Casa La Quercia Lucca

... and limited to pastry or pizza at 5pm, but I found Brasserie La Loggia near the station that had a full menu all day.
Walked in to order a pasta and was amazed and delighted that they also had a display case full of Belgian, German, Dutch and other quality beers.
Had a La Trappe with my bolognese. Even though it's made in the Netherlands it was still a good tripel.
Was ready to go after that but ...

... for most of the journey.

After getting back to Florence and walking from the train station back to the hotel, we felt a little better (fresh air?). We got back to our room around 4:00pm and just relaxed for several hours, reading, snoozing, going online. I finally started feeling hungry later afternoon, but not Murray! Around 7:30pm, we felt well enough to take a long walk around our neighborhood. We found another great ...

... mais apres presque 900 ans, elle est toujours la. dans le meme espace, il y a la cathedrale et un autre batiment , tous ca, en marbre blanc. En dehors de cette attraction, pise possede encore une bonne partie de ces fortification. si non, c'est une ville etudiante, avec 3 universites,donc il y a quand meme pas mal de vie

... whatever we wanted from that room... This was at 3pm too, not like we arrived at some weird hour.
The "dorm" was just an apartment with 6 beds in 1 room, a kitchen and 4 beds in the room joined to the kitchen with no door between - check out the photos on facebook.
Glad we booked the cheaper 6 bed dorm and not the more expensive 4 bed!!!
Found out later that day they have another "dorm" downstairs with a 6 bed room and a double bed in ...

... and I had a wonderful 50th. Everyone sang to me in the small restaurant. Thank you everyone for following us and keeping us close with your wonderful comments. To sign off I will say that.....
"There is nowhere like Home".
Love Mick and Lisa

Hi Everyone!

After the miserable week of midterms…

I celebrated a friend's birthday at a restaurant called Dantes. It caters to students, as there is no cover charge and a free drink included with the meal. I can honestly say the food was delicious. We had a large group so it was a lot of fun. I think the birthday girl, Davita also had a good time celebrating her 21st in ...

... We would likes that I has a table on the outsides, please."

So both of us were relieved when we crossed the Italian border. Neither of us speak a word of Italian, but this trip was to be the big debut of my father's first major attempt at language acquisition since college. About six months ago, Dad was inspired while looking at Italian properties online (my father treats real-estate websites much as a frat boy treats porn, including the ...

Here goes another one... Today we caught the train from Siena to Lucca. We had an hour stopoff in Empoli as we had to change trains. We decided to stop in Pisa which is on the way to check out the tower, a must-do in Italy! As luck would have it, we got one stop from Pisa and the train broke down so we had to wait for an hour <groan> We finally got there and walked for about 20 mins to the tower and church with the heavy packs. Took the obligatory photos ...

A one hour train ride gets you from Riomaggiore on the Cinque Terre to Santa Margherita Ligure. A 20 minute bus ride then gets you around the bend to Portofino. The colour of the water in this area is exquisite. It is basically an extension of the Cote d azure in France which means blue coast. It really is blue. I wish I had brought my bathers with me as Santa Margherita has a nice beach too. Portofino is the place where the rich like to play ...

... good but too sweet for me. George has a chocolate "sausage", like a long, hard chocolate cookie, which is the star of the desserts, and a good, but again, very sweet, creme anglais with dipping biscuits. The atmosphere in the restaurant is nice but a bit modern, with "artsy" paintings and strong lighting. Overall, it is a very enjoyable meal, with impeccable service and excellent food. April 1. A Little Bit of Nirvana We have a comfortable ride in our reserved seats ...