For the time being at least, the photos that we took on holiday are available on Picasa (now becoming merged with Google plus).

Hopefully you can access them here!

We are back home safely now.  After arriving at St Pancras yesterday at about twenty to five, we got good connections for Ely and then into Kings Lynn arriving there just after seven.  The car was still there and started first time, although somebody had very kindly scraped my rear bumper.

Still,  I suppose it could have happened any time so I won’t let it spoil my memories of our holiday.

When we first found out that there were forty of us on the trip, it felt too large, especially for guided tours.  However it did mean that there was a good mix of people and they were all sociable and good company.  Train seats were arranged so that we were rarely sitting with the same people – which could have been a bonus if there had been anybody we hadn’t got on with.

The tour guide was excellent.  He is a freelance tour guide and until recently had been leading tours in places like Bangladesh.  This was his first time on the Tuscany and Venice tour and he did a wonderful job of using our free time to explore where we were headed.  Not speaking Italian didn’t seem to worry him or affect how he manage the tour.  When he’s not guiding tours, he’s a freelance TV cameraman, mostly at the moment working on Eastenders!  The guided tours at Florence, Pisa and Lucca were given by local guides, so he didn’t need to be an expert on any of the history or architecture of the places we visited.

Train travel is relatively stress free, especially with a guide, but getting luggage on and off (especially for so many people at a time) was quite an effort. I would pack less if I did the same again. Lots of time for relaxing, reading and dozing means we arrived home quite relaxed, even though we had been on five trains on the last day.

Having to be ready at a fixed time for excursions or onward travel (sometimes quite early) was not ideal for us on holiday, but a good discipline.

The places we liked and would definitely go back to are Venice and Lucca. Pisa only needs enough time to go into the Baptistry. Florence felt overcrowded most of the time (as did a few areas in Venice), so unless there was something specific that we wanted to see, for example an exhibition, we may not go back.

So finally, I would recommend this type of holiday?  In a word, for anyone who has not been to the places on the tour, yes.  I would consider a group holiday again, as it was fun and we were all experiencing new things together, with lots of support around if needed (especially from the tour guide).  Would I do a train holiday again?  Yes.  This was the first holiday I’ve had since I was about 17 when I was not driving – and that made it very relaxing.   We’ll definitely return to the area again, but not in a group.  Whether we use the train or air travel to get there would depend on flexibility and availability, but I’d be more inclined to use the trains rather than hire a car, either way.

Now … where shall we go next year?

On Wednesday we left Italy, via Milan and Switzerland, crossing into France at Basel.  We stayed at Mulhouse, which I had never heard of before.   Before our evening meal we had the chance to stroll into the town and found a very pretty square.

Thursday morning we are getting ready to travel home, via Strasbourg, Paris, London and Kings Lynn.

Today was our last day in Venice for this trip.  We decided that we would use the Vaporetti to travel around today and, after a trip to a bank at Piazza le Roma we headed to La Pieta, Vivaldi’s church and the museum there.

The church was just as I expected; wonderful acoustics.  The museum was more elusive and I was told to to ring a doorbell at a house on Calle della Pieta.  On entering, we went up to the third floor and discovered we were in the old orphanage, but that the museum (on the first floor) was only open by pre-booking.  We had arrived at a Bed and Breakfast!  The very helpful man there tried (unsuccessfully) to get us on a tour at 12:00, but there was not one.  As a consolation, we were invited onto the terrace for a view well worth the disappointment and to hear the bells of Venice mark midday.

For lunch, we had lobster at a restaurant on the Canale della Guidecca, before going to the Galerie dell’ Accademia, by the Ponte Accademia.

Tomorrow we leave Italy, via Switzerland to stop overnight at Mulouse in France, ready for the final leg back to London (and for us, Norfolk) on Thursday.

Today’s tour of St Mark’s piazza, which included a (very) brief history of Venice, the Doges, their palace, the Campanile and the buildings around (and inside) the Basilica was preceded by a private boat trip from the train station, taking a different route to the Vaporreto.  This gave a spectacular views as we approached the piazza.

The tour was fantastic; as well as the obvious sights, we were taken further into the heart of Venice and saw, for example a palazzo now known as “The Snail” due to the added feature added after both wings had been built.

The other interesting feature of our tour was that it was trying to get around the piazza, not just because of the tourists, but because we experienced aqua alta.  I had not expected to see this in September and was surprised by how deep it was.  We had to walk around on temporary boardwalks, which quite narrow for people trying to walk in both directions.

We viewed as much of the Basilica as we could and by three o’clock needed sustenance.  After a wonderful pizza, we meandered around parts of Castello and San Marco, disappointed that the church of La Pieta and the Vivaldi museum were closed (simply as it was Monday – we’ll go back tomorrow) but we did discover the church where he was baptized.

Seriously, it has been hard to keep track of what day of the week it is.  But today we had an early start to move from our Montecatini base to our Venice base.  Well, in reality, to Mestre, the “out of city” hotel area for Venice which does equate well to Montecatini Terme.  After all, who has heard of Montecatini, despite it being full of hotels of tourists visiting Florence, Pisa and Lucca, as we did, as well as many other places.  Mestre is the same, except everyone goes to Venice.  There really is not much to Mestre.

However Venice, when we went there this afternoon, was everything I had expected, with some unexpected twists.

We had been recommended to first approach St Mark’s by boat; today we were on a Vaporreto, tomorrow we do the same journey on our own boat.  The Grand Canal is beautiful – too many things to look at to think of photos.  St Mark’s was not what I expected, with the Basilica hidden until you get into the Piazza.  The Campanile was bigger and closer to the Basilica than I imagined.  I’ll be taking more pictures tomorrow, when we have our guide tour (which does take us inside St Mark’s – I’ve checked).

My first impressions of Venice are:

Artistic license next – I could not get far enough back to get the Basilica and Campanile in one photo without taking unusual steps!

We have two more days of getting lost in little passages, exploring the waterways, eating and drinking, as well as our guided tour tomorrow morning.

Today we visited Pisa and Lucca.  In a single day.  So, whilst I do think that Pisa is very tourist oriented and, conversely enjoyed the guided tour of the exterior of the Baptistry and the leaning tower, together with an internal and external tour of the Cathedral (the tour guide really loved the pulpit), I still feel I need another half day to go inside the Baptistry and climb the leaning tower.  Such are the shortcomings of such a compressed trip as ours, although we sample many things.

Lucca is, at least to me, unique and refreshing; full of tourists but with its own independent character, lots of hidden gems and things to see.  Despite it being hot, we walked part of the wall, saw St Michelle, the Amphitheatre (complete with wedding couple), the Orthodox church, an antique market and the outside of San Martino, the Cathedral, as well as finding a shaded street to get a relaxing and cool lunch.  I’d like another couple of days to go into places we found, such as the Puccini museum and not have to worry about when our group needed to be back at the station!

Don’t let any of my negative sounding comments detract from what was an outstanding day; seeing so much and being tempted with more is tantalizing.  As the last day before we head to Venice, it was fantastic.

I had thought of avoiding the usual cliche’d pictures, but here are a few from today, beginning with Pisa …

… and Lucca …

Today we went up the funicular railway to Montecatini Alto.  There are impressive views of the area and of Montecatini Terme, where we are staying.

As well as the views, there is a clock tower, a castle (of sorts) and two churches.  The clock tower chimes every six hours, so the face is unusual.

One of the churches is particularly impressive.  St Peter’s looks well used and right up my street.

However, the unique thing about it is that it is the resting place of the relics of St Barbara who, according to the information there, is the patron saint of all sorts of dangerous occupations, from explosives handler to fireman; for some reason, also included in the list of occupations is bell ringer.  There is a modern memorial to her outside the church.

Inside the church her relics are on display.

Today we went to Florence.  I’ve had enough of taking pictures of trains, so there are no more.  Instead, below are some of the highlights that we saw.

We were given a guided tour of the Duomo, Baptistry, Piazza Dell Republica, Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio, but all from the outside.

So after a lovely lunch (excellent pizza) we went to Santa Cruce Basilica, where we saw tombs and monuments to some famous Italians – Michelangelo, Galileo, Marconi, Rossini (and infamous – Machiavelli!).

I mentioned we are in a tour group of forty.  We were surprised to discover that our tour guide spoke no Italian.  I only cope with a few phases from a book, but now have added one more phrase to my repertoire following a gelato experience this afternoon.  Having decided to have a cone each and been offered two flavours, I handed over a ten euro note, only to discover that these were €10 each!  Quanto costa (how much)?

Our night at the Hotel Milano in Turin was very good; basic but clean and comfortable.  The forty of us in the Treyn group had a meal together in a little restaurant across the road (in the background on the right in the picture below of the hotel).

We left Turin and travelled to Viareggio on a regional train.  As this went from the other station in Turin, we had another coach journey.  Below are some of the party assembled and collecting luggage before the train journey.

And onto the train …

Finally a local train – a double-decker (although with all our luggage we stayed downstairs).

Finally we are in Montecatini at the Hotel Francia e Quirinale. We’ve had a quick explore if the area (and a drink) and are getting ready for a meal in the hotel tonight.

Tomorrow we head to Florence on a day trip.