Geo: 43.7161, 10.3966On the train from Florence to Pisa, we had first class tickets, but no seat reservations--advance reservations were not available on this leg of the trip. We could not find two seats together in first class, so we settled into seats in a second class section. The trip was only about an hour long so we didn't think it would make much difference. This train was older and not in too great of shape, but it got us to Pisa just fine. We walked the entire length of the train station looking for the baggage room, so we could drop off our small, overnight bags while we toured. Finally, we saw a small hand-typed sign that lead us to a combo lost luggage and luggage storage room. The attendant took our bags, sold us ... read more

Geo: 43.7687, 11.2569We left the apartment early in the morning to make our way to Florence. We took the Metro to the Termini train station, then took the train to Florence. It was a short one and a half hour ride in a first class coach. On the trains, we could make reservations, but we could not select the exact seat. We were seated across from each other with two businessmen sharing the table with us. When we arrived in Florence, we caught a taxi to the hotel, and, even though it was 10:30 in the morning, our room was ready and we could check in and drop off our overnight bags.We had two tours today arranged online in advance through Viator. The first one was to the Accademia with the Michelangelo statues. Our tour guide ... read more

Geo: 41.9, 12.4833In the evening we took the after-hours tour of the Vatican Museums. With a group of fourteen people, we were allowed to walk through the museum, including the Sistine Chapel, when no other groups were in it. This tour was arranged in advance online through the tour company Italy With Us. A couple of days before the tour, Helen, of Italy With Us, offered to make dinner reservations for us before the tour. We did that and enjoyed a very nice and quick dinner with a mother and son from New York, Gail and Ben. Since our tour was scheduled at 8:30 p.m., we had to have dinner earlier than most restaurants were open. It was nice to have someone else find the restaurant and make the reservation for us. (I like staying in ... read more

Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823After connections in Houston and Paris, Philip and I arrived in Rome almost exactly on time. At this point, we have been awake over 29 hours; neither one of us could sleep on the plane. We made it safely to our apartment just outside the Vatican walls, in spite of the hair-raising taxi ride that was seriously overpriced. We booked the apartment through Roman Reference since that company was recommended in a Frommers' article. It is exactly as represented with a combo kitchen-living-dining area, two bedrooms, a big bathroom, a laundry area, and a tiny balcony off the living area. Maria, the key holder, met us at the apartment to give us the keys and instructions about how to make everything work. So far we have been successful with everything except the heaters--two are ... read more

Geo: 35.1982, -111.651We made it farther tonight than we had originally planned. We left Tahoe in the morning and drove a few miles through Nevada before getting back into California. The drive is long across the desert, and there are not very many towns along US Highway 395. It finally joined back up with I-40, and we felt like we were back in civilization, although it's still a long way between stopping points on I-40, too. We had planned on staying in Kingman, but it seemed early so we changed our reservation to Flagstaff. As it turned out, Kingman would have been better. Just a few miles east of Kingman we came across a complete traffic halt on the highway. A bad wreck a couple of miles in front of us kept traffic stopped for over ... read more