We spent a week in Italy in mid-October this year. This was our first trip out of Pakistan for this school year. We stayed at a place called Il Roseto (the little rose) in Tuscany near a town called Grosseto. Alonda didn’t do it a lot, but she enjoyed sitting in the rose garden.
The place is a farm with a couple of renovated buildings with guest rooms. There are a lot of these (http://en.agriturismo.com/index.asp). We would recommend this as a very relaxing holiday. Only reservation is that it is very much a summer activity. The house had no heat! Most of the restaurants were closed in the evening. The season was over!
The countryside reminded Jim of where he grew up in Kansas.
We rented a car and drove around Tuscany. The day we went to Pisa (first stop, of course!), it was raining. We had no city map, so we drove around looking for a leaning tower. Italy has a serious lack of tourist signs! We finally stopped for directions and found out we were on the wrong side of the river.
When we got there, the sun was shining under the clouds and the light quality was absolutely amazing!
They actually let people go up the bell tower. Jim wouldn’t have gone up if you paid him!
This is a detail on one of the bronze doors cast in the year 1180. The Duomo (cathedral) isn’t all that old; it burned down several times.!
This picture is from inside the church. The light quality was wonderful!
The next day, we went out to look at Tuscan hill towns. This one is Volterra.
This is looking back down to where we drove up. The hills aren’t as green as most of Italy. They have been mining alabaster here for thousands of years. 
This is San Gimiagno. It is considered the most famous of the Tuscany hill towns because of the towers over the red tile roofs.
This is the front of the Duomo in Sienna. This is an example of a great Gothic style cathedral. The library was really special, but impossible to take pictures of. Sienna is considered one of the prettiest of these smaller towns in Tuscany.
Our last day in Tuscany was spent on the coast. We tried to go to the Isle of Elba (Napoleon was exiled there), but no ferry were running. We don’t know how you get there if you live on the island! The tourist season was definitely over. This town was Follonica.
Piombino was where the ferry was supposed to leave, but there weren’t any. This is a bell tower in the middle of town.
We went back to the beach near our agriturismo place for sunset. Wonderful sunset!
We caught the train in the morning and went to Rome. We checked in to the hotel and walked over to the Trevi Fountain. Alonda got an excellent picture of it. It is hard to photograph a lot of stuff in Rome because buildings have been built all around the antiquities. Lots of tourists and you can’t back up because you will bonk into a building.
Next morning we did the Vatican (“the smallest country in the world with the largest church in the world”). This is San Pietro across the square. Since the tourist season was mostly over and it was starting to get cold, the crowds weren’t too bad.
This is one of the many clocks we photographed. One time around Seattle on the Clock Tour and you start taking clock pictures
This is looking out from the entrance to San Pietro. Jim kept complaining about the crowds. He was here 35 years ago and remembers no lines, no entry fees, and no crowds in San Pietro or the Sistine Chapel.
To get through to the Sistine Chapel, they now run the lines through the Vatican Museums. Wonderful museums if you have the time to look at them. It is silly to try to take pictures of the Chapel. If you want to look at it; buy the professional shots.
Jim in front of the Pantheon. Inside was beautiful, but Jim remembers being almost ALONE in it 35 years ago.
The “Wedding Cake”. This name was given by the American GI’s arriving in 1944. It is really the “Palazzo delle Esposizioni”.
You can’t visit Rome without seeing the Collosseum! We greatly enjoyed Italy. Food was great and the sights were beautiful. Good place to vacation!
