Tuscany
We're back from our week away - and it was amazing! I think we're just getting really good at travelling together because each trip gets better and better.
The flight from Dublin was about 2.5 hours and we arrived late at night and holed up in a perfectly nice hotel in Pisa. The next day we had a look around - there's not much to see in apart from the tower - but the tower and its surrounds are very cool. From there we caught a train to Siena (which involved changing trains at Empoli).
Siena is a beautiful medieval gothic town. Our hotel, which was a few minutes out of town, was a converted monastry and it was really quite charming - much better than I'd expected. That night I ventured out in the cold to find us dinner. I managed a pizza (€5) from a place just around the corner, then ventured into town for gelato. The streets were nearly empty so it was just me and the little houses, shops and occasional shrine. It was loveliness heaped on loveliness. We spend the next two days bumming around, eating lots of pasta, and hanging out in our hotel room watching BBC World and CNN (the only English channels).
Then we bused to Florence. Firstly we found our palazzo which was pretty amazing (especially gien what we had paid). It was pretty much frequented by middle-aged American couples so we were a bit of an oddity. The building is a converted mansion with about 10 rooms over 3 floors. The bar/ breakfast room had the most amazing ceiling I'd ever seen - it was 15 centure I think. Our room was sumptuously decorated and the service (especially the turn-down service which Laura liked a lot!) was really good. Florence itself dazzles. The river is beautiful (see our night-time photos of the river), the piazzas are lovely, the buildings look great und so weiter. Just like the Lonely Planet says - "Such a good looking city". I could have stayed there, lived there, for quite some time.
So we Ryanair'ed our way home in just over 2 hours. And now we're back. Today it's not really gotten above 4 degrees. I went for a marathon walk after work to pick up my old camera which was being repaired: coat, new leather gloves from Florence, scarf and beanie. Once you warm up, it's quite pleasant. Then I went to a big Asian supermarket and bought everything I need to make Laksa - that will be my weekend project - yumm!
Big slideshow here.
The flight from Dublin was about 2.5 hours and we arrived late at night and holed up in a perfectly nice hotel in Pisa. The next day we had a look around - there's not much to see in apart from the tower - but the tower and its surrounds are very cool. From there we caught a train to Siena (which involved changing trains at Empoli).
Siena is a beautiful medieval gothic town. Our hotel, which was a few minutes out of town, was a converted monastry and it was really quite charming - much better than I'd expected. That night I ventured out in the cold to find us dinner. I managed a pizza (€5) from a place just around the corner, then ventured into town for gelato. The streets were nearly empty so it was just me and the little houses, shops and occasional shrine. It was loveliness heaped on loveliness. We spend the next two days bumming around, eating lots of pasta, and hanging out in our hotel room watching BBC World and CNN (the only English channels).
Then we bused to Florence. Firstly we found our palazzo which was pretty amazing (especially gien what we had paid). It was pretty much frequented by middle-aged American couples so we were a bit of an oddity. The building is a converted mansion with about 10 rooms over 3 floors. The bar/ breakfast room had the most amazing ceiling I'd ever seen - it was 15 centure I think. Our room was sumptuously decorated and the service (especially the turn-down service which Laura liked a lot!) was really good. Florence itself dazzles. The river is beautiful (see our night-time photos of the river), the piazzas are lovely, the buildings look great und so weiter. Just like the Lonely Planet says - "Such a good looking city". I could have stayed there, lived there, for quite some time.
So we Ryanair'ed our way home in just over 2 hours. And now we're back. Today it's not really gotten above 4 degrees. I went for a marathon walk after work to pick up my old camera which was being repaired: coat, new leather gloves from Florence, scarf and beanie. Once you warm up, it's quite pleasant. Then I went to a big Asian supermarket and bought everything I need to make Laksa - that will be my weekend project - yumm!
Big slideshow here.
Labels: david, Travelling
for this post
Leave a Reply