A: Today we had our last day trip out of Florence. Our only regret is not going to San Gimignano as the transport to get there seems to be very complex. However I must say we were actually spoiled for choice in our total of six weeks in Rome and Florence. In fact we have been to Orvieto, Ostia Antica, Frascati and Viterbo on the train from Rome, and the Catacombs by bus from Rome, to Fiesole and Siena on the bus from Florence, and after today, to Lucca, Pisa an...

A: Friday was a good day to stay put as there was a "sciopero" ie strike of public transport right across Italy today because of the new financial measures. Mick knew this because he is able to read "La Repubblica" quite well now and he read about it the day before. He says these newspapers are really good value for him as he spends ages poring over the stories with the aid of his dictionary. We needed to do a bit of shopping. First stop was the San Lorenzo mar...

M: Based on the auguries, today was schedued to be reasonably good weather, so we headed off to Santa Maria Novella for the train to Pisa. We had a few problems with the ticket machines, but managed to get our tickets and settle down comfortably on the Livorno train before it got too crowded. One of the tips we should share is that it is useful to know the number of your train particularly if your stop is not the final destination. That way you can be sure you a...

M: One of the advantages of spending a length of time in the same city is that the odd wet day doesn't throw your plans into chaos - and in fact you can plan around predictions of wet weather. The predictions for Wednesday had consistently been for it to be a very wet day - and despite a start that was only moderately damp, it proved the forecasters right. First task was to take our box of mailing to the post office. I set off about 0805 in order to send it on ...

A: Tuesday was another side trip - just over an hour and a quarter by train to the medieval - then renaissance - walled city of Lucca, and with the station 5 minutes away, an easy trip - although our train got us into Lucca 40 minutes late. We explored the rather astonishing churches of this interesting city which escaped the bombs of WW 2 and so remains intact. The cathedral houses the "Volta Santa" which featured in a book I just read and so I was keen to s...