Wonderful! Grazie!

Big sigh for Italy. Again, super report, wayfinder45.

Wayfinder, Grazie Mille!

And I am so jealous of DD1. If I had known then what I know now....sigh.

Oh well, too soon old too late smart.

I will definitely be reading your report again with notebook and pen in hand.

CindyP

Thank you again, wayfinder, for sharing your family trip in Italy with us. I so enjoyed your trip report. And best wishes to your daughter. I knew a couple whose daughter also studied in Siena and she had a fantastic time.

Thank You so much for yuor wonderful trip report, I'm so sorry to see it end. Hope your daughter has a wonderful study trip and that you and the rest of your family will be off on a new adventure soon.

Thanks for your great trip report, and I hope your daughter has a wonderful experience in Siena.

Third, it doesn’t seem quite fair, but the one family member who did not throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, will be the first to go back to Italy. DD1 decided to apply for that semester abroad in Siena and snagged the last spot! She’ll be studying for three months at the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci beginning in September. She’ll have intensive Italian language lessons five days a week and her other courses include “Art and Spirituality: Treasures of Florence and Siena,” “Saints and Sinners in Medieval/Renaissance Siena” and a Music History class that will include many concerts at the Palazzo Chigi Saracini. How cool is that!>>

very cool indeed.

if she wants a taste of what MAY be to come, you could click on my screen name and send my trip report from my week at a language school in Italy to her.

the language school in Siena was highly recommended to me when i was trying to decide which one to pick, so I'm sure she'll have a great time.

Wonderful to reread the whole trip, doubly so gazing over the Bay of Naples at Vesuvio on a perfect late spring afternoon.

wayfinder45 - what a fantastic, evocative report that I've just found here after a few months' break from fodors.com. Thanks for the hat tip to our December 2010 Florence trip report.

Our family's trips together, like yours, are among our most cherished memories. Keep a copy so your daughters -- and their kids -- can read many years from now and smile about the great Italian holiday family trip they took way back in 2010/11.

Write a book about a family traveling to Italy. It will be a best seller. I have read others, your stories are better because they also provide solutions...
While we were in Monte San Savino (Arezzo in Tuscany), we deceided to drive to Florence. It was an hour trip on A1. We parked at the Ikea store right outside of the town and crossed the street (the bus stop is on the same side as Ikea, but across the street). Parking was free all day. The bus gave us insight into Florence neighborhoods. The bus stop is across the street from the train station. Ask where bus stop #27 picks up. (check the number)
The next time we wanted to go to Florence, we drove to Arezzo from Monte San Savino and took the train. It stopped so many times, that it took longer to. Much more relaxing though.

topping his marvelous trip report!

THIS marvelous trip report