Imperial Garden 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 ...

... Vecchio, the city provides a rich view into the splendorous birthplace of modern western culture. <br><br>We had our pal, Rick Steves, with us again today as we toured the Galeria Degli Uffizi, which houses the largest collection of Renaissance paintings in the world. It was incredible to see the difference in quality between the great artists of the time, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo, and the lesser-known artists. There was a ...

... was a full hour and nicely walked us through the entire structure. (Note to travelers: you can buy tickets to the Colosseum at the bottom of Palatine Hill and there isn't a line! It's a little secret!) The tidbits of knowledge Rick provided were fantastic: we saw the remnants of the elevators used to lower and raise set changes/people/animals on &amp; off the main floor, the thumbs up/down the crowds used to vote on whether someone should ...

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!

... t climb up this time... in fact we took pictures, ate a delicious lunch and headed off to Florence. Now we are here in this beautiful piece of heaven. Katharina, our friend from Switzerland, and her father joined us on Thursday. We have spent the day catching up on our lives (since we travelled together in Asia), swimming and resting. Right now I have to sign off because we are heading out to a local (open!) winery to see what the area has to offer. Such a life!

... After Versailles and the Habsburgs Summer Palace (both free gardens) we didn't figure 10 Euros was much of a bargain so we opted for a cappuccino instead before heading back to the hostel for a rest. We went out for a nice pasta meal before making our way down town to partake in a little bit of the Florence nightlife. We had fun just having a beer on the way before we finally found a place to go into and just our luck it was karaoke ...

... painted. They have their own wines and sell their own cookbooks. I just had to have their own Chianti Classico called Zaza and their special pizza also called Zaza. (Pizza was really good, by the way.) I think the mural next to my table was about two nuns cherissing each other, but you can decide by yourselves... Finally, I ended up finding the goth shop called Transfers on Via Nazionale again. The girl working there ...

... 55 pm. This train would take us from Cerbere to Nice! I believce we were on this one for just about 9 hours! It was a long ride to say the least but Becky and I slept most of the way! Lucky us this time we did not get on the wong part of the train and the train did not split in half taking us in the wrong direction. On that ride we met 4 gusy from florida that just graduated highschool! We arived in Nice at about 8 50 in th emorning! So first thing ...

... to get into these museums. We were treated to a beautiful and scenic walk along and across the Arno river. I was also able to walk across the Ponte Vecchio (one of the oldest bridges on the Arno) for the first time since coming to Florence. It was crowded and lined with jewelry shops and international tour groups, but I was able to squeeze past some tourists to soak in the picturesque view. At the end of the race, we were given free ...