L'Antica Sosta Castelfiorentino

... much to the delight of Ryan and Mitchell who were searching out the alley ways for where Bond made his escape).

Day 3

Trip to Pisa to view the leaning tower, walked the streets intrigued again at all the different buildings and ate delicious spaghetti bolognaise at a typical Italiano Restaurante.

Day4 and 5

Visited village towns of San Gimignano, Volterra, Montepulciano. We also raced across the Tuscan countryside for an ...

Good Morning!
Everybody's vote for favorite city has been Siena....overall. Great parking, a fantastic dome, a terrific plaza, and the most spectacular view of Tuscany. From the top of of a dome building, we could see miles and miles.
Lucca was great because we were able to enjoy it in the daylight this time.....with good maps, we were able to get in ...

... Pistoria.. Tried to find a shop open to buy beer (not stubbies) as cans are huge…and tissues for runny nose etc… seemed like an easy task but it is a very old town.. Very narrow streets.. A Sunday and nothing open… but we did see a bit of the town… some bits more than once as we went round and round and round… anyway found that there was a shop open in next town Monsummano… got supplies and then tried to find the B& ...

... to me was pretty cool. My dorm was just a two room apartment, with 11 beds. My bed was basically in the kitchen. It was cozy and I liked it, impossible not to make friends in a place like that. And the Australians were back in full force.

My first night I went out for dinner with a few people from the hostel and had what I think is the first full fish dinner of my life. Full fish meaning head included, looking ...

... 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

... and hung there for a while in the sun where it was actually warm. (The wind today was quite cold.) We went across the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge that has a bunch of shops on it. They were mostly jewelery shops. From there we went to the Santa Croce church which had a nice big Plaza in front of it which we found out was where the first Florence soccer game was played and where the Medici's used to have their duels. We had to pay 3 euro a person to get into ...

... hot... I am shattered... everyone is sweating, red and short of breath but the view was worth it. They show little concern for safety, a thin rail around 3 feet off the ground is all that guides you... not too comforting as the lean pushes you forward in spots, and I have a well know desire to jump when I am on anything high. I resist the urge and we look over Pisa and the Campo Santo, Baptistery and the cathedral. It has surprised us both how impressive this compo is, the ...

... that some of my photos are disappointingly dull. So from this point on, I think I will take less building photos and some more action photos. I will see if I can get Veronique number 2 to email me the photo of Mitchell and I gallantly scaling an orange tree in Rome. All for naught, because the orange was so grossly worm-infested that the girls we proudly presented it to couldn't even eat it. But pictures like that are infinitely more satisfying than just another ...

... the Castle on the top of the hill but it was fenced off, as usual doing restoration work on it, like every big thing we have wanted to see on our trip. So with that we took off to the next town towards Sienna. Certaldo was a lovely typical Italian town, It had a large medievel village above the normal town. It is the tourist area of the town. We took a funicular (tram) 300m up the hill to it, we couldn't be bothered walking. I did ...

... to each other. The place is very cool. There is a bar, grocery, Internet, and a hang out area. The only thing that sucks is that there are no lights in the tent and no toilet paper in the toilets! For dinner, we ate at Michaelangelo's Pizza. We got pizza and a drink for €7. After that, I got some ice cream. It was soooo good! So, now we are back at the camp grounds, enjoying our night and relaxing for our day on the town tomorrow!