As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
As we got closer to Artimino, the guides stopped talking because they said they knew we wouldn’t listen anyway. Why? Well, we were about to climb what Tina called the “Tower of Tuscany.” Let me tell you, this was a bit scary. Narrow, winding roads on the edge of a cliff with hairpin turns are tough enough to navigate, but in a huge charter bus? Frightening! But as I said before, Giuseppe was an expert driver. I got a few pictures, but they don’t really convey the harrowing experience.
As we approached the blind curves (yikes! ), Giuseppe would honk his horn to let people know a ginormous bus was approaching. There were a few times when everyone on the bus was like “whoa” but no close calls at all. And believe me, every single one of us was watching the road the whole time! Well, most of the time, anyway.
When I was able to peel my eyes off the road, the scenery was spectacular!
To our relief, we arrived safely at our home for the next three nights, the Hotel Paggeria Medicea. It used to be one of the homes of the Medici family. The big villa is used for events, while the stables are where the hotel rooms are. There are also apartments up the hill in what is probably considered the main part of town. These days, everything – the villa, the vineyard, the apartments, practically the entire little town – is owned by the same person. I think there are only 28 rooms in our little villa, and they’re all a little different. Anyway, before we got to our rooms, we climbed off the bus for some snacks.
The guides gave us our room assignments and keys. This is an old hotel and still has honest-to-goodness keys, attached to huge, honkin’ key rings. They do this to encourage you to leave the key at the front desk when you leave the hotel. However, I was lucky enough to get a key with a little tiny key ring, so I stuck it in my pocket. Also, when I wasn’t physically leaving the hotel, I didn’t lock the room. And others confessed that they sometimes left their rooms unlocked as well. There weren’t many guests at the hotel, and our group made up at least half of it anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.
I quite liked my room. It was a corner room on the second floor, overlooking the pool.
These doors opened at the corner – you would push back each half door
I had a pretty nice view out my side window.
And in addition to the winery, it’s also an olive oil… ery. What do you call that anyway? The products in the bathroom had olive oil in them, which I thought was cool.
We were to meet the group at 6:30 in the courtyard (it was 5:30), so I had time to unpack and freshen up. Then I headed down to meet the group, getting a few pictures of the lounge, which was next to my room.
Once everyone had arrived, we climbed aboard the bus and took a very short (but slightly harrowing) bus ride up the hill. Then we arrived at our restaurant, where we’d be having a pre-dinner wine tasting.
The main villa, which I heard has the nickname 100 Chimneys
You can see the chimneys, but I can’t count 100
We met Alberto, who gave us the wine tasting demo. We got to try a rose and a red. They do make a white wine, but we didn’t try that one.
They were both good, but I liked the red better. They also had some cheese, bread and OLIVES for us.
Hooo-wee, those were delicious! I’m tempted to say they were the best olives I’ve ever had. You can’t really tell from the photo how big they were either. Sooooooo good. I still think of them often. And sigh. And drool a little. In addition to all the grape vines, there are tons of olive trees everywhere in town. It wasn’t the season for it, so there weren’t olives on the trees at the time, but man, were those some gooooooood olives. Plump, firm, perfect. It almost makes me not like olives anymore, because they won’t measure up. Did I mention how good they were? Anyway, the wine tasting was a lot of fun.
I’m bummed this photo is blurry because it’s so cute
Then we sat down for dinner. The conversation was great, as was the food.
This was chocolate mousse (and tasty)
Tomorrow was a day at the villa, so we didn’t have to meet until 11:00 for our pasta-making class (though breakfast began at 7:30, and we could go any time we wanted). There was a group going to Pisa, and I was tempted to join them, but then we were offered a chance to tour the winery, so I decided not to take the long ride (and that’ll give me an excuse to return to Italy – I am seriously considering doing the other Italy ABD, which includes a visit to Pisa).
After dinner when the sun went down, it got a bit chilly, so I decided to take the bus back rather than walk. About half the group walked back. I wanted to do some stargazing, so when we got to the villa, I put on a jacket and grabbed my camera.
Infinity pools are my fav!
It got a bit too chilly, though, so I figured I’d do my stargazing the next night. It was a late morning tomorrow, but I still turned in fairly early (our days in Rome had been very busy and I was pretty tired).
Up Next: Who knew that would be my favorite?
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I love the hotel and grounds! For some reason, when I heard you'd be in Tuscany for 3 days I pictured a hotel in Florence. This is nice, though, after just being in the center of Rome. I really wanted to pluck an olive out of the screen-- those look wonderful, and I do love a good olive! Did they have a shop selling the olive oil and olives?
( I wish they'd hurry up and release the 2012 ABD itineraries!)
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Tuscany looks BEAUTIFUL! I'm a country girl by nature and looks like I would love it! I'm afraid if I went there I would be like Jessica Lange in "Under the Tuscan Sun" and just buy a place and never come back! The olives, the wine . . . oooh. Can't wait to hear/read more!
Even now my DH wants to go to Italy. He's terrified of the loooong flight over the big blue, but he really wants to go to Italy!!! And can I just say these are the most delicious looking potatoes I've ever seen!
Not to mention the dessert. Oh my.......
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
What a lovely little place. The food looked good. Funny though, I just went to a wine tasting last night as part of a week long Buy Local celebration that our office is participating in. We did a tour of the winery as well, although, ours is just a small winery in our County. But, it was nice and a good change. I'm not much of a wine drinker (I like my drinks fruity flavored) but I did find a nice white desert wine that would go awesome with that chocolate mousse!
Wine tasting in Italy...you can't beat that!!!!
Italian olives are the best kind. One of my friends turned me onto these. They sell that at the supermarket. Probably not the same ones from there but Italian none the less.
Can't wait for more!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 31,940
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 2
Likes (Received): 7
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 1
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
The wine tasting sounded fun - and the olives looked WONDERFUL (I adore olives) - dinner sounded great too. I love your photo with the sunset and the pool.... dreamy.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
Let me tell you, this was a bit scary. Narrow, winding roads on the edge of a cliff with hairpin turns are tough enough to navigate, but in a huge charter bus? Frightening! 
But as I said before, Giuseppe was an expert driver. I got a few pictures, but they don’t really convey the harrowing experience.
The products in the bathroom had olive oil in them, which I thought was cool.
I’m tempted to say they were the best olives I’ve ever had. You can’t really tell from the photo how big they were either. Sooooooo good. I still think of them often. And sigh. And drool a little. 
Anyway, the wine tasting was a lot of fun.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Not to mention the dessert. Oh my.......
My normal everyday computer routine!
PassPorter Guide Author
I love the hotel and the grounds - beautiful. 
Our 3 princesses LOVE the RED SOX!!!!
Holly: 
Melanie
Linear Mode
