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Once again it was love at first sight on the island of Burano…and this is now my third trip here. The first time I visited, I think I giggled for the first hour… its like entering a real-life rainbow or canvas that might have been painted by a fauvist…with brightly coloured houses bursting with flowerContinue reading “The real-life rainbow”

After a stressful trip and a lesson in assuming you can get a train ticket to where you want to go…when you want to go…we arrive in Venice….to grey skies and rain. But Karen has replaced her suitcase when her previous one died a natural death by cobblestone…so all is well in our world anyway.Continue reading “The Floating City”

Leaving our beautiful seaside Lerici on route to Florence, we had time for one more gorgeous hill town….in an unknown corner of mountain landscapes and villages in the Tuscan Apennines called “the land of a hundred castles” and you cant miss them as you travel through the surrounding hamlets and countryside. Bagnone is a dramaticContinue reading “Our last days under the Tuscan sun”

While the internationally renowned Cinque Terre are spectacular places to visit on the Ligurian coast of Italy, they are overrun with tourists. So much so, that stepping onto a carriage on the train that runs between the villages can feel like a can of sardines. And the more I travel, the more I hate tourists.Continue reading “Italy’s last undiscovered coastal paradise”

Italy is home to some of the most spectacular, art-filled cities anywhere, but I believe the country’s true charm lies in the countryside, where life revolves around the piazza and the sweetness of doing nothing too much reigns supreme. Overflowing with old-world romance and gorgeous medieval architecture, these delightful little spots seem made for meanderingContinue reading “Life on a gelato diet”

There are roads that are not measured in kilometres, but in emotions… that offer picturesque scenery and so much more, embracing the rolling hills and the stone villages that dot them… the grapevines….the olive groves. We have finally reached Tuscany …and these are those roads. Listening to Ed Sheeran, Anne’s tears are close to theContinue reading “Fifty whimsical shades”

Before modern civilization…before the Romans, and even before the Etruscans, the god Saturn had enough with the men on earth who were constantly at war with one another. He decided to fling a thunder bolt at them which created a huge crater and a stream of warm, sulphurous water. This water shot into the airContinue reading “Red worms 😂”

We continued on through beautiful Umbria to Orvieto. Sitting on a cliff above fields streaked with vines, and olive and cypress trees, this town presents one of the most dramatic postcard like Italian hilltop towns and is gorgeous from first sight. Orvieto was a major centre of the Etrucscan civilization and is a thriving cityContinue reading “High in the sky”

Today we bid farewell to the beautiful Puglia with its jagged Mediterranean coastline…its ancient stone towers and beaches with clear turquoise waters…its groves of ancient olive trees, and gorgeous little whitewashed towns carved into hillsides in tones of white and gold…and head for a new chapter in our adventure under the Tuscan sun. We followContinue reading “Under your Spell…”

We make a lunch stop in Trani- with its stylish cosmopolitan feel and marvellous pink hued cathedral by the sea. Known as the pearl of Puglia, beautiful Trani is an elegant seaside town and fishing port with a sophisticated feel. Colourful fishing boats share the space with gleaming white yachts in the well-equipped harbour, whileContinue reading “Farewell to pure Puglian magic”