Crystal Montecatini Terme

Kim had taken her grandma to Lucca last November and had fallen in love with the place. <br><br>We found a park not far from the city walls and then headed in for a look. We came across a chocolate festival in one of the piazzas and sampled a few beforw buying a hot cocolate drink...literally hot chocolate in a cup. It made me feel a bit sick.<br><br>Walking Lucca is like a big ...

... through that particular medium. In addition to sculpture, the City's architecture also reached back to try and capture the spirit and skill of the ancients. The Duomo was the first dome of its kind built in 1000 years, and Brunellechi studied Rome's Pantheon in preparation for his crowning achievement. <br><br>In addition to providing us with a great tour of the Uffizi, Rick Steves also put together a fantastic walking tour of the ...

... wasn't lettuce, it looked like a salad of roots!) but it was great to try it out. (Puntarelle at Giggetto)<br><br> Our train ride to Florence was only an hour and half and incredibly picturesque. It was great to enter the countryside after being in the hub of three major cities. It reinforced our love of small towns and it's **awesome** to be in this region. After arriving in Florence, we picked up our rental car and maneuvered our way through ...

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>

... on the next hill. Drove all around the countryside (which I hate to say is much bigger and impressive than Napa). Wine is so cheap and good but unfortunately the majority of grapes had just been picked. Also ventured into Florence for two days of sightseeing. This is one place that is as magnificent as tpublished pictures!

We went to Florence today, and I knew that taking the car would be a challenge. I am used to the city, I know it pretty well, but I mostly know the center of the city and how to get around on foot and by bus. There is a lot of directional knowledge that you need to have in order to navigate Florence well, and one of those is knowing before you turn which roads are one way and where the two way streets turn into one way streets. This got us mixed up a couple times. Once we got into the ...

... know spicy." It was damn good. Like I said, the two other guys had a fish and pasta dish, while we cooked something else entirely for the girls. Afterwards Danielle, a girl in my Italian class (actually, that made it a total of five people in the apartment in Tomaso's class), stopped by to see the place. I had invited her earlier and promptly forgotten because I am an airhead. We showed her the apartment in all its glory, then decided to head to the Duomo. Not only ...

... We then checked out the Ponte Veccio- a covered bridge where all the goldsmiths are. Bernie wanted to buy many of the pretty things. We then headed back to our meeting place and had our group photo taken in front of the copy of the David (You know Michelangelo's one). We then did a walking tour around the city and saw the Ponte Veccio again (Armani's house, as in where he actually lives, is on the edge of it). They were setting up a golf tee on the bridge as all the rich people play ...

... One of the train staff said we should jump on a train leaving now because it ran through Mestre, the train station we needed, otherwise we wouldn't make it (all the time using direction with the little english he spoke). The conductor of the train almost wouldn't let us on, telling us it was leaving while it was still there...after a minute he let us on. We were able to make our train with a few minutes to spare. That was a close call. Upon ...

... the right way. It was so damp and muggy outside and starting to cloud over. I was not in the hiking mood. This was taking way too long. So indeed I was heading the right way, I just needed to go further, at least another kilometer in fact. Who knows distances. Up, up and down looping streets of this hill to this Piazzele that I was starting to think was a figment of the Florence tourist board's imagination. Eventually I came across a bus and loads of typical tourists, so I figured I must have ...