Nadines Travel Blog

We arrived to the Lucca Autograph Collection Hotel late after taking the train from Naples and it looked like from the outside a very nice old Italian Palazzo.  We were greeted by two very welcoming employees and when asked for extra water he gave us arm loads which was appreciated after a parched train ride.  They upgraded us to a Junior suite, which was quite a nice size with its own living room with two chairs and couch, a large TV and coffee area with plenty of space for a European hotel.  We had three large windows with absolutely stunning floor to ceiling curtains that accentuated the beamed ceilings.  It was a bit of a funky style with burgundy velvet headboard and matching couch, chairs and stools.   The bathroom was very unique to my eye. Not only did it have a bathtub which was so nice to see because not too many European rooms have them and an absolutely large shower. Only one sink which I can handle and it had the telephone in the bathroom which...

The beautiful colors of historic Lucca. I have always wanted to visit Lucca .  It is the best example of a walled city that is the most intact in all of Italy .  It is a highly impressive Renaisiannce era defensive walls that encircle the historic city center. We really appreciated this town because it was not crawling with tourists. It was just a nice amount of tourists and locals. We had the opportunity to walk 3/4 of the wall and the wall is 4.2 km around the town. There are different entry points in from the surrounding area outside the walls of Lucca.  Highly decorative church in Lucca Church pillar supports.  The amount of marble carving on this was mind boggling and it was in such good shape for hundreds of years old. There are many churches in the walled city and palazzo buildings and many of the palazzo have been made into hotels.  We stayed in one of the Autograph Collection Hotels which faced one of the many squares .  There are numerous lit...

MSC World Europa in the background while in Messina, Italy . Naples, Italy   We had been to Naples Italy before and spent approximately 4 days there to explore in 2010 on our world tour.  We had visited Pompeii for the second time in 2013 at that point and it never failed to cause wonder.  Pompeii is an amazing archaeological site that is still an active dig site and will be for the next hundred or so years.  It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site .  We arrived early into Naples and we had time to visit the National Museum which we had missed last visit.  This museum is extremely worthwhile because it contains most of the artifacts dug up from Pompeii and Herculaneum . Massive marble statue taken from the Grand Palace site .  Its the first time I have ever looked petite. Beautiful statues throughout the museum Wall murals that were saved from Pompeii Famous painting from Pompeii Mosaics Large gorgeous vase that was saved. Glass artifacts Sturdy meta...