CELTIC TOURS DAY 2 ITALY WITH DIANA...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where
every journey is a story waitingto be told.
I'm your host, z Michelson, andI'm so excited to take you on a
ride through the world's mostincredible destinations, hidden
gems and unforgettableexperiences.
Whether you're a seasonedtraveler or just starting to

(00:22):
plan your next getaway, you'rein the right place.
Each episode, we'll be divinginto everything from must-see
landmarks to off-the-beaten-pathtreasures, speaking with locals
and travel experts and sharingstories that will inspire your
next adventure.
So sit back, relax and let'swander the world together, one

(00:46):
destination at a time.
Are you ready?
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
This is Z Michael Sim again, and I am here with the
lovely Diana from Celtic Toursand we are learning that Celtic
Tours is not just Celtic Tours.
Celtic Tours is also in Italy,and Diana is talking about her
lovely seven-night stay in Italyand she had a great time.
So we were talking about dayone, where they arrived and they

(01:12):
enjoyed some wine and had agreat meal, but now here we are
day two.
Where are we going, diana?
Well, buongiorno.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm still speaking Italian.
So on day two we ended up goingto Siena and San Gimignano Okay
, spell that.
So San Gimignano, yeah, okay.
So it's S-A-N.
Right, g-i-m, right,i-g-n-a-l-o.

(01:45):
And I asked the locals how tosay this and I'm still not sure
I'm saying it right, right, butthey said Jimmy, like Jimmy
Cricket.
So Gimignano Gimignano, it'sGimignano Gimignano.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, that makes absolute sense because you know,
pinocchio was an Italian story.
Yeah, it was, yes, and JiminyCricket and Jiminy Cricket there
we go there, you go.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's how they told me howto pronounce it, so hopefully
I'm pronouncing it correctly andforgive me anybody who might be
Italian out there.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
So, again, you're staying at the lovely Villa Casa
Grande, Villa Casa Grande,which is where it's in Figlin,
valdenaro, valdenaro, yep, andthis is outside of it's, right,
outside of Florence.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's about 20 kilometers from Florence,
between Siena and Arezzo, rightin the heart of Tuscany.
Nice, beautiful, beautiful 14thcentury hotel, villa, Fabulous.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
So now you're on your way.
Day two everybody gets into abeautiful motor coach and you're
heading to Well, we havebreakfast Incredible.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Every day we have breakfast included and it's
right there at the villa.
Give us an example, what didyou have?
Well, it's very American.
Very American, yes, becausethey have so many American
tourists there.
So it was a buffet, kind of abuffet style.
Okay, so they did have pastriesand of course, the yogurts and
fruits and eggs and sausage,which I was thrown back.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Right, that surprises me, it does.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
It surprised me as well.
But of course, you know, mymost favorite thing was a
cappuccino.
Oh yeah, a double espressocappuccino.
Oh, you're getting ready forthe day You're getting ready,
for the day you are powered.
And remember they're smallthere.
They're not real big.
The copies are really small.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
So I had to get a double espresso cappuccino.
Still packed that energy, oh mygoodness, that was amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
And again, it was just the face style and you can
come and go as you please.
And again, it is included.
We do include breakfast dailyin your package, so you don't
have to worry about it.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So on this particular Italian tour, breakfast is
included every day.
Correct, fabulous, okay.
So now you had this lovelybreakfast.
Everybody's full and ready tohit the road.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yep, we're all full and we go ahead and all meet in
the lobby and we jump on themotorcoach and the motorcoach
takes us to Siena.
Tell me about Siena.
So Siena is located right inthe central part of Italy and
it's the capital city of theprovince, of actual Siena itself
, and we did a walking tour.
So we actually had somebodythere who took us on the tour.

(04:27):
It was about an hour bymotorcoach south from where we
were staying, so we jumped onthe motorcoach.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
It took about an hour to get there.
Correct, correct.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
It's about an hour an hour and 15 minutes.
You know, motorcoach doesn't goquite as fast as a car would go
, right, so but it was about anhour an hour and a half fast as
a car would go Right.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
So, but it was about an hour, an hour and a half, but
it's nice on a lot of cars.
You're looking at the sights,you're seeing the scenery, you
don't have to worry aboutdriving yourself.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
It's very comfortable .
I mean, the motor coach is socomfortable and nice and our
driver was amazing.
We had the same driver all weeklong.
Nice, just amazing.
So, yeah, it was very, verynice.
So then we go ahead and we getto Siena and we meet our tour
guide and of course, our tourguide took us all through Siena
and told us all about thehistory of Siena.

(05:11):
I'll share just a fewhighlights because I don't want
to give too much information.
Then nobody will ever want togo Right.
So I'll just share a few of thehighlights of Siena and tell
you a little bit about thehistory.
And, of course, one of themajor points of Siena is that it
was a major banking in the 13thand 14th century.

(05:32):
Wow, now remember, the Medici'sare the ones who started the
banking.
So for Siena to be a part ofthat was really, really large.
So they actually still have theoldest bank in the world is
located there in Siena.
It's called Monte di Paci, Ibelieve it is.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Paci.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Monte di Paci, okay, and it is still a running bank
to this day.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Still working, still operational, still operational.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Now, is it a big city ?
It is.
Actually it's a very large cityand it's very hilly.
So I would recommend this tour,this particular city.
If you do have challengeswalking, you can take it at your
own pace.
You do not have to say with thetour, right, if you decide that
you don't want to do the tour,that's okay.

(06:21):
You can go ahead and say I'mgoing to do this at my own pace
because there's a lot of hills,a lot of up and down on the
hills with this particular city.
So I would say day one, thisfirst day, was probably the most
strenuous walking-wise becausethere were so many hills and she
took us on all of this.
Now are the hills, cobblestonestreets, they are.

(06:43):
They are, so they're not easyto kind of navigate on.
Right.
I mean they do have somesidewalk areas where the stores
and things are when it's dry,right, but they're so small so
it's very difficult to kind ofuse them.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now, if somebody is deciding to not walk with the
tour, you know they just lettheir driver know, or the tour
guide know that they're going tojust wander and they'll say,
okay, meet back at the motorcoach at such and such a time.
Now are there places there thatthey can sit and rest?

Speaker 3 (07:14):
like a park bench or something like that.
Oh, there's all kinds oflocations.
There's all kinds of littlecafes where they can stay, they
can get a coffee or a gelato,you know, because you got to
have a good gelato while you'rein Italy and there's gelato
everywhere, so they were doing atour that I'm sure was
including the history of thetown.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Correct, correct, it tells you more about the history
.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
They take you into, of course, all the piazzas.
There's a lot of piazzas in thearea, right, so they take you
to all the piazzas.
So we did have a few people whodecided halfway through the
tour say you know, okay, wherecan we meet you?
And then I just went ahead andexplained where to meet us and I
made sure that I went andpicked them up and got them back
to the motor coach on the timethat we decided that we were

(07:52):
going to do that on, because itwas a little strenuous and,
again, celtic Tours allowspeople to do this.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Of course, you know it gives the people a little bit
of a break in case they are alittle bit challenged with all
the up and the down of the hillsand the cobblestones and it can
be rough and I always tellpeople make sure you pack
comfortable walking shoes.
Yes, very, very important.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
This is not a tour where you need to be worried
about how you look 100% of thetime.
You do not have to be dressedto the nines and heels or
anything like that.
You want to be very, verycomfortable.
What was?
The weather like.
During the day it was probablyin the 40s, in the evening time
Right, and then it got up to thehigh 60s, 70s during the day.

(08:33):
So beautiful weather, right,beautiful.
And it was strange because I'dhave a jacket on and then,
during the day, when the suncame out and I'm walking in the
sun I would get hot, so I'd takemy jacket off, then I'd get in
the shade and I'd be cold again.
I'd have to put my jacket backon.
So layering is always a goodidea.
So how long did you stay inSiena?
So we were in Siena for aboutprobably about two hours total.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Oh you just went half an hour.
That's not very long.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
No, not that long Again we did the tour.
We had a little bit of timeafter the tour to do some
shopping before we went aheadand Grab a gelato.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Actually we went ahead and broke for lunch.
Oh, okay, you know for a littleshort lunch before we wanted to
go to our next stop and did thetour guide tell you which
places were good to eat.
Yes, Okay, yeah, veryinformative.
Explained to Kiss where shedropped us off.
She just let us know it was thePiazza del Campo, and the
Piazza del Campo actually isvery, very famous for horse

(09:30):
races that they have there everyyear Two horse races riding
around?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yes, riding around in that?
Yes, I've seen that.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
So the people are like right in the middle and the
horses are running around thepiazza right there.
So that's kind of where shedropped us off, right in the
middle of the piazza.
And then she said you know,don't eat in the piazza because
it's a little touristy and alittle more expensive.
And there were so many streetsright outside of the piazza with
some nice cafes or restaurants.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
She kind of guided you, she kind of gave us an idea
of where to go.
Yeah, it was very nice.
So now you went to here and youhad something.
What did you have for lunch?

Speaker 3 (10:05):
So actually I didn't have anything for lunch because
I did some shopping.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
I only had a short time.
Diane is shopping.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I know I had to do some shopping, so I actually
walked around and did a lot ofshopping.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's good, but I did get a gelato.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Oh okay, a lemon gelato, which is one of my
favorites.
So it's just really refreshing,especially when it's hot.
Yeah, it's just very, veryrefreshing.
So I did get a gelato.
I was again with some otherpeople, so we stopped, got the
gelato.
They had a coffee and a gelato.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Right, we kind of took a break, so we took a break
.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, and then we met everybody after lunch and a lot
of people went to a pizzeriathat was right around the corner
.
Oh, my goodness, as we walkedby this pizzeria, the window,
these pizzas were huge.
Oh really, it's the largestpizza I've probably have ever
seen.
Wow, and you buy it by theslice?

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh, yeah, and it's almost an entire pie.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
I'm not kidding, it was just a huge piece of pizza
and they had all different typesof styles Did.
Did anybody in the group have apizza?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yes, they did, and that's what I'm.
Yeah, did you?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
ask.
I did, I said so.
Where did everybody eat as soonas we got on the Metro Coach?

Speaker 2 (11:06):
How did they?

Speaker 3 (11:07):
like it.
Everybody ate.
Oh, it was so good.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
They liked it.
They said it was so good.
Yeah, of course, pizza in Italy.
You can't go wrong, becausepeople will realize that pizza
in Italy is.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
And different regions serve different pizza yes, so,
like you have the Sicilian,which is thicker, yes, and this
particular is very thin, youknow, with just an outside crust
.
So different all over Italy,which is very interesting.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
So people enjoyed everything that they were doing.
They had the nice things.
Now everybody gets back on themotorcoach.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yep, we get back on the motorcoach and where are you
going?
And then we went to San Jimmy.
There we go.
I'm going to say Jiminy Cricket, yeah, jiminy Cricket.
So did you go north, south,east, west?
So this is actually kind of awest, northwest from where we
were located.
Okay so we almost kind of did afull circle that day, so we did

(11:58):
northwest, and how long did ittake you to go from it was about
another a little over an hour.
Another hour, another hour onthe bus, another hour, which was
good because everybody iseating.
So they were relaxed.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
They had a lot of walking, so it was a good little
break.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yep, it was a great little break.
And this town is known fortowers and there are five towers
.
They have towers, these largetowers, all over the city.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
And when you're saying you mean like the Leaming
Tower of Pisa town?

Speaker 3 (12:23):
No, they're like church towers cathedral towers.
They just have all of thesetowers and they were actually
used.
Some of the towers were used inthe times for security purposes
.
You know, to look to see whenthe enemy was coming Right.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
that's where the guards were.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
And both of these locations are UNESCO locations
heritage sites.
Yeah, both of them.
So because of the buildings,the 14th, 15th century buildings
, so Siena and San Gimignano.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Now were you near water at all?

Speaker 3 (12:50):
No, not really Not these two, there wasn't too much
water, and again both towns, alot of hills.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
A lot of hills, yeah both these towns.
So the first day that you'rereally in working Italy is a lot
of walking a day.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
But these locations are a lot of walking, a lot of
hills.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
So did you have the same tour guide when you went?
We?

Speaker 3 (13:12):
did have the same tour guide, she actually met us
there.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
So after our lunch and everything, she says I'll
meet you there.
And we met her there and shedid our tour for there as well.
Okay, now, what did she bringyou to see in this town?
Tour for there as well.
Okay, Now, what did she bringyou to see in this town?
So we actually went to see alot of the architecture in this
town.
It's very Gothic in this townand the buildings in the
churches again back to the 14thor 15th century.
We had to go through severaldifferent piazzas, one which was

(13:37):
the Piazza Duomo.
It's one of the most beautifulchurches, gorgeous marble church
, and the area is also known for, of course, the cheeses and the
wines, they're very very wellknown for their wines, and
that's in this area.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yes, in this particular area.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
And they have award-winning wines there at San
Gimeno.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Now I have to ask did you buy any bottles and send
them home?
I did More than what?

Speaker 3 (14:05):
More than two?
I sent quite a few.
So yeah, so you know, everytime you go to a different
winery you got to buy something.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Got to buy something, so it was really really good.
Now I got to ask you a question.
Did you have it with you or didyou have them send it Some?

Speaker 3 (14:22):
of them I had sent home and I took.
I'm able you're actually ableto take two bottles with you.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Right Per person on the plane.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
So I did pack two bottles with me because I wanted
to have something when I gothome.
But you're lucky, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
I one time packed a bottle of wine just filling
across the country and becauseof the cabin pressure, the
bottle burst.
Oh wow, yeah.
So I had red wine all over myclothing, oh no.
So I always do recommend peoplesend it home, yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, but I did wrap it up in jeans and I wrapped it
up in a sweater, made sure thatwas nice and packed Right and I
had no problems.
They both came home.
But yeah, you do take the riskof them bursting or popping or
breaking and then having wineall over your clothes.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
So you went to all of these different places and you
learned more about the wine andthe cheese.
Did you actually see them doinghomemade?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
cheese?
No, we didn't see any of thatbecause, again, it was more of a
walking tour and more about thehistory of the town Did you get
to eat any of the cheeses.
I did, of course.
Actually, we were able to trysome of the cheeses at different
locations and we bought somecheese, and you can't take
cheese back with you, you justcan't take any meats but you can
take cheeses, so I ended up, Ithink, with six different

(15:37):
cheeses at the end of my wholestay and you brought that on the
plane with you and I broughtthat.
Oh, I actually stuck it in mysuitcase.
So yeah, with the wine.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
It wasn't like the I Love Lucy episode where she was
putting the cheese in all theinstruments.
No, no, no, nothing like that.
So that sounds like anotherlong tour, but a nice, nice walk
.
Now, I'm assuming that theywalked at a decent pace.
You're not racing through thetown, no, not at all.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Walk at a decent pace .
You're not racing through thetown.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
As a matter of fact, there werea few people again.
I did have a few older peoplewho had some challenges walking.
So, I just let her know aheadof time.
I let the tour guide know aheadof time.
Listen, we do have some peopleso you could just wash the pace
a little bit, and she was very,very good about that at both
places, both locations.
Very nice so she didn't liketake off and lose us.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
And of course she's speaking English.
She did speak English.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
We also had those little whispers Right, you know
the little headsets, so we wereable to hear her.
So even if we fell back alittle bit, we were still able
to hear everything that she wastalking about.
Because, again, a lot of uslike to window shop.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
And of course we didn't want to lose the group.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
But you know, as you're listening now, and so
yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I mean, you're only there once, right, Right.
So now you're in these twolittle towns and doing some
exploring on your own and thingslike that.
Are you finding that people arespeaking any English?

Speaker 3 (16:56):
They do A lot of those places are very touristy.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Oh are they yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So they do.
A lot of people do speakEnglish.
I mean, there are some thatobviously don't.
And you know I've tried alittle bit of Italian.
My Italian is not great, butyou know it was easy enough.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
But you can get by.
You can get by Because a lot ofpeople they refuse to speak the
language and I'm always tellingpeople, wherever you go, just
find a few phrases Like where'sthe bathroom?
You know things like that.
How much, thank you, yeah,hello, right, yeah.
So I always tell people justlearn a few phrases.
But now, with the technologythat's out there, I just seen

(17:33):
this thing the other day.
It's an earpiece that you putin your ear and as you're
talking or they're talking, itconverts to the language that
you're in.
I wish I had that hype.
It's brand new.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
I didn't know about that brand language that you're
in.
I wish I had that.
It's brand new.
I didn't know about that.
Yeah, brand new.
But you're absolutely right.
With all the technology,nowadays you can just put your
phone onto a translator and havethem speak into it and it'll
tell you exactly what they'resaying.
Yes, exactly what they'resaying, and then you can speak
into it.
Show them exactly what you'retrying to say.
So, there is a lot of technology.
I didn of those old-fashionedpeople who like to try and speak

(18:03):
and they appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
They do appreciate that.
That's what I always try totell people.
They know that you don't knowhow to speak the language, but
they appreciate the fact thatyou're trying to communicate
with them in their own language.
Even if they speak fluentEnglish, they still like that.
Even if you say thank you orgoodbye or something in their
language, they appreciate it.
So that's the tip of the dayLearn a few words of the

(18:27):
language that you're going to,and it doesn't have to be a lot.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
No, like I said, banjo.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
No, that's a good one , grazie, grazie, grazie.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
And quarta questa.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
All right, have knowledge, right, that's a good
one.
Yeah, now you're in this town,and again for a couple of hours.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yep, we were there for a couple hours and then— Now
, what time of the day is it?
At this point, it's probablyaround 1 or 2.
Actually, it's probably 2o'clock 3 o'clock, Later in the
afternoon.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Later in the afternoon because—.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
You know, by the time we left it was 9 o'clock and
then an hour drive, and then wehad a couple hours at Santa.
Right and then another hourdrive and then a couple hours
here.
So by the time we got back itwas, you know, probably around 4
, 35 o'clock 4 o'clock when wegot back to the villa.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, yeah, okay it was about 4, 35 o'clock by the
time we got back, and then didwe have another nice dinner.
We did, we did.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
So I made sure that we had two very, very nice group
dinners, okay, along with somecooking classes in the future
that I'll tell you all about.
Pizza making class, so wereally spent a lot of time as a
group together.
That's nice.
That's nice.
We really really enjoyed it.
Everybody got along so well.
It was just really nice.

(19:47):
And for those who didn't wantto, if they wanted to go off and
do something else.
They didn't have to participate.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
They can go and do something else.
They can do what they wanted,which makes it nice.
Yeah, it does.
It does.
It's always nice to be able tobe with a group or even to
wander with your own family.
If you're with a few familymembers that want to do
something different, yeah, so itgives you that freedom.
Yeah.
And again, Celtic Tours putsall of this together.
It puts the tours together, itputs the meals together.

(20:13):
You say you breakfast every day?
Yeah, breakfast every day.
Which is nice.
You never have to worry aboutstarving.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
No, you don't.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I'll tell you as much walking as I did and I did a
lot of walking, I still gainedtwo pounds.
Oh yeah, you're always walkingin Europe, that's for sure.
And again, this was one of yourharder days because you did a
lot of walking.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
I have to say the first day was probably the
hardest, the hardest, hardest ofthem all.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, so get in shape for the first tour day.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
And again, you can do things differently you know,
Siena and San Gimignano areclose they're the closest
together.
So they kind of do those on thesame day.
But if you want to putsomething together and you want
to do Siena one day andsomething else another day, or
just we can do anything.
We can kind of customize it anyway that we want.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
And again, it's based on this in particular facility,
the Villa Casa Grande, correct,yeah?
And if they say well, I heardthe podcast, I want to do the
Villa Casa Grande, but I'm notnecessarily wanting to do this
tour or that tour, I want to dosomething else that can be done
as well.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, we can arrange to customize anything for them.
Yeah, and even if somebodywants to just do something on
their own, we can arrange wherethey can take the train.
We can do your rail for you, wecan arrange your train tickets,
which is really, really easy,and so inexpensive over there.
My daughter loves to take therail overseas.
It's so nice, so nice, and youcan be in Florence in 30 minutes

(21:44):
.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Oh yeah, nice, yeah.
So if you just want to get thedirect one, yeah, you can be
there in 30 minutes.
Oh nice, yeah.
So if you just want to go aslong as you get the direct one,
yeah, you can be there in 30minutes.
Yeah, and Celtic Tours canarrange this.
Of course, so I don't have toworry about.
Am I getting on the right train?
You know if it's the rightticket I'm supposed to be
getting.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Celtic Tours finds it tours for you.
So if you want to go to museumsin Florence and see the.
Statue of David which will becoming in the future.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
I'll tell you all about.
Oh yeah, that's coming.
Another Statue of David.
Now it's CelticTourscom,correct.
Correct, that's the website.
Yep, do you have pictures ofthis hotel on the website?

Speaker 3 (22:25):
We actually do.
If you go to CelticTourscom gointo our destinations Italy
you'll see towards the very,very bottom, our Tuscan Delight
package.
Tuscan Delight, yes, it'scalled Tuscan Delight and you'll
see it on the very, very bottomof the Italian page and you can
just click right there andit'll take you into.
This is actually this one wascustomized a little bit, but

(22:46):
it'll give you one of ourfive-night tours that we have
there and it'll show you thevilla as well.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's nice, because people are going to say I want
to see what it looks like, Ofcourse.
I want to see what it lookslike yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
You know, I just can't.
It's hard to describe howbeautiful this place is.
It's just an amazing thinkabout it.
You're staying in a place thatwas built in the 14th century,
you know, in the late 1300s, yes, and it sounds like you can
really relax there.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
As you said, it has a spa, it has an indoor pool.
You can relax there one day andthen maybe go in on the train
to Florence or, you know, gosomewhere else, and Celtic
Cruise can put all of thattogether, of course, which I
love that.
Now, this is day two.
Where are we going?
Give us a teaser.
We're going on day three.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
We did have dinner.
You want to know what?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
we had for dinner.
Yeah, I forgot about dinner.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
So that evening we did have dinner as a group again
.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Right.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
And we had a boars meat bolognese pasta.
A bolognese pasta?
Ooh, bolognese pasta.
Yes, it was made with boar'smeat, with boar's meat yeah, so
it's pork.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Again, it's a pork, yeah, it's pork.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
And that was, oh my goodness, Now was the meat
tender.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Well, it was ground.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
So they made a bolognese with the ground boar's
meat.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yeah, it was so, just so good.
I had two helpings of that.
Europe eats a lot of wild game.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
They do so, you know, and wild game is supposed to be
pretty healthy for you?

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah, because it doesn't have all the everything
in it.
Well, and I didn't taste it.
I didn't feel like it was sogamey because of the way it was
seasoned and prepared, so Ididn't really taste it.
It didn't taste gamey to me,and then afterwards there was a
beef dish with it was withroasted potatoes.
I'm not a real big beef eater.
I had just a little bit, butthe roasted potatoes were just
so good.

(24:34):
And then for dessert we had, soit's an after-dinner liqueur.
Okay, and they give you abiscotti, oh a biscotti, and you
take the biscotti and you dipit into the liqueur.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Right.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
And then you eat it Right, and that was Yummy, yummy
.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Now, because your person thatis a vegetarian was there, I'm
sure that she had a separatemeal altogether.
She did, she, did she had.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
She didn't have the.
Obviously it was a bolognese.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Right.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
She had another pasta dish they prepared just
specifically for her, and thenthey made a vegetarian meal for
her.
I didn't ask what it was,because she was sitting at a
different table.
I was just, I was involved inmy food at that point, because
it was a lot of walking that day.
So I was really, really, I wasready.
I was ready for some food.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Now did you do anything afterwards after dinner
?
No, that was it for me.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Everybody relaxed, that was it for me for that
eating.
A lot of people did go intotown and go get a limoncello
again.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Oh, there was a few of them that ventured out.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
We had a very nice mix of age ranges.
We had people from anywherefrom their 30s into their 70s on
this particular tour.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Wonderful, so it was a really great mix of ages.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
That's good to know.
And again— and you said you hada- teenager on the tour too.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
We did.
We had the teenager.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yep, we had the family with the teenager yeah,
so it was a really really goodmix, wonderful.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Well, thank you again for coming and talking about
Celtic Tours in Italy, I don'tbelieve it.
But yeah, it is, and you can goright to CelticTourscom and
look at it yourself.
They can see these nice placesthat you're going to and they
can contact their travel advisorand say you know, I heard
Celtic Tour is supposed to Italyand they can find out too.

(26:22):
Oh yeah, so thank you forcoming and I can't wait to hear
about day three.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
Yes, Pisa and Lucca.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
All right.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Thank you, diana, thank you.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Bye-bye.
Well, that's it for today'sepisode of the Z Michelson
Travel Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed our journeyand found some new inspiration
for your next adventure.
Remember, the world is full ofstories and sometimes all it
takes is a plane ticket to startyour own adventure.

(26:53):
If you loved today's episode,be sure to tune in every week
and don't forget to share yourfavorite travel moments with me
on social media.
I'd really love to hear aboutwhere you're headed to next.
So until next time, keepexploring, keep discovering and,
as always, keep traveling withyour heart wide open.

(27:15):
I'm Zee Michelson and I'll seeyou on the next adventure.