Adua Hotel Montecatini Terme

... market (without the sampling) with lots of lovery deli's, cafe's and patisseries. Ofcourse we had to buy the local pastry called a buccellato which is kind of a cross between a biscuit and a fruit loaf... yummy with the morning coffee.<br><br>Before too long Kim pointed out her favorite bar from last time and pull me in to join her in a wine or 3. The tapas were as good as Kim had ...

... difference, so much so that Kate wondered why some of the lesser-known artists' work was even hung. (Kate: An insult I know and I'm sorry! I just couldn't help but wonder!) Similar to Siena, there was a ton of art dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who seems to be highly revered in Italian culture. The Uffizi also holds a tremendous number of sculptures and the Florentine artists paid tremendous homage to their Greek and Roman ...

... or die, the favors given to the masses that were imprinted with famous gladiator's names (we still do this today!) and the entire Colosseum, 50,000 people, could empty out of the structure in 15 minutes. (And the Latin word for that is where the word vomit came from. No joke.) <br><br>As we headed back toward our hotel to catch our afternoon train we...drumroll...were able to get that famous salad!! It was unlike anything I have ever had ...

Just realized those not on facebook haven't seen pictures from Pisa and Florence. No long recap of Anthony and I's weekend in Tuscany, for obvious reasons. Also note that "Anthony and Alison's Great Adventure" was like taking a knife.<br><br>Love you guys! :)<br>

Rented an apartment in a villa which was at the top of a mountain (like most villas in Tuscany), however, our journey to the top was not on a paved road which made for some challenging driving. The villa was really nice with its own pool and great view over the countryside. The owners also provided fabulous meals in their other ...

... to visit, but still drove me all the way for the low price of $94EU. The drive took about an hour. All I wanted to do was sleep. All he wanted to do was talk. I now know everything about the driver that I never wanted to know. He was nice enough, though, and offered to drive me to the airport next week, so I'll probably give him a call. I'll just make sure I'm fully rested this time around :) Hotel Tuscany Inn is quite a bit different ...

... he is the owner of the local wine shop owner) we talked to him for about 5 minutes. Today for art history we looked fresca paintings in two churches. We went into San Croce a huge church from the 1300's I think. The inside was beautiful Michelangelo is buried under the church along with 5 other well know Italian heroes and also other local historical figures. I was busy taking notes so I didn't get to take any pictures but we will go back to take ...

... decided to drive up to Piazzele de Michaelangelo. None of us had ever visited this part of Florence, but I had seen photos. The Piazzele de Michaelangelo is slightly outside the main part of Florence, and up on a hill near a residential area. The hill is beautiful - full of palatial turn of the century houses. Upon reaching the top, we had a breathtaking view of Florence down below. It was just about 4:15pm when we arrived, and the sun was just starting to set. We got ...

... graduate assistant. She's actually Italian and very helpful and cool. We walked so much yesterday, I thought I was going to die. Pretty much all of us went to bed early and this morning I felt much better. We went to San Lorenzo church, which is the family parish of the Medici's. It was probably one of the best churches we've been to, it was amazingly intricate and in full High Renaissance style. Increadible marble work, too ...

... taste of Italian rest stops where you line up to look at the food then pay then go back and order then collect it...or something like that. It made no sense but everyone got there food so that was good. We also visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Before we even got off the bus we were surrounded by a million Africans trying to sell umbrellas. The bus hadn't even stop but you get that. It continued for ...