Hotel Park Regina Lucca

... 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 ...

... one was also closed, but there were no hours on the doors. Tara had said that she wanted to go bike riding but this time on her own bike which she handled quite well and we rode twice around the wall then walked back to the playground which the girls had seen everytime we rode around the town. On the way home we decided to look for a ...

... and then coming back to Riomaggiore station, walking through the tunnel to the town for a quick look, then went back to catch the trains home. What was amazing between La Spezia and Viareggio was the mountains where they quarry the Carrera marble and the large blocks of marble that lay in the yards. Both of the railway stations, despite being fairly grotty, had subways lined with marble as well as marble seats. We arrived home fairly late and were all tired.

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>

... and also what looked like a whole boned roasted pig which they just cut slices through. It wasn't even refrigerated. We then went to hire bikes and ride around the wall. Tara wasn&#8217;t too keen on it, so her and Greg went tandem. It was lots of fun and we managed to go around twice which was 6 km. We walked through the city, getting a gelato as usual and window shopped (many of the shops were closed for siesta ...

... line up for the tower climb (were only allowed to take up cameras and umbrellas. They only let up small groups at a time, but there are people coming down while you are going up. The stairs are narrow and well worn marble, so seemed slippery from wet feet. There were a couple of spots where you could come out to see the view (near the bells) and then we reached the top where we thought our umbrellas might blow away. Greg was ...

... Polenta! I thought that would be it, but it was soon followed by rabbit in a nice tomato and olive sauce. Amazing! I&#8217;d last had rabbit in 1984 at Maria Pia&#8217;s house; I&#8217;d thought at first that I was eating a cornish hen until a visit to the Pinocchio Park at Collodi revealed to me that &#8220;coniglio&#8221; was Italian for RABBIT. And then cheese and fruit and bread and biscuits and coffee&#8230;<br ...

... Renaissance), that effectively introduced the ideas and activities of much of the modern world as we know it, after nearly 1000 years of not incredibly much happening, at least in the sphere of arts, mathematics, engineering, construction, etc. The paintings and sculptures in the various palazzos are just mind-boggling in their beauty - when you see the real sculpture of David by Michelangelo close up it is so much better than you can imagine, so smooth and tactile, and the ...

What exactly can I say about Cinque Terre? I only spent two days here but I am so glad I saw such a beautiful part of Italy. Cinque Terre is a National Park on the northwest coast of Italy and is made up of five small villages located right on the water. I spent a whole day hiking the 12km trail that follows the coast and visiting each of the villages. I started in Riomaggiore, the southernmost village, and stopped for gelati in Corniglia, lunch in Vernazza and a ...

... an hour or so, we were heading from the base of the mountains back toward the Lucca-Pescia road, when we stumbled upon a beautiful medieval village on the flats. Just a long wall of cottages with a little chappel at the end of what appeared to be a dead end. This is what is known as a "court". In the late middle ages when all this swampland was reclaimed, the houses were built in a neat rows, rather than around a central piaza. We stopped to check the map, rolled forward ...