Fratelli Minutillo in Italia

(What, Again?)

Robert and Maryann Minutillo of Washington, D.C. and Richard Minutillo and Dorothy Nestor of Roslindale MA spent several days in early October touring Italy. Starting in Lazio, there was a brief stopover in Umbria on the way to Tuscany, and a last couple of days in mostly Emilia-Romagna.

Bob and Maryann started a couple of days ahead, attending an important family / religious festival in Castel d'Alvito, before meeting Richard and Dorothy in Rome on the 27th of September.

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No Flash!

This was a somewhat ill-fated trip as far as photography goes. Richard was using his new ultra miniature Pentax Optio S4, which was very convenient, but which also produced a lot of blurred images because the little thing was hard to keep still. Dorothy's trusty Elph 370Z APS camera failed about 9 days into the trip, and she had to switch first to a single use 35mm camera and, eventually, to the digital, while Richard reverted to the rather poor still capability of his video camera. And the videos... Well, there's no postcard this trip. Never got around to it.

For simplicity's sake I've grouped the photos, digital and scanned, by city, and used standard software to create rather simple albums, to which I may someday add some commentary. All of the 'full size' digitals are actually somewhat reduced in size and JPEG compression, even when not actually cropped, to help prevent download fatigue. The scans of Dorothy's photos are scanned to a viewable resolution. Some of the digitals are from my brother, so naturally, they're bigger.

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Qui mangiamo tropo!

Again there will be detailed menu information courtesy of Maryann. Suffice to say that we ate more than the last time, but we couldn't help ourselves!

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Here are some highlights of the various photos. The page is more or less continuouly under revision, until the DVD comes out.

Castel D'Alvito - September 24 - 26 2004

Leominster celebtates the saint's centennial.

Rome - September 27 - 29 2004

We stayed at the Hotel Forum, which is exactly where the name implies. Breakfast in the open-air rooftop restaurant, and days wandering through history. Good food in Lazio...

Orvieto - September 30 2004

Missed this little town in 2002, made it in 2004, our only stop in Umbria.

Siena - September 30 - October 1 2004

Villa Scacciapensieri in the hills to the Northwest of Siena provided a luxurious two days of rest and comfort. (The peacocks are pets...)

San Gimignano - October 2, 2004

A vital stop on the way to Lucca and on the path through Chianti country.

Lucca - October 2 - 6, 2004

Home base for five nights at Palazzo Alexander. Very pleasant, even though Dorothy's camera failed during our stay there.

Florence - October 3 - 4 , 2004 (Daytrips)

Two day trips out of Lucca, one more successful than the other. Enough said. We did finally get to the Pazzi Chapel. And Il Francesca restaurant is still solid, even with new owners.

Parma - October 7 - 8, 2004

Finally the fratelli Minutillo arrive in Emilia-Romagna! How many time a day can you eat Parma ham? And we found what might be the best little street-side pizzaria yet.

Milan and Home - October 9 - 10, 2004

We flew out of Milan, and if it weren't for Dorothy's spectacular shots of the approach to Boston, there would be little good to remember about that.

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Other Trip Links:

The videos should work; we're still waiting on the menu.

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