The sign out front.  Guelfa Tower Inn.  So what is Guelph Tower?  I didn't know, so I looked it up on the internet.  It's a landmark in Pisa and I downloaded a picture.

See?  Gorgeous, isn't it?  But it isn't really very close to here.

I think the scenery around Relais Torre Guelfa is much nicer.

Chef Claudio runs a restaurant as well as a cooking school.

There it is, up there on the hill.

And here are Chef Claudio and his lovely wife Daniela.  They were just wonderful hosts, making Cindy and Bill feel right at home.

The pool is quiet and a little green this early in the season.  It's much too soon to swim or even eat outside.  Brrrr.

But even early in the season, Relais Torre Guelfa is a pleasant place.

The vineyards and the olive groves are just beginning to awaken.

The sun has peeked through the clouds at last. 

Even at the end of winter, the place looks great.

Cindy's room is in the building on the left, Bill's in the building on the right.

This is the main house.  The tarp with windows encloses a nice sitting area.

Cindy inspects Chef Claudio's vineyard.

There's more of it up there on the hill.  He doesn't make wine with his grapes -- that would be too expensive. He just sells his grapes to the local cooperative.

There's Figline Valdarno down below.  Beautiful.

This is the view from Bill's first bedroom.  He liked this room for its nice patio and view.

I mean, just look.  How nice is this?

But look at that bathtub.  Really, look closely.  It's half a tub, and there's no shower curtain.  Bill took one "shower" and began wondering how he'd ever make it.  Luckily, his bed collapsed and he had to move to another room.

This one at least had a stand up shower.  No curtain, exactly, but there was a drain in the floor of the bathroom and plenty of hot water and really, what more could he need?

He had a nice living room and a satellite TV.  A surprising number of stations were in Arabic.  Who would ever have guessed TV that caters to Middle Easterners would be so racy?

The view from the bedroom.

And here's Cindy's room.

Very nice, with a bed that didn't collapse.

But that TV.  Whoa.

Cindy's sink won the prize for the entire trip.

Chef Claudio's decorative sense seems to run to wine bottles.

Lots of wine bottles.

And Cuban rum.

There were occasional dinner parties in the restaurant while Bill and Cindy were there, but most of the time they had the place to themselves.  This was very early in the season.

Bill takes in the view.

Cindy took a hike down the hill to see the sights.

The winding country road that leads to Relais Torre Guelfa.

This place even has a waterfall.

Here are the lovely Daniela and her dog Theo.  That's Theo on the right.

Cindy likes Relais Torre Guelfa