Introduction

Foresteria Il Giardino di Fontarronco

Many of you know that last February and March we did back to back cruises from Sydney to Auckland and Auckland to Honolulu.  While on board, we met some wonderful new friends and had the opportunity to book a trip for this year on the Celebrity's brand new ship, Equinox. And to make it even better, so did several of our new friends.  Then we had a brilliant idea - as long as we had to fly to Rome to board the ship, why not book at week in Arezzo at a lovely Agritourismo (working farm with accommodations) that we had been dreaming of booking for several years - see picture above.  We, of course, shared our idea with some friends...  The outcome?  Ten of us will be flying into Rome from many different places, staying overnight at a hotel near the Rome airport, doing a Rome at Night tour and leaving the next morning for a week in Arezzo.  We will then go to Civitavecchia and board the Equinox to begin the following itinerary:

Day	Location	Arrival	Departure
Thursday, November 5, 2009	Rome (civitavecchia), Italy	--	06:00 PM
Friday, November 6, 2009	Provence(marseilles), France	11:00 AM	08:00 PM
Saturday, November 7, 2009	Barcelona, Spain	08:00 AM	06:00 PM
Sunday, November 8, 2009	Palma De Mallorca, Spain	07:00 AM	02:00 PM
Monday, November 9, 2009	Cartagena, Spain	07:00 AM	06:00 PM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Wednesday, November 11, 2009	Lanzarote, Canary Islands	12:00 PM	08:00 PM
Thursday, November 12, 2009	Tenerife, Canary Islands	07:00 AM	05:00 PM
Friday, November 13, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Saturday, November 14, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Sunday, November 15, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Monday, November 16, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Tuesday, November 17, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Wednesday, November 18, 2009	At Sea	--	--
Thursday, November 19, 2009	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	07:00 AM	--

We've been in touch with our fellow travelers on and off for the past 18 months and are now getting serious about our plans for our time in Tuscany.
So, it seems like a good time to begin this blog so that you can not only vicariously enjoy our trip, but, also, know about the plans that we're making.  AND if you have been to this part of Italy and want to share places you've enjoyed in Tuscany, like restaurants/wineries, which are high on our wish list, and 'must dos' while we're there, I invite you to post them on the comment section of the blog to help us with our planning.
We will be leaving in about 7 weeks.  I will NOT be posting every day during the planning stages :) but will post as often as the Internet is available while we're away.  Hope you enjoy our experiences - we know we will!