La Speranza Hotel Casciana Terme

... and limited to pastry or pizza at 5pm, but I found Brasserie La Loggia near the station that had a full menu all day.
Walked in to order a pasta and was amazed and delighted that they also had a display case full of Belgian, German, Dutch and other quality beers.
Had a La Trappe with my bolognese. Even though it's made in the Netherlands it was still a good tripel.
Was ready to go after that but ...

... Tuscan landscape. I took a picture every day of the same scenery because every day it brought a smile to my face no matter how tired or irritated I felt. At the end of the olive trees sat an authentic Tuscan scene of a white house with red shingled roof and fence of cyprus trees. In the distance the town of Pienza could be made out seated atop the mountain top with one stone tower pointing off the top. Half the time I ran my rake through the branches ...

... for most of the journey.

After getting back to Florence and walking from the train station back to the hotel, we felt a little better (fresh air?). We got back to our room around 4:00pm and just relaxed for several hours, reading, snoozing, going online. I finally started feeling hungry later afternoon, but not Murray! Around 7:30pm, we felt well enough to take a long walk around our neighborhood. We found another great ...

... mais apres presque 900 ans, elle est toujours la. dans le meme espace, il y a la cathedrale et un autre batiment , tous ca, en marbre blanc. En dehors de cette attraction, pise possede encore une bonne partie de ces fortification. si non, c'est une ville etudiante, avec 3 universites,donc il y a quand meme pas mal de vie

... whatever we wanted from that room... This was at 3pm too, not like we arrived at some weird hour.
The "dorm" was just an apartment with 6 beds in 1 room, a kitchen and 4 beds in the room joined to the kitchen with no door between - check out the photos on facebook.
Glad we booked the cheaper 6 bed dorm and not the more expensive 4 bed!!!
Found out later that day they have another "dorm" downstairs with a 6 bed room and a double bed in ...

We are finally home and it is actually Nov. 20th. We finally got in last night around midnight and could not download anything for the last several days because WiFi is too advanced for the small town we were in. It was the most relaxing of all the ...

... for a few weeks whilst i went back to work
Belgium to pick up batteries from my dad as the originals were shagged
Luxembourg
Swizterland
Italy
Lake Maggiore (most expensive)
Cremona
Cecina Tuscany where we parked up again whilst i worked

... neat. We weren't sure if it was because of the upcoming holiday on Monday, or if it is an every weekend thing. We then came back, did some homework, and rested until it was time to call people. We were so sore from walking so much in the past couple of days. We were very excited to have a full night sleep since we won't have to go to the school tomorrow, our classes are in the hotel because of the holiday (the school is closed)

... by itself, so we went for a walk around the whole complex and admired the complicated marble facades and columns, and of course the tower itself. It was packed with tourists, so we got right into the spirit and took some cheesy photos of us 'holding up the tower', along with about 50 other camera-toting tourists at the same time! It really was amazing actually being there, though, and our ...

... my aunt, met up with him. As soon as the hospital figured out what was going on, he was rushed in an ambulance to another hospital, which was equipped to operate. Marina told me on Saturday that the doctors weren't sure he'd even make it to the hospital. Luckily, he did and, when he arrived the hospital was ready for him and there was an open operating room. He stayed in the hospital for a couple of days and is now back home. He quit smoking, and ...