Florence Castle

... For one day, every time you see a donkey, both shout 'eeh-awh'. Italy: 1) Eat pistachio & yogurt ice-cream in Florence (or another city if you don't get to Florence). 2) Draw a picture of a famous picture that you are standing/sitting ...

... training on my mountain bike, mindful of a 12-hour race in a fortnight's time. There's a road leading South out of St Florence toward Manorbier that has a gradient of 17%. This might be a curse to most people but when training for a mountain bike race, ...

... be a long day on the coach. We were heading from the south of Italy up to the north; from Sorrento to a Tuscany winery and then to Florence. Our wake up call was 6:00 a.m., breakfast at 6:45 and bags to the coach at 7:15. Most of the ride on the coach was ...

My time in Florence had big highs and big lows. We arrived from Lucca, late Monday morning in Florence. Then first thing we did was to join the long queue to book our train tickets to Rome, Naples and Bari. After this was done, we went to our hostel (Plus ...

We took a train from Mestre to Florence changing trains in Bologne, unfortunately there wasn't time for spaghetti bolognaise. We arrived in Florence mid afternoon and found our accommodation. A lovely, quite, self catering place run by Mama Lucia, in the ...

... non-descript restaurant on Via Nazionale between Via Fiume and Via Faenza.  I’m sure there are some very extraordinary restaurants in Florence but we didn’t get to any of those on this trip.  With only a couple of days to see ...

... standing. We once again starting walking back to Santa Croce Plaza, although we took Anne and Katie’s route instead of Chiara’s. Florence was winding down for the day. The tours were leaving, and I could see how it had gotten to the state it ...

... was typically tuscan, green rolling hills dotted with the occassional house and many olive groves. We spent the 2hr drive back to Florence (traffic gridlock!) chatting to a mother and daughter from the Gold Coast. They were on the back-end of a trip to ...

... leading into town was destroyed several times by floods and once by bombs in 1943. Once looking like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, it is now just a functional crossing point. Ducking in and out of plazas and stopping here and there for cappuccinos we ...

... of the black rooster found on the label of every bottle. The rooster became the symbol of peace between the 2 Tuscan provinces of Florence and Siena. In order to use the Chianti name you must be very respectful of the wine making. Each Chianti wine ...

... dome. The view from the top was very cool, with a 360 degree view of the city and outlying countryside. Monterigioni - After leaving Florence, we decided to make a stop off on the way to Rome and stop at a little town called Monteriggioni. It is a ...

... and Ireland and thankfully everyone is very low key and down to earth and we all get along despite living and working together. Florence is a beautiful city with some great sites but my favorite thing about it is outside the city in the Tuscany hills. ...

... (spelling is wrong here, sorry) Beato or Beati or Beata Angelico, as he apparently was beatified between editions of Rick Steves' Florence & Tuscany 2007. I've written quite a lot here, and still have left out so many of the little things that ...

... he said "you know there is a Florence, SC there too?" Hah- he seemed amused when I told him it was nothing compared to Florence Italy.  When Bridgette and I finally found our way, we decided to go look at the gardens of the Medici family rather than ...

... area where we had been the night before. We spent most of the morning on this tour looking at various famous buildings in Florence before finishing at the Duomo (the cathedral) in the centre of the city. This magnificent building is made from red, ...

A short trip from Siena had us arriving at our camp site by one of Europe's most beautiful cities – Florence. As ever in this crazy country there are hills every where and the pitch we found ourselves in was very sloped in one ...