19th February - First day of holiday in PIsa and Florence

It was good that Chris put the light on a timer switch last night as it made it easier to get up at 4.30am this morning! We had breakfast of white chocolate muffins ,yoghurts and strong coffee before getting a taxi to Liverpool airport. The check-in was easy as the queue was small and the plane left on time for a change. When we arrived in Pisa we checked out our cases and decided to leave them at the station left luggage because they only needed one person's details. We then walked over the river Arno towards the tower stopping on the way to photograph a beautiful church which caught my eye.
When we finally reached the tower, we went straight to the ticket office to collect our tickets. I was very surprised that they didn't ask to see our passports, but just accepted the voucher that Mel had sent me. The climb itself was a unique experience. It was weird climbing up on a spiral staircase where the steps were sloping. I could feel my legs getting shaky when I reached the bells so decided not to go right up to the top. When we were finally back on solid flat ground we realised that we only had about two hours to spare. Brian and I decided to look at the Baptistry which was very impressive, whilst Trina and Chris went to the market.
We ended up losing track of time and had to catch a bus back to the station and run to catch the train to make sure we got back to the airport in time.
We were quite relieved to meet up with the others at the airport. Unfortunately our group was not complete. Peter missed the plane ,because he got stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway so he had flown to Rome instead. We decided to catch the bus to Florence. It was quite a pleasant journey, but I was very disappointed that we had to walk to the hotel when we got there as I was very tired.
We finally checked into the hotel at about 7.30pm. My room is fairly small and doesn't have a bath ,but otherwise is adequate considering I won't be spending much time in it! We decided to go to a nearby restaurant for dinner and found an excellent one not far from the hotel. The waiter spoke very good English and was particularly helpful to Lynda who is on a dairy-free diet. I had seafood carbonara and was a little disappointed to see that it was actually prawn carbonara (but it was v. good anyway). When it came to dessert we were spoilt for choice as all three desserts(cheesecake,ice cream and creme caramel) looked good. I had the creme caramel which was lovely.
We returned to the hotel and Keith found a message on his phone from Peter to say that he was travelling to Florence tonight. Chris and Brian decided to go and meet him. The rest of us were very tired after a long day so we went straight to bed.

18th February - Getting ready for Florence

I met Brian and Trina at Oxford Road Station tonight and we travelled down to Warrington together. Chris met us at the station and we dropped our cases off at his house before going to the local Asda to buy breakfast for tomorrow morning and sandwiches for the flight. We then returned to Chris's. He showed us his finished utility room which has recently been fitted with new cupboards - it looks pretty good. We didn't stay up late tonight as we have to leave very early tomorrow.

9th February - Tiramisu and Pub Night

This morning my Uncle Dennis phoned to say my Aunt Pia had made Tiramisu for my Mum and Dad's Anniversary present. We arranged to meet them in Bury to collect it. It was packed into a box and was quite heavy so Dad took it home whilst we did the shopping. We arrived home and opened the box to find a very large glass bowl of Tiramisu. It tasted as good as it looked. There was enough there to last for 3 days desserts if we can manage to control our appetites!
We arrived at the Cheshire Line tavern tonight to find that there were quite a few members of our group there enjoying a meal. Apparently the food has improved since new management took over in January. Also tonight I had the opportunity to meet Trina who is coming to Florence with us. She joined Brian, Chris and I for a short meeting to discuss plans for our holiday. She's a cheeful friendly girl and I'm sure we will get on well together. It's not long now till we go to Italy and I'm really looking forward to it.

2nd February - Pancake party at Kay's

Kay said she wasn't surprised that we were the first to turn up tonight. Despite the fact that she had changed the start time to 7pm most people didn't turn up until after 7.30pm. Once a few people had arrived Geoff started cooking pancakes. As usual, Sandeep and I were the only ones who brought savoury filllings - he brought spicy potatoes and I brought cheese. It was good to see a few people I haven't seen for a while tonight. Rachel and Grace came all the way from Macclesfield and I saw Nigel for the first time this year.
I had another chat with Tim about Greenbelt - he is still interested. We mentioned the festival to Chris and he seems interested too. Chris has also kindly said that Brian and I can stay at his place on the Monday before we go to Florence. That means we won't need to get up quite as early as we were planning to.
Unusually we were one of the last to leave tonight. By 10.30 everyone had gone apart from Tim, Chris, John, Brian and me. Brian ordered a taxi well in advance tonight. I managed to drive home in 20 minutes which is really good. In all it was a pretty good evening even if it was quieter than usual.