Crystal Montecatini Terme

On our way north, from Rome, towards the Italian Riviera we made just a slight detour to Pisa to see the famous Torre Pendente (leaning tower). We're here to tell you, it is in fact leaning and we weren't interested in climbing to the top to see if we could get it to lean any more (and trust us, with the amount of pasta, vino, formaggio, etc. combined with the large amounts of tourists at the top of this structure... you never know). But ...

Pisa

woke up to pouring rain again so lucky we had a good look at the views the afternoon before… but made a tricky drive down in rain then onto Autostade.. Very fast but pouring rain to start with… finned up as we neared the coast… made it to Pisa… drove in traffic and down one way streets.. Mainly the right way we ...

... B we had booked… it was a restored castle on top of the hills in Tuscany… after much winding roads on what appeared to be a single road to nowhere we found it and it was worth the effort…..we sat on to of the hill looking at olive groves and the hills beyond.. Magnificent…. Dinner was a Florentine steak.. Yes just one steak between 4 of us.. The biggest T-bone in the world… amazingly tender .. View from top of mountain great….

... the southern most of the five towns. As soon as I got there it felt unique. Narrow alleys full of stairs leading in every direction, obviously helping me get lost on the way to the hostel. Luckily for me a cute old Italian lady poked her head out of her door and directed me, in Italian, which way to go. I didn’t understand a word she said, but it got me to where I was going.

The hostel that had been ...

... too, and it really contributed to the experience. We also toured the Pitti Palace and stumbled upon some famous art we didn't even know was there. Among the cheap wine and free food, we learnt cool facts about this medieval place and the ruling of the Medici family. Also, (we didn't go into any) but Florence most likey has the best shoe shopping in the world. And a shoe museum. Just saying......Italy was off to a sweet start.

Now.. your Rome update!

Jus and Mur

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 ...

... like left and left like right)and found a fantastic restaurant that didn't charge like a wounded bull and we had our first (can you believe it) pasta dishes. The bolognese and olive oil & garlic sauces were yummy, yummy, yummy. The service was polite and the toilets were free AND fully equipped with paper (yes toilet paper) handtowels, soap and they were clean YAY. We're here until next Tuesday when we'll be off to Venice....stay tuned for more adventures. Ciao for now!

... famous statue in the world, David by Michelangelo. I'm not a very artistic person, and at times, i'm not even sure what i should be looking for when I'm looking at a masterpiece. But David was different. It's common to be disappointed when seeing something that's been overexposed but the sculpture was every bit impressive as advertised, even to my novice eyes. Sculpture is cut out from a single marble stone and it is 17 feet ...

Hi there, Two days in Firenze (Florence) are already over and we are leaving in the morning for Venice (2.75hrs by train). It is a little further than our trip here to Florence from Rome, but i am sure it will be ok. Florence has been fun. Yesterday Mum and I spent most of the day getting orientated around the city and we had a look at a few of the sites before spltting up so i could do my usual run around with the camera for a couple ...

... her friend at the restaurant. I mean this girl is amazing. Albergo Paola. Stay here! Free net, cleanest hostel ever, good location, awesome girl running it. This is the place to stay. The day I checked in, I dropped my bags and within seconds, she had whipped out a map, cirlced all the churches and museums to see, supermarkets,, laundry, and the best gelato place in Florence. She was amazing. I was going to stay another night, but I am pretty much done with Florence. Not thrilled with it ...