I should have thought something was wrong when the hotel key broke in the door, and the staff member, who was a bit like Manuel from Faulty Towers tried to get the broken key out with scissors ( and he actually did) And the other hotel staff member told me to back down a near by street to the hotel parking. The room and the hotel were not much like the photos, and 4 star it was not. That night we were kept awake by the noise of people outside on the street, as the windows were not double glazed. And in the morning at 6.30 we heard the loud chatter of Chinese people talking in the hallway before going on a tour.
So we arrived at 4pm and met Mickey at 4.30 and went for a walk around, this town has more hotels than l could imagine, at least 300. The town is famous for its terme's, but all of them were closed, we don't actually know why, as the place was packed with bus loads of people, It is a town that seems to be the base to visit surrounding areas. So we decided to get some tickets and get on an electric powered train car that toured around Montecatini, showing the sites. It had audio in German, English and Italian, and every few minutes would explain that on the corner coming up was a hotel, yes a hotel, not some historic monuement, or ancient building or famous house, but one of the 300 hotels, very odd!!
So we did the 45 minute tour, getting off l did not know if l should thank the driver, or question him on what the hell that was about. So then the kids played in a park for awhile, and one thing for Montecatini, it does have parks. Jayne and l had a drink at a bar across the street, and as we waited we inquired with the waitress if she knew of any good, family run Osteria's, she replied, ohh yes here we have one, just around the corner with live music, not microwaved food, very good!, so Jayne goes and checks it out. She returns soon after saying there is no corner or restaurant , and l suggest that l think she meant the plain room with tables and chairs in it that we were sitting in front of, and she was. Well we gave that a miss, it looked like a step up from a prison. So we walked around looking for a restaurant, the town has very few, mostly people eat in the dining areas of their hotels, that all look the same. I found one l liked but Jayne said she would get food poisoning in there, so we ventured on, we thought about a pizza place, but the sight of 9 microwave machines and a small table oven put us off. Finally 45 minutes later with the kids getting tired and angry we accepted our fate, and entered a hotel that neither Mickey or us were staying in and ate there. We all ordered pasta, except Jayne who ordered a steak, our pastas finally came out 1/2 hour later, and Jayne got her steak after we asked about it when we finished our pastas. It was not cooked, and l asked them to cook it more, the waiter said ohh this is how we cook it in Tuscany, what you don't cook steak in Tuscany!!
So Jayne put alot of mustard, which is never good in Italy on it , in the hope it may help cook it, and we left after explaining our disgust, he did not care, as he knew we would never return, and there was a bus always coming of tourists.
The next day, we left after a surprisingly good breakfast, and got our snow globe, just so we would always remember the place. And then drove onto Lucca, where we have been before, a lovely town, a truly walled town, where you hire bikes and ride around the wall and the streets. We found a great restaurant "Buca Di Sant Antonio, well worth going to and right next to the main piazza Michele, where Mickey was performing in the afternoon. So we finished lunch, went for a small walk around arrived as it began to rain to see the band perform, thankfully under cover. Said good bye to Mickey and headed back to Bologna, about 1.45 minutes away.
One good thing about the area, is there is a place called "The Mall" , which is an outlet shopping centre for Prada, Gucci, Armani, Burberry, etc etc, so we bought some good priced jackets for the boys and l from Armani, and Jayne got some shoes, but was not happy with me as l did not let her buy some dresses she liked.
In Piazza Michele Lucca
Boys with bikes in Lucca
Micky in the Wesley band
Dinner at a horrible hotel dining room
Micky and the boys in Montecatini
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