Today we had a very long drive. We left Tuscany and headed all the way south bypassing Rome and Naples to Sorrento. This is the small city that we stopped at on our cruise with Brian and Holly five years ago so we were excited to see the city again …

Today the sun was out and it looked like it was going to be our first beautiful dry clear day. A good day to hang around the apartment and do laundry. Maybe today we actually had a chance to get everything to dry for us!

After doing laundry and reading …

The word for today is 'Schiapito,' which in english means strike. The strike I am talking about is a gas strike. Something I had never heard about before. But had the effect of putting damper on what was otherwise an absolutely beautiful day.

We took off by 8:00 this …

Today we planned to be a light day. We did not get up too early and our only goal was to drive to another hill town called Siena. Jane and I had watched a video about the town so we were excited to see the square in person. The square …

Since cars are not allowed in or around the central part of Firenzi the best way for us to go was to drive to a commuter town and take the train. So we got up and drove to the town of Empoli. It is definitely a commuter town as we …

This morning we got up early to head in to Pisa. We had tickets to climb the leaning tower at 9:00, so we had to get under way in good time. That meant getting up at 6:30 to be on the road in time to get to Pisa …

For our first full day in Tuscany we decided to check out some of the hill towns. We went to Volterra and San Giamanginino, two of the ancient Etruscan hill towns in Tuscany. The etruscans predated the Greeks and were equally as advanced in art and science. It is really …

Our goal was to leave Venice about 1:00pm. So, we got up, had our breakfast and headed over to visit the Doge's Palace.

After the palace we wandered back to our hotel and tried out one of the recommended restaurants. The pizzeria around the corner in the Piazza. Since …

In Venice you can get lost very easily, but not for long. There are signs everywhere point you toward to major landmarks, the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's Square.

After a small breakfast in our hotel we set out to take the tour of the Grand Canal. From the St …

This was a long day of driving. First we went back down the mountain, and then we moved a ways to the east and went back up and over the mountain. The drive through the mountains was pretty. Lots of great long bridges and many many tunnels. The nicest tunnels …