Month: May 2016

A Taste of Tuscany, Part 3: San Gimignano and Siena

Published by

One of the things that I totally fell in-love with in Tuscany are the gigantic sunflowers along the road. From Lucca to San Gimignano, hubby and I decided to take the more scenic road, suggested by the Lolo owner of the hotel in Lucca. And indeed, we passed by a lot of sunflower fields. We couldn’t help but stop by one of them and take some pictures. San Gimignano is a fortified city at the top of a hill. From down below, it looked so quiet and peaceful and desolate. But upon climbing the hill and getting past the walls, I was surprised to find that it was quite touristy. It was a bit of a steep climb, though. But the view from below is very picturesque. We had to stop several times on the way, to take some pictures of the surrounding hills. From outside the wall, you wouldn’t have guessed that it would be a bustling city, filled with tourists inside. In fact, there were plenty of shops selling wine, olive oil, crockery, cheese and …

In and Around Melbourne

Published by

Note: This post contains a bit of reviews on the hotels and restaurants my family and I visited during our trip. I would like to interrupt my series of post on Tuscany for this recent trip to Melbourne. My family has been invited by long-time friends on their wedding in one of the beautiful vineyards of Yarra Valley, a few kilometers off Melbourne. We spent the first few days in the city. It was already autumn, but we were blessed with warm, sunny weather the whole time we were there. We stayed at a hotel close to Chinatown, where most of the sites of interests are conveniently located. Melbourne is a nice city for walking. Although, there is a free tram that conveniently takes you right around the tourist spots. We had a nice walk along the Yarra River and had lunch at one of the restaurants. Melbourne is a lot more relaxed than Sydney. But I found the people a lot less friendly and the streets more invaded by Chinese tourists and migrants. In …