Royal Palace 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 ...

... through that particular medium. In addition to sculpture, the City's architecture also reached back to try and capture the spirit and skill of the ancients. The Duomo was the first dome of its kind built in 1000 years, and Brunellechi studied Rome's Pantheon in preparation for his crowning achievement. <br><br>In addition to providing us with a great tour of the Uffizi, Rick Steves also put together a fantastic walking tour of the ...

... wasn't lettuce, it looked like a salad of roots!) but it was great to try it out. (Puntarelle at Giggetto)<br><br> Our train ride to Florence was only an hour and half and incredibly picturesque. It was great to enter the countryside after being in the hub of three major cities. It reinforced our love of small towns and it's **awesome** to be in this region. After arriving in Florence, we picked up our rental car and maneuvered our way through ...

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!

... was grouchy and the food was okay. I had frito misto (yummy variety of fried seafood - little baby octopus, calamari, whole shrimp) I really enjoyed mine. Jon had the veal but wasn't too impressed. The view was beautiful though. After we left we had some hot coco (which is like hot pudding, very thick but very good) and a little torte at the gelatteria nearby. Then it was up the zillion and one steps and we called it a night. Tomorrow... Siena

... here to Florence. I will update again soon as Im out of internet time. And I f I don't get to Vic she will spend all the money !!! I will post pics as soon as I can. Right now Im just hitting any Internet cafe as we go along. Ive taken almost 1000 pictures and well over an hour of video and were only half way through the trip !! And don't forget you can post comments to us or sign the guestbook !!!!

... to fog.) But I'm happily and satisfyingly tired, and so glad they got to come see la bella citta da Firenze!! It was so much fun being able to show them around and tell them where to go and try to remember everything I've learned in history/art/tour class to share with them. In the first four days, Michelle took 600 pictures, successfully filling up my camera's entire memory card, which has never been done before, and I think ...

... tiramisu, watching the fireworks and talking about our trip. Very nosta-logic. (hahahaha. only certain people will understand this) But yes. Then we went to bed, and woke up sweating because it was so unbelieveably hot. so we had showers, and we need to book our train tickets to Rome, and our bus tickets to Pisa, and get some food at a grocery store. I needed a pumice stone, and Erin needede bandaids. But today is mostly a ...

2005-06-06 Florence (Dave) We've been here six days already. Our host is very generous and has many guests. We've met about 15 other travellers since we've been here. He overbooked his house so we ended up sleeping in a tent for the first two nights. Neither of us had been camping for a long time so it was interesting. We weren't really prepared but another guest loaned us her pad and sleeping bag. It was very nice. We were along the Arno river in a secluded ...