We all got up and rushed out the door to make the 9:15 train to take is to Castelnuovo and got to the station with 8 minutes to spare. 25 minutes and one unintelligible announcement later we figured it was cancelled. So we went home via the panificia for some fresh bread as we had missed our breakfast in Castelnuovo surely as the next train is not until 11:38 and driving was out of the question as you are more likely to find a park inside St Peters Basilica on a ...

After shrugging off my Baileys induced drudge this morning we thumbed our noses at the dark gray skies and jumped in the Opel for the 3 km trip to Campogiorno station where the puffer fish only went off twice. At the station the validating machine was knackered so we hoped that the fascist reputation of the Trenitalia ticket inspectors had mellowed as I wasn't keen on copping €160 worth of fines but thankfully we had a female guard who signed off our tickets (...

Another sunny day in Tuscany and after having some real bread for breakfast courtesy of a tiny panicia in Sillicangana we avoided the standard duck feed. We have driven past this place at least a dozen times and only stopped on the way home from Pisa as old mate in Villetta had pulled up stumps. Happy days. We are having a home day today but I am keen to suss out the station and train timetable for our trip to Lucca as well as checking out some of our neighborin...

Was awoken at 6 this morning to the news Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Normally I would be bit antsy being woken that early but it was more of a reprieve from the bed. Italy has many wondrous sights, has glorious smallgoods, tomatoes one could only dream of, a sense of style known worldwide, for the best part of 1,000 years ruled the known world, and of course the Fiat 500. Why then does this highly evolved race have no idea of the following: Beds - I am of ...

We left for Lucca about 10:30 but upon arrival on the outskirts it became suddenly apparent that parking was not going to be easy. The indicator on the main roundabout had no more than 6 spots showing so we made an executive decision and proceeded on to Pisa. We will get the train to Lucca from the village up the road where Tarn believes the train leaves from as Lucca traffic is still death defying even though it's a small town. We took the shortest Autostrada ri...