Cinque Terre to Florence

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How can you go on your first trip to Tuscany and not see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We wanted Lynn and Mike to take it in. So after saying good-bye to the gorgeous coast we headed south to Pisa...and are we glad that we did. They have done an amazing restoration to the buildings and the grounds. The buildings colors were fully displayed in the sun lit day...not the dirty, dingy grey I remember from last time. After touring the buildings and grounds we headed of to Florence. Pisa is really overridden with the cheap touristy stuff...kinda a shame. From Pisa we drove to Lucca to visit the walled city and have some lunch at a small restaurant on one of many piazzas. Then we pretty much drove thru Florence to get up in the hills near Fiesole, to get to the Pencione Bencista. A place we had stayed some 20 years ago when the kids were with us. We had found Florence just to busy and noisy a previous time. Bencista was just as beautiful as we remembered. We just relaxed on the estate and ate the evening meal in their dining room. Couldn't help but just take in the beauty of the city with the Duomo standing above the other buildings below. A cock pheasant crowing and establishing his territory in the olive orchard below.

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