La Pia Montecatini Terme

... market (without the sampling) with lots of lovery deli's, cafe's and patisseries. Ofcourse we had to buy the local pastry called a buccellato which is kind of a cross between a biscuit and a fruit loaf... yummy with the morning coffee.<br><br>Before too long Kim pointed out her favorite bar from last time and pull me in to join her in a wine or 3. The tapas were as good as Kim had ...

... difference, so much so that Kate wondered why some of the lesser-known artists' work was even hung. (Kate: An insult I know and I'm sorry! I just couldn't help but wonder!) Similar to Siena, there was a ton of art dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who seems to be highly revered in Italian culture. The Uffizi also holds a tremendous number of sculptures and the Florentine artists paid tremendous homage to their Greek and Roman ...

... or die, the favors given to the masses that were imprinted with famous gladiator's names (we still do this today!) and the entire Colosseum, 50,000 people, could empty out of the structure in 15 minutes. (And the Latin word for that is where the word vomit came from. No joke.) <br><br>As we headed back toward our hotel to catch our afternoon train we...drumroll...were able to get that famous salad!! It was unlike anything I have ever had ...

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>

Rented an apartment in a villa which was at the top of a mountain (like most villas in Tuscany), however, our journey to the top was not on a paved road which made for some challenging driving. The villa was really nice with its own pool and great view over the countryside. The owners also provided fabulous meals in their other ...

... food all day so I check in and walk around and the only open place is a restaurant blaring out bachata music.  Behold, a dominican restaurant in Italy filled with dominicans, colombians and 1 cuban (the cuban is the man in charge, by the way).  So, problem solved. Cinque Terre is the Big Sur (Cali) of Italy, except you do the route on foot.  Its magnificent scenery as you hike up and down a trail that goes through 5 villages that are between sea ...

... and the place was full with a tour group of young people. After not too long the tour group cleared out, we had a couple more beers, a slice of late night pizza and then found our way back home. Today we did a day trip out to Sienna. Sienna is a small medieval city not too far from Florence that is famous for the annual Il Palio (horse race). Each neighbourhood (something like 12 or 15 of them) has a horse and they race 3 times around ...

... very nice, but then again, we are both members of the same underground culture tribe... For my surprise she told me that of course they have boots of my size there, why would they not? Well, they never have my size in Finland, but I guess there are more women with small feet here. Good for me! After some trying I managed to find a pair of knee-high platforms that felt just perfect to my feet. I love the boots, but wasn't ...

... did was grab some breakfast! Next we had to catch ou train to Milan! So from Nice to Milan the journey was about 5 or 6 hours! We sat in a compartment that made me and becky automoatically think of Harry Potter! We thought we had the whole compartment to ourselves, well we were sadly mistaken. We had 4 Italians in our compartment so we had no idea what they were saying! It was like wow could i have a map to that sentence please? Finally we arrive ...

... of water and fruit. Unfortunately, I heard later from my other friends that I had missed out on some free gelato and free biscotti. It was a good thing that the race was early in the morning because later on in the afternoon it started to pour. I was able to take advantage of the rainy day though and gained access into the Duomo without having to wait in a line stretching around the block. It was absolutely breathtaking in the ...