers, etc , for our first night in the Villa. The grocery stores in Italy were a little different. They had boxes of gloves for you to wear to pick out your vegetables and fruit. That sounds pretty sanitary, but I noticed the boxes all had the gloves coming out fingers first! All the checkers actally sat down to do their jobs -- we could learn something there! And they charged you for you bags! Our first meal was great! Rusty, Patsy, Mike, and Judi shopped together, Pat, Leah, John, Patty shopped at a different location, and no one duplicated anything! If you travel with us, you EAT GOOD!

Wherever we went, we could always count on Leah to point us in the right direction and provide us with the correct phrase in Italian.

We loved this place! Good food and good times. The family that runs this place treated us like we were great friends. We enjoyed pizza, pasta, calzones,etc. -- but being together was the best part.