August 29, 2009 - Lucca & Viareggio, Italy Today we left Rome and had a long day of driving to get to the northern hilltop town of Lucca just west of Florence. On the way we passed Pisa, which is only famous for the leaning tower. We saw it from the road and decided to pass on a closer look as it was getting late in the day. We parked easily and got our bike out to ride in to town. As we rode into the completely walled village we noticed it was very clean and cute. I feel much more at home in the small villages than the big cities. There was a bike trail that went all the way around the wall of the city. It was a nice ride and Lucca was filled ... read more

8/27/09 We woke early today or should I say my early bird husband woke me early. He fixed eggs and some hard bread for me for breakfast. Italians seem to eat hard bread a lot...and, when in Rome. We caught the bus at the campground Tiber that took us to the Il Traino (train station). The mammas where feeding a bunch of ferrel cats next to the train station. The myth is that when all the cats leave Rome, it will crumble...no more Rome. These cats didn’t look the picture of health but neither did Rome. The outskirts were covered in graffiti and trash. We took the hot musty train to the center of town and caught the underground metro to Vatican City. So far, it’s been a lot of getting on and off of rides. ... read more

August 25, 2009 - San Gimignano & Volterra, Italy I slept in today while Andrew took a bike ride. He said it was inspiring and beautiful - which means hilly and hard to me. We had a nice breakfast of .78 cent fruit flakes (cereal is very chap here), coffee and lovely juice and headed out to find our way to the northern hilltop towns of San Gimignano and Volterra just northwest of Siena. We passed tons of vineyards on the way. I didn’t realize how arid and dry Tuscany was. The soil that is not covered by grape vines, sunflowers or corn is turned over and looks like hard little boulders. I am surprised that anything can grow here. The back-roads are empty, narrow and keep winding up. The views are breathtaking. This reminds us ... read more

August 23, 2009 - Florence, Italy We are in Florence today. Once you get off the bus you immediately enter Piazza del Duomo featuring the ornate renaissance church. It was overwhelmingly large, colorful and crowded with tourists from all over the world looking amazed by the ornate marble and gold buildings in front of them. It was Sunday so they are having mass at Il Duomo so we can’t go in. They say that the outside is much more impressive than the inside. We went to the Baptistry, the Campanile and Bell Tower in the same piazza. It was built, or started, in 1296 and is an engineering marvel because of the dome structure itself.The Baptistry is one of the oldest buildings in Florence - 8th century. The Baptistry doors, which Michelangelo named The Gates of ... read more

On our way to Firenze August 22, 2009 - Florence, Italy We left the heat and the smells of Venice and headed off on the small roads to Florence “Firenze”. The drive could have been through Illinois or Iowa with flat farmland and industrial buildings surrounding us. As we went through tunnel after tunnel, each valley after got hillier and hillier. One tunnel opened to this expansive view of Florence. It was like that “ah-ha” moment when you enter Las Vegas at night from the dark, desolate desert into the city of lights. Our campground was in a very high hilltop town about 5km outside of Florence overlooking the city. The town Fiesole is very small with tiny roads only one car can fit on at a time. We saw the signs to the campground and ... read more