Grand Hotel Plaza E Locanda Maggiore 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 ...

... was buzzing with a variety of languages and the overall atmosphere was jubilant and festive. Despite challenges with the "menu", it was a great way to end our visit to Italy. <br><br>We'll retrace our steps through Rome tomorrow and will wind up in London for the night before catching our flight back to San Francisco on Sunday. It was quite fitting to end our journey in Florence, where so much of our current culture emerged centuries ago. <br>

... I've seen images of it but I guess they faded from my memory because the inside is quite ornate. The dome alone is breath taking. Mass is still held at the Pantheon &amp; couples even get married here. I cannot imagine this location! :) <br><br>From the Pantheon, at about 11AM, we went to a gelato shop Chris M recommended. Mmmm, mmmm good. It was brisk outside and we had just had breakfast and we loved it even more. While enjoying these ...

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!

... a pleasant ride around the city on the wall, we headed into the city and I showed them around a little. I took them to the main church where the black Jesus that was used at the ceremony with the Pope to bless the crusaders before they headed to Jerusalem. After that, we headed back to the bike shop and, more importantly, the gelato shop that is right across the street. We walked to the city piazza, the oval shaped one that used to be an amphitheater, and then ...

... hook-em horns," and I said that no, it goes like this. They were basically saying F the Longhorns, and I realized that but when I motioned to them the correct way to do the sign they told me that it meant the devil here. That makes sense. When one of GW Bush's daughters was photographed making the sign there was an uproar because she was obviously a fan and supporter of everything Satanic. Some things here are screwy. I did ...

... Museums, the bridge of gold, David, etc etc. and returned home with a bounty of food and drink for the next few days. enough rations to tie me over for anything that could happen. now this bridge of gold that I keep talking about. I forget the name in Italian, but that is insignificant because, well because gold is all you need to know about it. originally, some several hundred years ago it had been a bridge of butchers. but its amazing ...

It's a good thing we went to Florence last or we would never have seen anything in Rome. Rome should be happy that they have so many ancient places to visit or they would lose all their tourism revenue to Florence! We went up by train for the day on the Eurostar train. The round trip ticket cost us E66 each, and the trip took about 1.5 hours one way. From our hotel in Rome it was easy to get to the train station, and we were able ...

... me it was some sort of military demo or something to that effect in Italian. So as I had about an hour, I decided just to hang around in the square and people watch. Now St. Mark's is definetely the place to people watch. There are a couple of little stands with guys selling bird feed for &euro;1 and you can never fail to find someone feeding the pigeons whenever you get there. Today was particularly amusing. There must be a good 500-1000 permanent pigeon residents in ...