Hotel Miro 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

... Chrissy and I drooling over everything, but unable to buy much. It was okay with us though, it was a great experience to see it all... I have to dedicate a little portion of this blog to this AMAZINGLY delicious thing I have discovered here, and have pretty much vowed to eat everyday that I am here in Italy... I have totally, and completely fallen in love with Italian Gelati. HA. Anyone close to me knows how big my sweet tooth is (and I mean BIG ...

It has been far too long and we have seen so much since my last entry. We've covered a lot of ground from Gimmelwald to Naples and I will do my best to summarize it. I will split it up into two entries. As far as our final days in Gimmelwald go: we hiked up a Mountain and saw the alps, and the world for that matter, from a whole different perspective. I am a mountain man. I want to live in the mountains. Every step we took up was the highest i had ever been. I felt so ...

From Siena, via San Gimignano, another cute little walled citadel more popular with visitors than locals, we headed off to the spa town of Montecatini Terme where we had arranged our own little Tuscan villa. A very relaxing four days driving around, having a swim, walks, reading, eating. Nomes thought the scenic route was necessarily at times which lead to our ...

I really don't know how to tell you all about Florence. Abosolutely amazing!! My favorite city so far. There is a certain atmosphere here --of history and art. You can just sit and soak the city in because everywhere there is beautiful architecture, beautifully painted arches and incredible food. We did a walking tour of the city in the morning, seeing the church where Machieavelli and many other famous people are buried (I'd tell you who but I didn't bring ...

... Here are my favorites. Love the Duomo at night. There are always dozens of artists around entertaining the crowd and it's just a great place to relax, have a glass of wine and watch people. During the day, climb the stairs to the top of the bell tower to see Firenze from above and definitely see the cupola with its dramatic drawings of heaven and hell. Talking about dramatic ...