This past summer we had the chance to spend a full week in Tuscany, Italy. With our home base in Montecatini we visited new cities each day. Below is a snapshot of each of our days, to read more about any of the places, click on their names in the headers! Day 1: Milan We…
Category: Tuscany
An Evening in San Gimignano, Italy
After spending the afternoon in Siena, we made our way to San Gimignano for the evening. San Gimingnano was founded in ancient times, legend leads us to believe as early as 63 B.C. Like Siena, San Gimignano is a walled city with paid parking lots just outside the city. There are signs for the four…
A Day Trip to Cinque Terre, Italy by Car
For our last full day in Italy we needed to get from Montecatini to Milan to be ready to fly out the next morning. Adding a slight detour, we decided to stop in Cinque Terre along the way! Cinque Terre in Italian translates to “Five Lands”, aptly named because it is comprised of five coastal…
An Afternoon in Siena, Italy
After our first leisurely morning of the trip in Montecatini, we only had half the day to spend visiting Siena. After an hour and a half drive we arrived in Siena and found a parking garage just out side the city. The entire city is on a hill with the main tourist attractions at the…
A Day Tour Around the Tuscan Countryside
Instead of trying to drive around the Tuscan countryside on our own, we opted to join an all day tour through Discover Tuscany. The tour picked us up in Montecatini, where we were staying, and we joined up with other picked up in Florence and Siena before making our way to our first stop the…
Visiting a Tuscan Vineyard
Instead of trying to drive around the Tuscan countryside on our own, we opted to join an all day tour through Discover Tuscany. The tour picked us up in Montecatini, where we were staying, and we joined up with others picked up in Florence and Siena before making our way to our first stop, the vineyard Abbadia Ardenga just…
10 Fun Facts about the Florence Cathedral
Our week-long trip around Tuscany would not be complete without a visit to Florence, the capital of the region. The Florence Cathedral, or the Duomo, is hard to miss as its dome towers over the city’s skyline. We learned a lot as we explored the city, but most of what I learned about Florence came…
One Day in Florence, Italy
On our week long trip in Tuscany, we could only devote one day to the city of Florence. I wish we could have spent more time in Florence, but with only one day here’s what we were able to fit in. We boarded the 8:00 train from our home base in Montecatini to arrive in…
A Bike Ride around Lucca, Italy
After our morning in Pisa, we headed to the walled city of Lucca for lunch and to explore. Located between Pisa and Montecatini, Lucca was a perfect stop to break up the hour drive. We easily found paid parking just outside the walled city. We first stopped for lunch and wine at a restaurant we…
A Morning in Pisa, Italy
Driving from Montecatini, we arrived in Pisa around 8 am, parking near the Piazza dei Miracoli, or Square of Miracles, in a fairly empty paid parking lot. We ordered tickets to all the attractions we wanted to see ahead of time and had an 8:45am time slot to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After…
It's a Schmahl World 