After spending our first full day in Cortona lounging by the pool and making new friends we ventured out to Siena on our second day. GPS in hand – because I’m not sure we could ever find our way back here without one – we arrived in just over an hour. Il Palio had taken place three days prior. A bit of history on the event for your reading pleasure: “Piazza del Campo” is still used today for the well known Palio horse race which is one of the most famous popular Italian manif

Friday was our last full day in Lucca and we decided to check out the town of Livorno. I had read a bit about it and it sounded worth exploring. It wasn’t. It’s a seaside town, quite large with nothing quaint or interesting that we were able to find. We met a local on the bus with an obvious passion for her hometown who steered us to an area called “the new Venice”. I had read about it and was intrigued so we checked it out. After seeing some of the things we’ve seen over the

Because I don't want to forget: 1. Saw many a face piercing, primarily on women, in Venice … none in Lucca 2. The pigeons are no longer taking over Piazza San Marco. They no longer sell pigeon food as they have “outlawed” feeding pigeons in the piazza. We found this out after a police man asked/instructed Vinny to stop trying to feed the 20 or so pigeons that were there. 3. In Lucca bikes outnumber cars 30:1. And the women easily ride their bikes in their short dresses/skirts

I admit we hesitated when discussing whether or not to bring the kids with us on this vacation. It was only after we decided to stay a month did we make the firm decision to bring them with us, partially because it would have been more than a little difficult to organize family to take care of them for an entire month and mostly because we couldn’t imagine not seeing them for that length of time. We knew that with kids our experience would be much different. There would be no

Another beach, another train that never showed up.

Lessons learned on today's adventure to Viareggio and Pisa

A day trip to Florence

Fia has created a new song about Gelato!

Whereas two nights ago we experienced the highlight of our adventure thus far, lastnight was on the opposite end of the spectrum. No one is hurt, nothing was stolen, but it certainly pushed Hugh and I to our limits. The night before was our last night in Venice. After dinner in (pesto tortellini, zucchini, garlic bread and wine), we headed out to Piazza San Marco. I have very fond memories of the duelling orchestras from my last visit with Auntie Gail, so I wanted to share th

The weather had other plans for us today.

Four people. One month in Italy. Did I mention we have just one suitcase?