Today we caught the regional train to Pisa. It's a slow train....only got to 146kmph. We walked through the city to the Piazza Del Miracoli were the famous leaning tower is. It is now reopened to the public so we were able to book tickets to climb to the top. It was a weird feeling climbing the stairs that spiralled around the tower and finding yourself on a lean on the way up. It was just as strange at the top. Afterwards we went through the other buildings in t...

Today we headed off to Venice. It probably wasn't one of our better days - nobody had slept well so we were all pretty grumpy to start with. Our train was delayed by 1 1/2 hours so that was 1 1/2 hours less we had to do things. Isaac forgot to restock his test strips (which he realised only after the train had left the station) so only had one left for the whole day - he would normally test his blood sugar levels at least 6 - 8 times are day; more often if he is ...

Today we have climb over 2200 steps! (That doesn't include smaller staircases and any walking we did). We started with the Duomo; there are 6 areas to see. First we climbed to the top of the dome - 471 steps each way. Then we went inside the Cathedral and the crypt followed by the Baptistry. We then tackled the Bell Tower - 414 steps each way and finally had a quick look around the museum. The Duomo is spectacular but I was disgusted by the amount of graffiti tha...

Today we were up early to catch our 6:27am train to Florence. We were surprised by the lack of staff and security, especially given the current climate. Lack of clear directions was a source of stress (the monitors just told you what hall the train left from but not what platform) and was amplified by the absence of anyone to ask. Nothing was open - not even the ticket booths. We got on the train we thought was right and found there wasn't a lot of room for our l...

Today was our final day in Paris. For that we had booked an Eiffel Tower tour. The tour representative was an Aussie from Brisbane (taking a year off from uni), and our tour guide Lindsay, was from the US. (She is doing history and archival studies at a university here.) She was a veritable wealth of information. Booking ahead means you can't plan for the weather and unfortunately today was the worst, weather wise that we had had so far. It was too windy for us t...