Dei Quadri Apartments Pisa

... a browse through their beer selection and as I was doing so the waitress extolled the virtues of the Aventinus Eisbock.
She said it was a 12% beer that still had a Belgian fruity quality but with the 12% kick.
Had to give it a go and after half a glass on top of the 9% tripel I just had before am really feeling that kick as I write this!!!
Lucky she gave me some bread and crisps to go with the beer...

... netting sheet around the base of the tree like a Christmas tree skirt but much larger. Then I was handed a small plastic rake the size of my hand and shown how to run it through the branches to release the olives from the branches. The sky hung in a gray blanket over our heads as we raked our way through the trees. In order to get the ones off the top of the tree we had to set up a latter. Mira enjoyed using the latter so I let her work on the top of ...

... 8217;ai chi-like tourist photos for us, though…). Afterward, we stopped at small sidewalk café for hot tea for both of us (you know Murray is sick when he foregoes beer for tea!), with a view of the tower right in front of us. I also ate some dry biscuits, which seemed to do alright. (Too bad – no "pizza in Pisa" for us, which I have pictures of doing from when I was here with my family several years ago!)

After ...

partie tot ce matin pour faire les 4.5 heures de train entre milan et pise, nous avons traverser plusieurs petit tunel. le paysage de la toscanne est beaucoup moins plat que ce que nous avons vue du nord-est de l'italie.

une fois nos bagage depose a l'auberge, on est partie vers la fameuse tour de pise. effectivemnt, elle ...

... kitchen.I went down later that eveing to chat to the people staying there and marvel at the double bed inthe kitchen.

Really quiet in the off saeason with a lot of places noteven bothering to open or open reduced hours.

Was sitting outside the only bar in RioMaggore and Jess who I shared a dorm room with in Salzburg walked past. Turns out she's staying in the same dodgy room as me again!

Was lucky there was a bunch of good people ...

... t have time to dig deeply into the centre of the city as it is quite astonishing, it almost converges into a circle at the centre of this quant town but I wanted to be back in Florence before dark to walk back to my hostel alone, regardless, it was a beautiful day, a lovely place to visit and if I could I would definitely go back!

The Adventures of Tuscany/Florence will continue, I am here until Wednesday and have much to accomplish!

Cheers,
Benita

... know, shocking foundation work. That evening I had a nice wander around the tower and surrounding area, it looks lovely all lit up, but I was exhausted so I headed back to go to sleep. Error, it turns out it was 'Pisa day', or something of that ilk and I missed, although heard, a large firework display and thousands of lanterns being floated down the river, damn.


I learnt about the lanterns the following day from Niek and Sanna, a like minded couple of ...

... the rain. Even in the rain Lucca was as wonderful as I had remembered it. I was only sorry that we could not stay longer, but that night was our last on the Oosterdam and we still had a train and two buses to catch! Later that evening back on the ship, I stayed up late in the library to finish a book I had started on the first day. The storey had been set entirely in Argentina, but as a strange coincidence, the prologue ended in Lucca just ...

... bay, house luxurious hotels, and chic boutiques whilst the harbour plays host to some seriously expensive luxury yachts. Amongst the expensive little shops there were plenty of souvenir shops and lovely little eateries around the port. From Portofino we got onto the highway and went through tunnels and bridges through the hilly to mountainous areas of Northern Italy. Some mountains had the remains of last ...

... a Shakespeare package deal [new blogees please see early posts for some context for that joke - long time blogees please nod in recognition of the reference]. So why did we rush off from Pisa for Carrara? What's there? Well, you know all of those marble statues we've been seeing in Florence? (Could I ask a fourth question in a row? Yes.) The marble blocks they were carved out of came from the Carrara marble mines. We really wanted to ...