day five in tuscany brought us a nice day again.  we decided in the morning to head to an outlet mall to have a look around.  it was a pretty surreal experience, right next to a small italian town theres a huge complex of outdoor malls, filled to the brim with what looked like asian tourists.  not only that, each store had someone working there who spoke mandarin. here i took my first photo of the day, i liked the reflection in the water. [flickr…

The next morning after florence, we find ourself with an overcast day at the villa. but this allowed for some beautiful photos of the countryside. [flickr id=”8897805063″ thumbnail=”large” overlay=”false” size=”large” group=”” align=”none”] [flickr id=”8897806189″ thumbnail=”large” overlay=”false” size=”large” group=”” align=”none”] [flickr id=”8898424422″ thumbnail=”large” overlay=”false” size=”large” group=”” align=”none”] and the view of cortona on the hill side was phenomenal. [flickr id=”8897808659″ thumbnail=”large” overlay=”false” size=”large” group=”” align=”none”] so the plan for this day was to drive to Siena, and spend the day there.  so off we went, in…

So last week our we had our first house guests here in tel aviv.  our friends Alana and Jin arrived from vancouver a week ago today.  they are staying with us here in tel aviv for a week, going to jerusalem, petra and eilat for 5 days, and then back with us for a final week. its interesting now that i have been here for 5 months, to tour someone around as your home.  they were very excited to stay with us, because you get…