Grand San Marco Pisa

... for our walk through the walled village. There is a 14th century fort with make up part of the walls. Today it is used as a prison - your not supposed to take photos of it, but I snapped a couple off before I knew... luckily I was not spotted by the local polizi. The town was cute for sure but I'm not sure it deservered all the accolades given to it by other travellers we had met in Lucca. Having said that we did take more photos than usual.

... and we stayed until we were ready to retire for the evening.<br><br>Sat 14 Nov<br>Next day we had a sleep-in and then went for a run around the 4km city walls. Twice around was enough for Kim and I managed a 3rd. After a shower we were back in town for more meandering and I had one of the best Cupuccio's (Capuccino) ever!! We found a few hours during siesta to catch up with the ...

... confusing. Not only is there no rhyme or reason to the convergence of seven wacky streets at a time, but they are all tiny too! In one such street, we had to duck into a niche carved into the side of the building so a car could pass. It was great to wander a space that is filled with buildings that have been there for centuries, and we again marveled at the construction of these enormous structures without the aid of modern technology. While strolling, we came ...

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>

... br><br>Its a bloody treck to the town though and we had been shopping early thankfully to get some food in so that I can cook breakfast and stuff as its really in the sticks here. The place that we went to was lovely we all had some tasty pasta and pizza then we went back on the treck to the room it was just really nice to spend some time with Dan all we did was lie in bed and chat and stuff it was cute.

I have resolved to try and keep this blog more up-to-date.<br>So much has happened since late July that i wont even start writing it down, but to summarise our drive as follows:<br>Arcachon<br>Bordeaux<br>Flo rac (Ardeche)<br>Montpellier where the family ...

... couple who were a retired doctor from Hong Kong and his Australia nurse wife. They were so cute and sweet and lots of laughs. Ugo was great with the walks because apart from the historical information of the area, he had cultural and architectural information and also the local flora and fauna. So we wandered down a well and less well trodden path in the countryside, stopping to admire the hazy sunny hills and little dilapidated brick houses, then ending (a LONG time later) at ...

... in Florence quick enough, but had trouble at the ticket purchasing machine.  Finally got our tickets, and now the scary part, which is our train (we did not want to end up back in Rome)  It really wasn't that hard, but we were always a bit uneasy as we pulled away from the stations.  Lucca was very unique.  The walls are at least 30 yards thick, so getting into the city was the first challenge.  We had a nice lunch and did some shopping (we ...

... warned Boo that it would be long, hot and hard but I probably should have been paying closer attention to the warnings myself. Because of a vision defect, I have really poor depth perception, so the leaning staircase made me very uncomfortable. Plus, there are almost no windows on the way up. About halfwayup I started feeling really claustrophobic and wasn't sure I was going to make it, but just ...

... unconsciously say what everyone else says: "Wow, it really DOES lean!" There were street vendors and some stalls selling souvenirs of ...