Good morning everyone! We had a nice and early start today for our trip by water taxi to to bus loading area in Venice and then off down the highway from the Venitian area of Italy into Tuscany to visit Piza! It was a beautiful drive with the views changing to more wineries by the side of the road on flowing green hills.
As our fearless tour director said “Pisa is a stop only to check out the Square of Miracles”. As the bus had to park a ways from the Square, there was an alternate type of transportation waiting for us – a Choo Choo train! The train took us close to the entrance where we could walk in to see the Church/Duomo, Baptistry and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We had a quick lunch and then walked back in the rain to where we met the Choo Choo train to take us back to Antonio and the bus.
Off again we went, now to Montecatini, which is where we are staying for the next 2 nights! Montecatini is also known as an Italian Spa town.
We arrived at our hotel in Montecatini and it was a beautiful old hotel – all of our hotels seem to have been unique and so far, all my rooms have been accessible except one, which was okay for the one night. One issue – as we are at this hotel for two nights – I cannot get near the bathroom with my walker! Back downstairs I went and thankfully Margaret and her husband were able to switch rooms with me – somehow they had been assigned the accessible room! Crisis averted!
Some of us had signed up for an optional dinner in Tuscany tonight so back onto the bus we got and drove the 20 minutes to a beautiful estate winery that hosts groups for dinner. On the way there we passed through the town where Pinocchio lived with Giuseppe and there was a huge Pinocchio statue in the middle of the round about! When we got to the Estate, first we visited the Vineyard and then we sat down for dinner. The Estate produces 7 different wines (maybe more) and all 7 were being served for dinner – starting off with 3 whites, then 3 reds and lastly a lovely dessert wine. I do not drink so I had 3 different vintages of an Italian specialty called Coca Cola Zero Zuccheri! Actually to be truthful, I had a mouthful of the dessert wine and it was pretty good! Dinner was awesome also – plate of fresh sliced meats along with bruschetta and then veggies for my non meat friend and I. Then boar pasta (or tomato pasta for us) and a selection of meats and chicken. Dessert was a Panna Cotta that was absolutely devine! The consumption of the wine led to some dancing in which an interesting picture just happened to find their way to my email! A great evening – tomorrow we take on Florence!
