JanV

Italia Grandiosa - 11 May 2008 Pisa I woke up at 6 and packed my bags for the last time. I had breakfast at 7.30 and we left for Pisa at 8.30. We got out at a bus station and took a city bus for 2 minutes to the city center. We walked over a market to the Piazza dei Miracoli. There was a marathon going on, so it was very busy. On the Piazza dei Miracoli you have the Cathedral, the baptistery and the leaning tower. As the people of Lucca say, everything we have is better than in Pisa. In Pisa they only have a bell tower, and even that isn’t straight… It has something to do with the concur of Luca in the 14th century by Pisa. The size of the cathedral is ... read more

I woke up at 6.00. After breakfast we left at 7.45. We traveled a long time towards Lucca. We had a stop at an Autogrill again. I started to get the concept by now. It would have been ok if they would kick out all of these school kids that didn’t wait in line. We arrived at a farm close to Lucca at 11.45. We were shown around on the farm. They produce wine, olive oil and other stuff there. It is a bit f a tourist trap, but as we were early, it wasn’t too bad. Lunch there was fun, because each table had 4 bottles of wine to taste. 2 whites and 2 reds. The reds weren’t that good, and they were a bit too warm. Lunch consisted out of tasting different kinds of ... read more

I got up at 6.30 today and packed my bags. We had breakfast and left for Naples at 8. We had a long drive today. The first stop we had was at Monte Cassino. As a side note, be careful when you ask an Italian if he knows a good casino. In Italy a casino is a brothel... You should ask for a casinooo if you want to play cards… Monte Cassini is a small town about 80 miles south of Rome and is the home of the sacred relics and monastery of St. Benedict (480-543), the patron saint of Europe and the founder of western monasticism. Since its founding by St. Benedict in 529 AD, Montecassino Monastery has had a troubled history, suffering from repeated attacks, pillage, and natural disasters. Most recently, it was the ... read more

I got up at 6 am. Didn’t want to bother with breakfast again, so I skipped it. Packed my bags and we left at 7.30 towards Assisi. We drove for around 3 hours before we were at Assisi. We stopped for 30 minutes at an Autogrill, a kind of road restaurant. There were a lot of school kids there too, because this is the season where most schools are taking their school trips. At the Autogrill I bought a sandwich. Funny thing in Italy is that if you want to buy a coffee, or sandwich, you first stand in line to pay. After that you have to stand in line again to get your order. When we got to Assisi we first went to the church where St Franciscus was born. Assisi is known all over ... read more

I slept in today and got up at 6.45. I had breakfast and packed my bags. We left the hotel at 8.30 and went to Padua. We visited the church Chiesa degli Erementani for a short time. This 13th century church was completely destroyed during the Second World War. Some of Italy’s greatest artistic artifacts were destroyed forever. The church was remarkably restored, but it was still a great loss. After the church I walked a bit in a close by park. It was very nice sitting on a bench and enjoying the sun. It was around 25 degrees Celsius. We got an hour of free time from our general, so I walked around a bit. I visited a market and prices there were very affordable. I didn’t buy anything. I did visit the Palazzo del ... read more