Grand Hotel And La Pace, A Leading Hotels Of The World 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 ...

... writing. It was pretty one sided through the game, with the field seeming to be sloped towards the Russian goal. The final score was Spain 3 - Russia 0. The music from the next hotel over was incredibly loud tonight. Dad actually went down to the front desk to talk to the owner about moving us to a different room. Apparently the police can not be called until midnight. Thing about this is that the waiting staff begins their work in our hotel right below our room at around 6:30 in the ...

... wine, so the chianti wine tasting was a bit lost on us. The scenery was beautiful, and we were treated to a long tuscan sunset over the vineyard. This evening we arrived in Florence. After a spaghetti dinner in a restaurant we and our fellow Contikians headed to a karaoke club, "The red garter". Bernie and Jess stayed away from the microphone, but enjoyed grappa and a few cocktails during happy hour.

... darn tired, so I went craaaaazy that night and did my laundry...woooooooooOOO! You can't tie me down, that's for sure....cricket, cricket. Alright, moving right along..... Yesterday I met this guy from DC and, though he had already done everything I was planning on doing in the day the day before, we decided to meet back up at the hostel that night. I must say, I really don't mind going around by myself knowing that I'll be with ...

... busy, too many dodgy people, not overly friendly, but that is just my experience. The weather was **** too so that never helps, but another time I could have had a totally different experience. Not entirely sure what or where I am going tomorrow. Think I am on a train at 7:30am, but who knows. It better not rain, because I have a great plan that would be the perfect end to this trip, but I am not set on it as rain would screw it up so we shall see. That's pretty much it from Florence, so Ciao for now!