Start Here - Intro

In the spring of 2014, Susan, Marian & Harry, and Toby went to Northern Italy.  We visited Florence, Lucca and Venice.  We stayed for several days in each place which was great because we got to know our way around the city and were able to be somewhat relaxed.  That said, we were very busy every day, walking, seeing the sights, and eating wonderful food.  

In each city, we rented apartments that we found on AirB&B and VRBO.  (Thanks Marian and Toby for doing the research.)  This was a good choice because not only did we save some money but we were able to have breakfasts at home which gave us an excuse to go to the local markets and buy produce and other things to eat -- an adventure of its own.

Our two best trip guides were Rick Steves' website, as well as his Florence & Tuscany guidebook which Marian had purchased and downloaded, and TripAdvisor.  Their recommendations were extremely useful.

We found many wonderful restaurants and businesses so we'll be giving links and a shout-out to them along the way.  We hope you'll check them out if you're in the neighborhood.  

This blog will be in Susan's voice  but with editorial comments here and there from my co-travellers.   Here's the first one:

From Marian:  "Don’t try to see everything - I have finally learned that, when traveling, it is better to not try to see everything. We saw many interesting things on this trip, but also spent time wandering and looking at cities and people. We also tried to relax. If there was a long line for a sight or museum, we usually chose to do or see something else. "

Navigating the blog:

1.  I had to force it into chronological order so if you see a link for "Older Post" or "Newer Post" it's actually the reverse:  "older posts" means later in the trip, "newer posts" means earlier in the trip. 

2.  Links open in a new tab/window.

3.  Click on a picture to see a larger version.

4.  Use the Older/Newer Post links to go forward or back.  Also, at the bottom of every page is an index - one page per day.  And you can always get back to the home page by clicking on the big green header at the top of every page.

***BEST WAY TO READ THIS BLOG:  Start on this page; then click on "Older Post" at bottom of the page to go to the next day(s) in our trip.  Keep doing that page by page.  The order will be from beginning to end despite the fact that the link says "Older".   Sorry for that confusion but unavoidable.

Enjoy!