Another cold, but clear sunny day. Pete got up early and went to the Mercato Rialto (Rialto market) on the traghetto (gondola which short-cuts backwards and forwards straight across from one side of the Grand Canal to the other for 1 Euro each way) and came home with pork and fresh veg for dinner. I […]

We woke to our last morning in Florence and looked out of the window to a forest of umbrellas. It’s raining but we don’t care ‘cos we’re off to La Serenissima. But first, a last walk down to the river Arno, and the Galileo museum, where we happily spent a very interesting couple of hours […]

We were up quite late last night, for us that is. We did not leave to go out for dinner until after 8.00pm Such a spectacular day yesterday and it took its Toll. Pun intended But it is has gone 8am and Ilze is still asleep in spite of the booming from the nearby Campanile. […]

It’s said that you shouldn’t re-visit places you’ve already been to. That it won’t be as good the second time around. That’s partly true for us on this trip, as we’ve had our share of disappointments. Not so for Florence. Fabulous Florence. We woke this morning to thick fog, wet pavements – did it rain […]

“DARLING, THERE IS A CAMEL IN MY SOUP” Yesterday was a day of near misses. We travelled to Florence by bus from Sienna and then by train to Lucca. The time table for the departure of the bus said 10.10am. Arriving at the bus station meant a downhill walk, thankfully for one last time, through […]

FOUR PEAKS. Or. A failure to Blog. We were not going to blog today as we had planned to go off on the local bus to the famous mountain top town of San Gimignano. Only 25kms away and E6.80 and a must see according to the Lonely Planet guide and just about every other travel […]