If not Venice then Tuscany...

I guess a lot of people lost opportunities to travel with loved ones during lockdown and I'm sure if we'd known in October 2018 that Sarah would never return to Venice we would have treated that final visit more seriously.

Leaving Venice has always been hard for both Sarah and I and it's been even harder to leave this time round as it represents leaving a bit of Sarah's spirt behind too, but as the old saying goes 'time and tide wait for no man' (or woman), so it was time to say goodbye at least until La Fiesta de la Redentore in July.

Unlike Sarah I'm yet to discover the joys of researching and planning holidays. Sarah spent hundreds of hours searching out hidden gems to stay in and one of a kind experiences for us to do and for her this was as rewarding as visiting those wonderful places.

I didn't set out to spend dozens of hours trawling through websites to find places to stay or things to do but somehow it did help with the nights which have been pretty hard at times over the last eight and bit months.

Sarah and I spent quite a bit of time wondering around Tuscany over the years, mostly the northern part around Montecatini, Lucca and Pisa so revisiting these places was one of the easier decisions. I chose to revisit Montecatini Terme because it was where we went for our first holiday after getting married and that week's holiday felt much like an extended honeymoon, so Montecatini will always be one of the 'special places'.

I chose not to stay in the same hotel as our previous stay as I still remember the 'iffy' air conditioning and unrestored 1960's style accommodation, not to mention it was ludicrously expensive in 2022.

Instead I chose the Columbia Wellness & Spa Hotel. On arrival my initial thoughts were 'this has shades of the Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield' which fortunately proved wrong. Yes, the Columbia Spa is very definitely 'boutique', but it's also a nice place to stay and they have a superb restaurant with one of the best breakfasts I've ever had on the Continent. I'd opted to pay for the half board package, so was given a four course meal each night which was a delicious as the breakfasts. They also do a mean Aperol Spritz and the best bit was that even after a bit of indulgence by me the extras bill was only 55 Euro's for four nights.

The first night was very humid and initially I though we'd have a thunderstorm, but it made for some nice photos.

Getting around Northern Tuscany

Montecatini is a really good base to travel on rail from; it's just over half an hour from Lucca and less than two hours from Pisa and Florence. which was part of the plans because I knew I would have driven a considerable distance by the time I arrived in Montecatini though I never expected to have covered almost 3000km at this stage of my road trip.

If you're wondering why I've missed Florence off the list, it's because although we liked Florence (particularly the 'behind the scenes' tour of the Vasari Corridor ) we always had a mixed relationship with Florence. Sarah suffered from the heat, mosquito's (zanzare in Italian) and air pollution in mid summer, so we used to take shelter in the Tivoli Gardens to try and avoid the heat if not the Mozzie's.

I'll provide a bit more in my next update.

Alan