News Years in Italy

Alanea & Dave took me to Italy for New Years eve, that's me getting cleaned up in the bidet, embarrassing or what.  We left on Dec 26 and returned home on Jan 1.  We stayed in a nice big hotel that Alanea booked on Marriot rewards points and Dave did all the driving (1300 km in total).  The hotel was officially in Ciocco but that is close to Barga where we had NY dinner on Dec 31 at Ricardo's.  The region around Barga is extremely hilly.  We met Don & Sheila staying at the same hotel and we had dinner together.  They live in London, England.  Barga is close to Lucca which is an ancient walled city and the home of Puccini the piano guy.  Alanea went to his house and saw his own piano.  I got my picture taken outside by a statue of Puccini with Dave.  Alanea bought wine at a few places because Italian wine is different than French wine.  We went to see a monastery built into the side of a cliff, where real monks live.  That was cool but we also stumbled upon a restaurant just up the road which was built for randoneurs.  The next time we go to Italy we will go further south I think.  Let me know if you have questions.