Tour d'Italia: The Prologue

36 hours and counting... and trust me, I'm counting. Not the hours until I'm on a relaxing, cultural and culinary adventure commenting to the locals things like "Ciao!" and "Bonjourno!" No, I'm counting the hours I have for the press release I have to write and countless emails I have to send at work, the prescription I have to pick up, the sink I have to wipe down and the clothes I have to pack. I'm sure you're thinking the same thing a collegue said: "you'll get no sympathy."

With that in mind, here's an overlook of our Tour d'Italia, stage-by-stage:

We start our adventure this Saturday and land on Sunday after a 16 hour flight to Rome, with a layover in Heathrow. I'm oddly excited about flying in a plane that has the gigantic word "Virgin" splayed across its side.

We secured a hotel in Rome, Hotel in Parione, that got great reviews online, and is located near the Piazza Navona, right near all the columns and marble and Roman fancy stuff. We'll likely go see the Vatican as well as search out Rome's Jewish ghetto to learn if Italian + Jewish = a pastrami pizza or just a very guilt-dispensing Virgin Mother. I can hear it now: "Jesus, you never caawwwl me."

On Wednesday, the 6th, we head to Tuscany to ride our bikes around the hill towns in the southeast of the Tuscan region: San Savino, Cortona (where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed), Montalcino, and Montepulciano. We'll be on a self-guided cycling tour and will ride from hotel to hotel while our tour operator will move our luggage around. The plan here? Ride, wine, ride, wine. Probably in that order.

After we cycle away our worries, and our calories, in Tuscany, we head for the southon Wednesday the 13th. No, not the Amalfi coast, land of money, riches, and tourists. We're setting our sites on the region of Puglia, supposidly the undiscovered "Tuscany of the South" where the shore is rough and the locals knowledge of English even rougher. Here I plan to learn how much raw seafood I can eat before my cholesterol breaks 300 and Isaias will disover whether Italians can understand "mas cerveza por favor" as easily as "vino locale, per favore."

And then, on Tuesday the 19th it's back to Rome, and then home to the States, the email and the co-workers, and I'm sure all of you lending absolutely no sympathy. But in the meantime, this is one Bella who will be putting the chow in Ciao Bella!

Be sure and check back here for pictures and stories.