Monsummano Terme

Woke up to rain....it had thundered and rained during the night and the streets were very wet. There were a couple of downpours while we where getting ready, had breakfast in the room, strong, strong coffee and croissants while the church bells were happily ringing every 15 minutes from the duomo. We walked to the corner cafe to eat one piece of turkey on a big dry roll and a small container of mixed fruit, not our best meal. The taxi picked us up at 11:32 am and arrived at the train station at 11:37 for 16E. I had forgotten how large the train station was, we found the platform, boarded the train and arrived in Montecatini around 1:00pm. We found a taxi driver outside the station to get us to the hotel Francia & Quirninale. The town was wet and quiet. Upon arrival we were showed a room that was stuffy and small so we upgrade to the 5th floor, balcony room. Time to eat again! The town was mostly closed for siesta so we ate at Cafe New York and had our usual - , Aperol and caprese on a bed of mixed greens. We have decided to decline bread in the future mostly because it is missing something like "flavor." Back to the room and rest until we meet the group at 6:45. We love our new room. We made our way downstairs, introduced ourselves, met Lynn our guide and off to dinner. There are 24 in the group in a 52 passenger bus. Yeah we get the back row. We sat at a table for six with Marg and Glenn an Italian from Canada ( He was complaining the his name was not very Italian so Cari name him Giacomo) and Patricia and Barbara from a Newport Beach. We had a wonderful group and I laughed till I cried. Dinner was fun! started with Tuscan Bean soup (garbanzo bean very tasty) and roastedveal with potatoes and gravy and baked Alaska. Off to a good start. Buono Notte!!Read more