Friday 20th June - Saturday 21st June We arrived in Florence about 9:30am and headed off to the hotel, (which was close to the Station.) From the hotel we got directions to an outlet shopping mall which had fashion brands at a reduced price. It was okay although there range was not so good and the transport arrangements meant we had to spend a couple of hours longer then we needed. When we got back we had a look around , going into town to look at the Duomo. It was very impressive (as all the churches are, we have seen [View Full Entry]

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From Perugia we traveled in one day to Florence and then to Pisa. Bertha keeps calling it Pizza and we laugh everytime she says that. It was two and a half hours to Florence and one hour to Pisa on the train. From the train station we got on a the bus with all of the pick pocketers to the site. It amazes me that each time I see a site like Pisa that we've seen in books all this time, it is really more beautiful and more amazing in person. RJ was the only one that took the challenge climbing [View Full Entry]

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We left Perugia one day early so we can stay the night in Florence. We made reservations to see the Gallery of Academia which houses the statue of David amongst other works of art from Michaelangelo. It really helped to have reservations because sometimes the wait is very long. It is hard to believe that some of these works of art date back to the time of Columbus. We were visiting the gallery when we turned the corner and far away down the corridor, there stood David. Like before, it is truly amazing to see this in person. They were very [View Full Entry]

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Saapumiset ja ekat vaikutelmat... Aikomus oli tulla pikkuteitä matkaavalla Toscanan maaseutua "esittelevällä" bussilla, mutta lähtöpäivänämme Sienasta teimme vähän mokat ja löysimme itsemme väärästä paikasta suhteessa bussin reittiin... Nooh, otimme sitten paikallisjunan ja tyydyimme nopeampaan ja maisemattomampaan matkustukseen... Elina suoriutui kuitenkin erinomaisesti ja nappasi useita loisto kuvia maaseudusta. Saavuimme Firenzeen normaalina heinäkuun päivänä noin keskipäivän aikoihin.. Tuskaisen kuumuuden saattelemana tallustimme noin 1.5km rinkkoinemme hostelliimme, jossa olikin vain vastaanotto ja josta saimme autokyydin oikeaan paikkaan.... Aivan rautatieaseman vieressä. Hehh. Hostel oli Emerald Fields tai Emerald Palace (varsinainen paikkamme) ja siitä ei juuri ole moittimista - kaikinpuolin loistavaa settiä! Jäimme samaan huoneeseen vielä [View Full Entry]

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There are very few sounds in this world that are more annoying than an alarm clock in the wee hours of the morning after you've only slept for 2 hours. Last night my hostel mates and I decided to go out for dinner and drinks. After a delicious meal, we headed out to a bar for a little bit and then ended up getting some wine and just hanging out by the Grand Canal till early in the morning. Nothing too crazy, but pretty fun at the same time. Today I woke up, quite tired and wanting to sleep. However, since [View Full Entry]

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I really am not quite sure where to begin….lets just say Italy was unbelievable!!!! I was able to experience so many things. I am going to try and explain everything but I don’t know if words can explain what I saw. I will try and upload some pictures in the next couple of day. So here it goes, but adventure with the Finns and Stanton in Italy. Once arriving at the airport I immediately got in a cab to meet up with everyone. It was actually perfect timing because they were just on their way to dinner. That night we had [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Montecatini Terme which is the town below Montecatini Alto. To reach our town we would be staying in we had to take the venicular to the top of the hill. Once again the view was amazing and the ride of the hill was pretty cool. Once we got off we were extremely excited to see our villa, has we came across the villa I couldn’t believe my eyes. I think I was in paradise; I can’t even begin to explain how magnificent the place was. It contained three living areas, kitchen, dinning room, study, five bedrooms, master bedroom, [View Full Entry]

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"Wake up! You're going to miss your flight! Wake the hell up" I exclaimed to Boston! She had a flight at 9am and said she needed to leave he hostel at 6:30 or so. Well, it was now 7:30. As she hurried to get up, compose herself, and pack the remainders of her luggage, she left to the airport sans a shower. I'm sure that felt FANTASTIC. I, on the other hand, got to go back to sleep. Ah, the hostel is pretty great here in Florence. Not only was it clean, but I slept like a baby. If I remember [View Full Entry]

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Pisa and Lucca: We started the day off rather later, which was actually quite nice. I woke up a little early so I even took a morning nap before we left. We headed to Pisa to look at the famous leaning tower. We had heard that town was rather boring and it was just a tourist trap for the tower. I enjoyed the area of the town we walked through as well as the tower. It was fascinating to look at how the base of the structure was tilted. I didn’t know this before we went but the structure was actually [View Full Entry]

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Last Day  Wednesday was my last day in Italy, I really didn’t not want to go. The time with the Finns and Stantons went by all too quickly. My last day there we traveled to Sienna. It took a little longer then expected because we missed the exit but this just meant we got to spend more time together in the van. Aunt Kim wanted to go to Sienna for their famous market. You all know how she likes to shop. Well before we left they had discovered Sienna was holding their famous horse race, Palio di Siena. The race [View Full Entry]

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