Tuscan Bears
Just before Easter, Roger and Tom were going to Tuscany in Italy. Tuscany is a famous part of Italy, and we had wanted to go there for years. Here we are in the Gold Circle Lounge before departure.
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The new terminal 2 in Dublin Airport had been opened for some months by now. We would be flying Aer Lingus to Tuscany in the northern part of Italy.
We went sightseeing a lot with a travel group and one of the day we had lunch with lovely wine at a olive and wine farm at Fattoria il Poggio.
They had a gorgeous huge dog at the wine farm. Oscar was his name.
We went with the group to see a small local theatre. It was an amazing coincidence that some of the people in the group knew us from Madeira this Christmas as they had been on holiday to Madeira as well.
Outside the theatre we met some nice local people at a local pub. So we shared some great gossip and stories. The Italians speak very fast!
We went sightseing around the little town of Montecarlo. They have a lot of old buildings.
Next day we went with the travel group to the famous city of Pisa. Here, we are at Piazza dei Miracoli having a look at the Duomo, which is the cathedral, and the Campanile, which is the bell tower at left.
We had a look at the world famous leaning tower. Gosh, the tower was incredibly leaning! We were amazed. Tom was worried the tower might collaps. Roger was thinking of gathering a lot of tourists to see if we all could push the tower back up to vertical position.
The building of the tower was initiated around 1173, however the work stopped because the tower had started to lean before it was finished. They finished the tower around 1350.
Here's another photo from Piazza dei Miracoli. No, it's not the cathedral which is leaning - it's our photographer!
Here we are at the Campanile, the bell tower.
We went to Lucca to see the hometown of the famous Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini. He is the composer of the operas La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.
Here we are at the new spa building in Montecatani-Terme. The city is famous for its hot springs.
We went up with the funicular to Montecatani Alto. Here, we are having lunch with Lise from the travel group.
We went around Montecatani to have a look at the old town.
Next day we went to Siena. This is another famous city in the heart of Tuscany. It is a very old city and dates back 2000 years.
We went to a small town, San Gimignano, and went around the old streets.
Views from San Gimignano to a Tuscan landscape.
We took the train to Florence to the home town of the famous and powerful Medici family. Here we are at the Baptistry with the famous Duomo behind it. Florence - or Firenze in Italian - is a very old city dating back to just before the birt of Christ. Today, the city has nearly 400,000 citizens.