Jun 15, 2013 - June 15 Certaldo

Kept things low key after Pisa non-event. Just drove to a small fortress/hill village Certald neat. Pretty neat little place....way better then Pisa wasn't LOL. Then for evening we reserved seats at an event at a villa. A Japanese singer and an Italian harpist, sophistication coming out of our ears after this trip.

Jun 15, 2013 - June 14 Pisa, Lucca

The worst day I have spent travelling EVER!!! I'll be SOOOO glad when I hand this car back in!! Drove to Pisa, got horribly lost even with GPS (not always that correct) No places to stop, park, turn around NOTHING!! And everybody drives right on your A%&, and heaven forbid you stop for a red light, stop sign or, a pedestrian. What is wrong with these drivers? Coming to Tuscany to live the quiet life? THEN DON'T DRIVE A CAR ANYWHERE!!! You can't drive in certain sections of the city or you get a big fine (by mail) I'm almost sure I'll...

Jun 13, 2013 - Welsh Hills and Tuscan Villas

Dear Friends and Families, Our last entry finished cycling through France, so skip a winter in snowy, cosy Canada and here we are again cycling in Wales. Laura is not that keen on being damp and cold so we really only wanted to cycle around Wales to visit our friends. However, as it turned out, we remained dry for 2 weeks and Wales put on a fine show of spring flowers, golden beaches and ancient mountain landscapes. At times the hills were outrageous, the northerly winds cold and the full English breakfasts overfilling but we did have a...

Jun 4, 2013 - Florence

We drove up from Siena to do Florence as a day trip. in hindsight I would have liked more time. We started the day with the Uffizzi Gallery, which was wonderful, and ate lunch at a locally recommended spot. Afterwards, we took a self guided walking tour and enjoyed the shopping as well as the sights. We all came back with more than we arrived. Could have definitely spent more time in Florence.

Jun 3, 2013 - Siena and Tuscan B&B

Our B&B is an old converted farm house just south of Siena with a beautiful view of the countryside. I worried about not having air-conditioning, but it's been chilly at night so no issue there. We've had beautiful weather for the most part with upper 60's to low 70's during the day and mostly beautiful sunny skies.. An hour south of Florence is a quaint little town named Siena where we made our base for our stay in Tuscany. It was a good location for the day trips to the mountain towns in the area and Florence. The town was Florence's...

Jun 3, 2013 - Pisa

Monday was largely meant to be a travel day to get us from Venice to Tuscany. We moved out of the apartment early, hopped on the Vaporetto (water taxi), and were on the train to Pisa (connecting in Florence) by 8:30am. Upon arrival in Pisa mid-day, we stored our bags at the train station, grabbed some lunch, and caught a taxi to the tower. After stepping out of the taxi, I was able to take six pictures before the bottom dropped out of the sky. We tried to wait out the storm but finally admitted defeat and caught another taxi back to get our...

May 20, 2013 - Monday - Rome

Up early to leave for Rome. Said goodbye to my guitar, Chris, Fiona and Ray-Ray (a local) and headed off by train to Rome with Jen & Bill via Lucca and Florence. Checked into the hotel, which is only two blocks from the train station, and walked around the city for a while. Back to the hotel for a nanna nap and off to dinner at a local ristorante.

May 19, 2013 - Sunday - Workshop Day 14

Last day :-( Today was setup day - - going over the guitar with steel wool to remove the excess oil and leave a smooth finish - applying wax, waiting for it to dry and rubbing like crazy to leave a glossy finish - fitting the machine heads - drilling through the end pin holes and countersinking - making the saddle - fitting the fat e string and lowering the saddle to obtain the desired 'action' (string height above the frets) - fitting the remaining strings and checking for string buzz - playing it in One by one, we would finish the setup...

May 18, 2013 - Saturday - Workshop Day 13

And then there were two ... Chris's "Wingmen" we're the last two (again) to oil their guitars. Marcus applied his first coat just after lunch, while I was still filling in gaps and scraping the bindings down ready for the first major sanding. With some 'help' from Chris, my guitar was ready a bit before 9pm and I applied the first oil in time for a late dinner, and it came up a treat. Another two coats before bed and Chris had dragged me over the line to be ready to setup with the others in the morning.

May 18, 2013 - Volterra and San Gimignano

We got an early start this morning after our hotel neighbors decided they would have an early morning. :0( We took it as a good opportunity for us to take a longer day trip to Volterra and San Gimignano once we finished breakfast. On the map it doesn't look far but the squiggly roads do require extra time to get from point A to point B. All in all it was about 1 hr and 45 minutes to get to Volterra, however the views make it worthwhile. Just listening to the GPS say the Italian road names was worth purchasing the maps. The names are so long...

May 17, 2013 - Friday - Workshop Day 12

Yet another long day but with some variation. Cut the saddle slot in the bridge, attached the heel piece to the back of the neck, continued the truss rod slot through to the sound hole of the body and glued the fret board in place. Most of the remainder of the day was spent shaping the neck, initially with the spoke shave and then with a rasp, chisel and sand paper. Fiona organised a masseuse (?) to come to the villa and a few of us took advantage of the opportunity. My hour commenced with a bit of pain but I fell asleep in the final few...

May 16, 2013 - Thursday - Worksop Day 11

The weather changed dramatically, raining all night and set in for most of the day, seemingly turning the street into a river. The power outage at lunchtime threatened to stop any work requiring power tools (probably only affecting me) but fortunately power and activity resumed quickly. The highlight for me today was finally attaching the neck to the body. I think this officially put me a day behind the next person, three days behind Paul who was actually playing his guitar for the first time. I listened to Chris playing it at the end of...