Greg Roberts

Greg and Rose

Greg Roberts

Rose and I will be starting on the southern coast of Ireland, then central Scotland before training to London for 2 days. After London we will take the Eurostar to Paris and lick up anther Peugeot, drive through France to Monsummano Terme in Tuscany where we have a villa for 28 days. During this time we will be welcoming several friends and family to share good times and a few sunset drinks.



Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Greve in Chianti August 6th 2023

We are doing another day in Chianti, however this time we are based around Greve, not Radda. Our plan is based around a small vineyard tour and tasting at 2:30, so in the morning we parked in Greve and explored the township, stopping in a degustation cave (wine shop and tasting) which stocked about 1000 Chianti wines with many in self service dispensing units where you can preload a card with credit and use the card to purchase tastings of the wines. The service was not so good, so we didn't stay long. Our first drive up to a Vineyard was no so successful as they could take us for a vineyard tour and lunch, but it would have overlapped with our pre-booked tour and tasting so we decided to go to another Trip Advisor favourite ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Montecatini Alto August 5th 2023

Today the new members of the team wanted to rest after their previous travels so it was a quiet start for Krissy and Greg while Mhairi and Rose went for an early morning walk around the Parc Delle Terme Montecatini Terme Rose and Mhairi walked around the Montecatini Park we featured in our previous blog. Late morning we decided to go for a drive Free-style (just following our nose), we came across a small town called Larciano Castello which was at the top of a hill and had no tourism at all, but the locals waved and were very friendly. We decided to drive on to find somewhere for lunch, after consulting Trip advisor, we chose a spot and drove to the town of Lamporecchio . While driving in, there was a open field wi... read more
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Europe » Italy » Emilia-Romagna » Maranello August 4th 2023

After a couple of days around the Villa and hanging out at the local swimming pool, we picked up Mhairi from the Montecatini Terme Train Station. We had a quiet dinner at url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1028703-d1866272-Reviews-Il_Maialetto-Monsummano_Terme_Province_of_Pistoia_Tuscany.html?m=19905Il Maialetto which translates to The Little Pig and as names I had to have their suckling pig for dinner. Rose and Mhairi shared a T-Bone steak which was cut from a whole side presented at the table where the girls could choose how thick the steak should be cut. This restaurant has a well deserved Michelin rating. As you would have guessed from the heading of the post, Rose, Mhairi and I all went to Maranello to visit the Ferrari Museum, we wanted to also do the factor... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Montecatini Terme August 1st 2023

Today is a non travel day, but we still needed to get out to explore the local towns. In the next town over, Montecatini Terme, we found a park with a local url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g194830-d12815927-Reviews-Parco_delle_Terme_di_Montecatini-Montecatini_Terme_Province_of_Pistoia_Tuscany.htmlMuseum, cafe and an original private house turned spa. While the museum charged, the original spa and parking is free. They also has 4 sets of taps from 4 natural water sources, all with varying tastes and temperatures. The cost for glasses of water with doctors prescription was €18, however n ot knowing this at the time I tried each with my palm cup. Doh! After the lovely walk around the park and museum, we picked a local restaurant for lunch. url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g194830-d2006122-Reviews-La_Cascina-Montecatini_Terme_Province_of_P... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Pisa July 27th 2023

After an early morning Airport drop off of Alan to the Pisa Airport, Rose and I decided to spend the day at one of the many private beach clubs in Marina di Pisa. Our selection of choice was once again led by the stomach as the attached restaurant had some great looking dishes on their website. No, not totally, they were one of a few Beach Clubs which had a rock wall protecting the beach from the 1-2 meter waves which was great for wallowing in their lagoon.... read more

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Lucca July 26th 2023

We decided to have a quiet day today, so we drove the 40km down the Autostrada to Lucca, this is our second time at Lucca. This time we chose to park in a different park and walk a different part of the town, although Rose did want to go back to the book store that specialised in English and Japanese books. We walked up to to the other end of Lucca and found a loverly river running through the town. We continued to find more and more Public halls and Churches. What a lovely town Lucca is and so easy to walk around as is flat. Later that afternoon we where back to the local pool for swim and sun baking. What a life we have. This night we had agreed that Pasta was off the ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Liguria » Cinque Terre » Monterosso al Mare July 24th 2023

A day at the Cinque Terre started early with the 8am train from Montecatini Terme to Monterosso al Mare (the most northerly of the 5 towns) which is a 2 1/2 hour train ride. The Cinque Terre is a rugged coastline on the Italian Riviera composed of five beautiful hillside villages. We started looking around Monterosso al Mare, which is the largest of the five towns and has the only sandy beach in the area. Is a lovely town made up of a newer area and the old town and is relative flat. After a short explore of this village we then hoping a regional train to Vernazza. Vernazza is a tradition fishing village with colourful houses surrounding the small harbour where small fishing boats are anchored. This is a very picturesque village but loads of ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Radda in Chianti July 22nd 2023

Todays plan with Alan was to have us do 3 wine tastings, and after a nice 1 hour trip we arrived at the first winey. Albola Winery and Castle seemed like a nice place to start, we parked and went in, they were lovely and friendly sat us down in their sheltered courtyard and gave us an explanation of the operation and wines. We tried one white, 3 reds and a surprise dessert wine. The dessert wine was a unexpected treat and a long with a couple of bottles of Chianti Riserva we left with a dessert wine. We found a great little off the beaten path lunch spot before continuing our tour. Off to our second winery Cantina Castelvecchi . How ever when we arrived there was no one to be seen, we poked around ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Montecatini Alto July 21st 2023

For Al's first day we kept it quiet and decided to go to a hill top town near by. The town called Montecatini Alto could be accessed by Car or a Funicular Train. As the train is closed from 12:30 to 2:30 for lunch and we needed to be back at the accommodation by 3pm we decided to split with Rose and Al taking the Funicular Train and I drove up. Montecatini Alto is a lovely hill top town with all the usual tourist shops and BNB's. We selected Ristorante 'Caffè Giusti' dal 1898 for lunch and I know I keep saying it, but wow, another great meal. After we got back to our Accommodation and met with the cleaning lady we went down to the local community pool for an afternoon swim. Another great day ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Viareggio July 20th 2023

Today we are going to spend the day at a Beach Club in Viareggio, then we are picking up Rose's Cousin, who last featured in London family dinner, from Pisa Airport. We had decided to spend the day at Bagno Andrea Doria beach club. We chose this as we could book and pay for the tent, chairs and parking which meant we would be able to have a soother entry. We had a great day in the heat and the Mediterranean which was probably 30C but with a great sea breeze. They had a great restaurant and shop with ice pops and drinks. We did not take the camera, so no photos other than the one Rose added to our Facebook. Late in the afternoon we packed up and drove to Pisa Airport and picked up ... read more




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