Category: Europe2025

We have had a lovely time here in Milan. Only here for 2 nights (one full day), but we enjoyed our day in the city today.

Our observation of Milan is that it seems quite clean and liveable, while we found Florence to be very busy – actually, manic – and quite dirty and run down.

We have been staying at Fabio’s apartment here, just outside of Milan. It’s newly renovated and quite chic, and very comfortable. Once again, and like Laura’s place outside of Florence, we had access to private parking inside a gated complex, so Claude had another day off to rest.

Lazy thing he is.

But we are going to get our pound of flesh out of him tomorrow.

We only had one thing planned for today, and that was a walking tour that included the coffee culture in Milan.

We were public transport ninjas again today. The walking tour started at 9.30am and so we had an early breakfast, and coffee, and were out the door early and heading for the bus.

They have a really neat system here where you just tap on (and sometimes off) with your credit card, and so long as you use the same card each time you are only charged a maximum of €7.40 per 24 hour period, and then you ride for free.

We left home and it was raining already .. not a great start. We walked the 300m or so in the rain to the bus stop and took the 83 bus for several stops, then switched to the Metro and caught the M3 into the centre of Milan.

Milan – like every other place we have been in Italy – has a huge duomo. I may have previously (and incorrectly) stated that duomo means dome, but it actually means cathedral.

My bad. It’s an easy mistake to make.

We got to the duomo and looked around to get our bearings. One of us needed a toilet stop, so we went to the local McDonald’s, bought a coffee, and used their toilets.

I’m thinking about starting a new blog – “European Toilet Adventures”. Or maybe just “I’m-a-peeing”.

I don’t know if there is a heightened security risk in Milan, but McDonald’s had three security guys dressed all in black patrolling the store. I’m not sure if having three security guards patrolling the store was supposed to make me feel safer, but frankly it just made me nervous.

We walked to the starting point of our walking tour, and by the time we got there the rain was coming down hard and it was very gusty. My poor folding umbrella had gone inside out several times, and I suspect it may not be coming home to Australia with me.

That is a possible birthday gift idea for anyone following along. Worst case, when I re-read this in the future, I’ll remember why my umbrella is broken or missing.

Our guide today was Maria, who hails originally from Naples. She now lives in Milan and loves the coffee culture here, and we like coffee too … so it was a match made in Heaven.

She showed us various sights around Milan, but also took us to various coffee shops to try different types of coffee.

As I’m sure you appreciate, Italians tend to drink a cappuccino in the morning, but after lunch they only drink espresso. Personally I find espresso to be quite bitter, but when in Rome … or Milan.

So that’s the way we drank them.

The first coffee we tried was at a little hole-in-the wall place where they make coffee the traditional way from Naples, which is to use the crema mixed with sugar, and then add it to another shot of coffee. I understand that the traditional Naples coffee is an arabica bean that is medium roasted.

We each had a shot of that, and it was nice, but quite sweet. The traditional Naples coffee is served with a shot glass of sparkling water, and you are expected to drink the water first to cleanse your palette, then the coffee.

Drinking the water after the coffee is poor form, and frowned upon.

Not the way it is done in Italy.

Maria told us that the coffee shop have a system where you can pre-buy a coffee for a homeless person. They write each coffee up on a blackboard with the name of the person who gave it.

When a homeless person asks if there are any coffees available, they get given one and they are told who bought it for them.

Maria also said that there is a Netflix show called “Coffee for all” that tells this story.

That’s three coffees so far, and it was only 10.00am. We also had a croissant filled with pistachio cream, but only because they had just come out of the oven, and we didn’t want to offend them.

€5.30 for the lot.

I’m told that what we had is actually a traditional Italian breakfast, and in fact a few times now we have bought coffee and a pastry in Italy, and the pastry has been handed to us wrapped in a napkin and is typically eaten on the go.

When we came out of the coffee shop, the sun was out and we were blessed with blue skies.

Next stop was another coffee shop that sells northern Italian coffee – aribica and robusta blend, dark roasted, so strong, and bitter.

A bit like me.

And I have to say it was very bitter. Not my favourite.

That’s 4 coffees now.

Final stop was a place that brews coffees in a moka pot – one of those things you put on the stove. We have one in our caravan and works off the grid.

They had various styles of coffee that we could sample, including caramel, hazelnut, and regular. I can’t say that I’m a fan of flavoured coffee.

That’s 5 coffees, and it’s not even lunch time. I’m sure that I’m starting to see noises … MBW has developed a nasty twitch.

Tour over, we went to a recommended pizza place called Piz, and shared a Margherita pizza. When we get home, I’m looking forward to trying to use what we’ve learned here about pizza and simplify the way we make them.

And pasta too.

By the time we finished lunch it was raining again. Raining hard 😞

After lunch we went to La Scala – an historic opera house that was built around the same time that Captain Cook was discovering Australia. It’s a classically beautiful building, and we went through the museum and watched a part of the rehersal for an upcoming opera.

They also do lots of ballet there with lots of big names. And lots of old costumes on display.

After that we wandered down to what we were told is now the most expensive street in the world, surpassing 5th Avenue in New York.

It was a very unassuming street, and we got in and out without buying anything.

The final thing for today was a visit to Navigli, which is an area just outside of the city that still has some canals and is very much like a little Venice.

We jumped a Metro and a tram to get there, and as we got off the tram, the rain started coming down in sheets.

And we were instantly soaked.

So we changed plans, and went home instead.

It was around 5.00pm when we got home, tired and wet through. But a good tired.

Dinner was leftover gnocchi from last night with some parmesan toast.

Tomorrow we are off to Colmar, back in France. Google Maps says it will be a 5 to 6 hour drive, so we plan to leave early. We will cross Switzerland at some point – likely at 130km/h and without stopping – and get into France around lunchtime. Hopefully we will be at our AirBNB mid- to late-afternoon.

It’s still raining here, so I may need to trade Claude in on an ark.

Yesterday afternoon when we arrived here at Milan, we went for a quick walk of our local area.

Do you remember that I commented about how pharmacies have a condom vending machine outside? Well, our local pharmacy has a vending machine that sells condoms and pregnancy testing kits.

I’m not sure if that means they are not sure of the quality of their condoms, or just want to provide a full end-to-end service to the public.

I’ll give you some photos of Fabio’s place tomorrow night, as I suspect that with a 5 to 6 hour drive tomorrow, I won’t have much other fodder for the blog.

Hopefully the trip tomorrow will be both boring and uneventful.

Those magic beans from this morning have worn off and I need more coffee.

Don’t judge me.

Ciao

#Europe2025

It will be a short one tonight.

We stayed at Laura’s place in Florence for the last few nights. It was comfortable, but not really close enough to the centre of Florence where all of the fun stuff happens.

And the rain didn’t help much, either with the traffic, the bus schedules, or my attitude.

We got away about 9.00am as usual.

I’m a bit annoyed that we pay a cleaning fee at these places, and then we are requested (and expected) to strip the bed, gather the towels and dump the rubbish.

So rubbish dumped and Claude packed, we gave Joséphine instructions to take us to Milan.

Last night when we looked at the route we’d be travelling, it was going to take us one way and take 4 hours. Today, that same route was going to take 5 hours, so we got a different route on the A1 motorway.

It’s nice when Joséphine gives us options.

We had to navigate the surface streets on the outskirts of Florence to get onto the motorway, and as luck would have it, it was peak hour.

And in peak hour, the traffic is worse, the speed limits are less relevant than they normally are, and the crazy Italians take crazy to a whole new level.

Crazy!

There was horn honking, shouting, gesticulating, cussing … and that was just me. The other drivers were insane.

It was like being in a dodgem car, without the actual contact. Cars going everywhere, cutting you off, overtaking.

Yikes.

But we got out of the city and onto the motorway without incident, just some frayed nerves.

It was another day of driving through tunnels. Every so often Joséphine got herself in an absolute twist because the tunnels were so long that she had no idea where we were.

Losing all GPS signal will do that.

One tunnel we went through today seemed to go forever. MBW checked on the Intergoogle and it appears that one was 8.5km long.

That’s a lot of digging.

And we seemed to be travelling downhill for most of the day. I’m not sure if Florence is on the top of a mountain, but we were definitely going downhill.

It’s all very confusing for a simple-minded person like me, but great for fuel economy. I think we have averaged 5.2 litres/100km on this tank, and it says we still have 750km range remaining.

Around 10.30 we stopped off the motorway at one of those service centres and had coffee and croissants.

The speed limits continue to confuse me. I have too many data points.

Google Maps displays 110. Claude thinks (from his sign recognition system) that it is 130. I’m sure I last saw a sign that said 90, yet people are overtaking me at something close to the speed of sound.

It makes it really hard to know how fast to go when Joséphine reports a speed camera ahead.

As luck would have it, after 2 days of rain in Florence, we were driving in almost clear blue skies. Although I guess that’s always preferred when you are travelling at speed, to travelling at speed in the rain surrounded by lunatics.

After coffee we decided to plan a lunch stop, and the lucky winner was a shopping complex named Esselunga, in the township of Piacenza.

Not that we needed to eat, but we can’t get into our digs in Milan until 2.00pm, and we needed to fill in time.

So Joséphine got new instructions and off we went.

Esselunga is our new favourite place until we get back to France, then it will be E.Leclerc again.

We found the shop (it’s like a Costco), bought some stuff we needed, and some stuff we didn’t need (of course), then told Joséphine to take us to Milan.

A couple of minor roundabout debacles but they are easily corrected by going around again, and we found ourselves at the on-ramp of the motorway again.

Signage was unclear, and in a moment of gratuitous indecision, we (… well, technically I because they were my hands on the steering wheel) picked the wrong lane.

I’m calling it a parallax error, because I genuinely thought it was the right lane, but once I was committed to the decision I quickly developed a sense of buyer’s remorse.

An overwhelming sense of buyer’s remorse.

I went through the eTag lane without an eTag.

Bugger.

The Italians may be a lot of things, but they are not very advanced when it comes to eTag lanes. Unlike Australia where you ring up and pay within 3 days, that’s not an option here.

There is no delayed gratification on the Italian motorways. Only instant, and crushing regret.

You don’t need a tag to go through the eTag lane getting ON to the motorway, but you most definitely need one at the other end to get OFF.

And if you don’t have an eTag at the exit point, then you need to pay using your ticket as you get off. Except if you didn’t get a ticket getting on because you stupidly chose the eTag lane, then you are in a world of hurt.

Double bugger.

So we found ourselves at the toll exit and pressed the assistance button, and put on our hazard lights. This could take a while, much to the delight (NOT) of the cars behind us.

Anyhow, the assistance operator was very helpful, and between him and his limited English, and me with my “non parlo Italiano”, we finally reached a tacit agreement that a) Geoff had a problem, b) Geoff had “no ticket” (the only two words of English he could obviously understand, probably because he’s heard them from frightened tourists many times before), and finally that c) Piacenza was where we got on and made the blunder.

I expected to be strip searched by the local Polezzi but I was lucky – he tapped some buttons at his end and €4.30 displayed on the screen, and I tapped my Mastercard.

The machine said “arrivederci” (“goodbye”, but more likely “get lost you crazy Australian”), the boom went up, and we drove away.

We were expecting a “maximum possible toll fee” for our error, and maybe that’s still coming. But for now I can just add “failure to take a ticket” to my list of sins, along with fare evasion on buses.

I’m really going to have to go to confession. Maybe we should make a side trip to Rome to see the Pope, because I think I’m going to need someone influential to forgive me my sins in Italy.

We got into Milan around 2 30pm feeling a little frazzled. We had a quick lunch and went out to find the local post office.

Despite the sunny start to the day, it’s been raining all afternoon … just in time for our Milan coffee culture walking tour tomorrow.

We found a nice bakery around the corner, so that might be breakfast tomorrow.

It’s been a stressful day, and I haven’t been my best self.

I’m all caught up on the blog again, and we had a nice dinner of gnocchi with a ricotta and truffle oil pesto sauce.

Yum. There will be a lot of pasta in my future, I think.

Now I just need coffee. And sleep.

And maybe a valium.

On a humorous note for today, when we stopped at the shops in Piacenza today, I used their facilities. Beside the toilet was two things: a huge red button, and a red and white sign (see below).

Where I come from, a big red button and a red and white lettered sign translates to “if you are having a heart attack and need urgent assistance, press this button.”

But in this case it literally translates to “to start the drainage, press the button.”

They could have just said “flush”. Crazy and unnecessarily verbose Italians.

Sorry for the lack of quality photos, but there are slim pickings today.

Editor’s note: it appears that I can be unnecessarily verbose also. Sorry.

Ciao

#Europe2025

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “Q”.

In the movie “Four weddings and a funeral “, there is a song that goes “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes …”, sung by a group called “Wet Wet Wet”.

All of which is very ironic. Sunday when we arrived in Florence it was wet. Yesterday – Monday – was worse. This morning was wet, wet, wet. And cold.

Wet enough that when I took some rubbish out to the bin near the entry gates – a round trip of maybe 50 metres, I was drenched. My nice, dry shoes were soaked. Not a good start.

Cold enough when we walked to the bus stop this morning that I couldn’t feel anything in my fingers or toes.

And then I made a strategic blunder.

I took one of Laura’s big umbrellas with us today. Serious mistake.

The rain was coming down hard as we walked to the bus, but lucky me had a big umbrella.

We caught the 14 bus into Florence. The AirBNB listing says it is a 20 minute trip into Florence. Plus the 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop, and plus the 20 minutes you spend standing around like a shag on a rock waiting for a bus to actually arrive.

20 minutes if you are lucky.

And then in reality, and especially with the rain, the 20 minute trip is closer to 45 minutes … but we have had some that have taken over an hour.

We were clever bus ninjas today – we got off a few stops earlier than our usual stop so that we could very cleverly swap to a different bus and get much closer to our starting point for today’s adventure, with less distance to walk in the rain.

Sadly, the 2nd bus never turned up. Not when it was supposed to, and not for another 30-40 minutes after it was supposed to.

And when it did turn up, it was chockers. Plus it had a couple of ticket inspectors on it. Argh!

This morning we were booked to see the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor. And then this afternoon we were booked to see the Galleria dell’Academia.

With many of these historic sites, you have to book a time to get in. You miss your time, you miss out on visiting.

You may remember yesterday we had to be at the duomo at 8.15am. Same deal today.

Today’s adventure was a little different, though. We were booked to see the Vasari Corridor – the “main event” – at 12.15pm, and that automatically gave us access to the Uffizi Gallery also.

Stay with me.

You have to see the Uffizi Gallery first, and that takes at least 45 minutes. Then you must (MUST!!) be at the start point for the accompanied tour (not a “guided tour”, an “accompanied tour”) of the Vasari Corridor on time. 12.15pm in our case.

But you are recommended to start the Uffizi Gallery 2 hours before your appointed time so that you have ample time to see it all.

If that 2nd bus had turned up on time, we would have been at the start point for the Uffizi Gallery at 10.15am. But that wasn’t to be 😞

We arrived at the start point for the Uffuzi Gallery about 11.15am, and there would have been maybe 1,000 people queued up with no specific entry time requirements. Most people don’t do the corridor.

We got in the queue.

So let me recap: we were standing in a queue behind probably 1,000 people, it was pouring rain, and there was insufficient time between when we were likely to enter and when we needed to be at the corridor, and we still needed to navigate security.

And there was absolutely no organisation by the staff in the management of the crowd. It was every man, woman and child for themselves.

Can it get any better?

We finally got through security around 11.45am, giving us little time to see the Uffizi Gallery … unless we hurried.

Remember that big umbrella I borrowed from Laura’s place? Big umbrellas aren’t allowed in, so I had to queue up for the cloakroom to drop it off.

But here is the kicker … I couldn’t drop off my umbrella at the cloak room because they have to give you a numbered tag, and they’d run out of tags. I had to wait until someone came back to collect their umbrella so that their numbered tag could be re-allocated to me.

And there was probably 20 people in the queue ahead of me with the same problem.

Anyway, long story short, I dropped off the umbrella and was allocated #177, and off we went.

Eventually.

My “ticket” was a dog-eared post-it note that had seen better days, and I wasn’t feeling confident that I … er Laura … would ever see that umbrella again.

They say a minimum of 45 minutes to see the gallery but we did it in something like 15 or 20 minutes. We didn’t see much.

Now as I’m sure you know, I’m something of a cultural vacuum. When I think of culture, I think of yoghurt.

It was a fascinating gallery of art and historical artefacts, but I confess that I don’t truly understand the background or context to why the gallery was created. I’m going to have to check on the Intergoogle.

So we raced through this gallery of timeless and possibly priceless exhibits, and got to the Vasari Corridor – the “main event” – on time.

That was a miracle, and no thanks to the Italian curators of the venue.

The Vasari Corridor is approximately 1km long and was built by some Grand Duke in the 16th Century so that he could travel freely between two Palazzos (Palaces) – his personal palace Palazzo Pitti, and the Government palace, Palazzo Vecchio – and he wouldn’t have to mix with the great unwashed, because he was fearful for his safety. Poor guy.

The corridor also connects to a church – the Church of Santa Felicita where the Grand Duke could enter a balcony of the church without having to sit next to any sinners.

Sorry, that probably sounded like sarcasm.

It was interesting, but because it was only an accompanied tour, there was minimal commentary. And it was only a corridor.

The Uffizi Gallery was full of artworks, and this was a corridor with (as far as I could see) nothing special except a view into the church, and a view over the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge).

So … I’m not sure if I missed something, but it was only a corridor.

If you’ve been to Singapore and caught a train, you’ve walked in corridors before, although – I acknowledge – not necessarily with the historical significance of the Vasari Corridor.

The whole morning felt like a bit of a fizzer to be honest. Maybe if I was Italian … or Catholic?

We felt like we had rushed around and queued all morning, and not seen much. And now it was time to collect that stupid umbrella from the cloak room.

The end of the Vasari Corridor deposits you back into the outside world, on the other side of the river. Remember how I said that the corridor is about 1km long? We were now about 1km away from the start of the Uffizi Gallery, and outside the gallery, with no (simple) way of getting back in

So we navigated our way back to the start of the gallery, and there were now probably 1,500 people queued to get in … and with no practical way to bypass the queue to get back to the cloakroom.

I waved my post-it note around like it was an important and official document, and – with some queue jumping and trying to look important – I got back to the cloakroom via yet another security check in about 30 minutes.

We needed food (… I actually needed a drink, or a sedative …) and MBW wanted to look at the leather market to get a bargain on a handbag. So we headed off to the markets and MBW beat some poor vendor down from €35 to €20 for cash, then we had pasta for lunch at the food markets.

MBW had carbonara, while I had gnocchi and it was OK. Not the best pasta I’ve ever had, but not the worst either.

We had a few hours to kill before the Galleria dell’Academia at 4.45pm.

We found a McDonalds and had ourselves a couple of coffees, used their toilets and wandered the streets for an hour and a half.

Back into another queue to get in, although we were lucky because we had pre-booked tickets. Those without tickets were doomed to join a queueueueue. A long one.

The main attraction at the Galleria dell’Academia is the Statue of David, 17 foot high, and carved by Michelangelo in the early 1500s out of a single block of marble.

David, BTW, is the same one from the biblical story of David and Goliath.

Here’s a fun fact: Michelangelo was only about 26 years old and relatively unknown when he carved this statue, and he only got the job because two other “notable” artists declined to do it because they felt that the marble was floored.

So we got into the gallery and guess what? Umbrellas aren’t allowed in the Gallery, so I had to drop it off at the cloakroom.

Have I mentioned that it hadn’t rained in Florence since we entered the Uffizi Gallery around 11.30am, and we now had partially blue skies?

Stupid umbrella. Stupid Geoff.

The Statue of David is truly a masterpiece, and that was the highlight of our day. The Gallery also contains lots of plaster casts by other artists like Botticelli, lots of paintings, and a musical instrument gallery holding violins, including some Stradivarius.

Around 6.00pm we were pooped and decided to head home.

Our ever-unreliable number 14 bus was again unreliable – consistently unreliable – and we waited 30 minutes for 3 services to not turn up.

When one finally did arrive, it was at about 125% capacity but we pushed our way in anyway. We weren’t waiting any longer.

That was an unpleasant experience. Peak hour traffic plus a lot of hot bodies packed into a bus was not a fun way to spend 60 minutes and end the afternoon.

The Grand Duke would have been horrified!

We got back to our station (Il Girone) after 7.00pm with nothing in the fridge that could reasonably be described as dinner, and there were no shops or restaurants nearby or open.

So we had cheese and crackers with coffee for dinner. Pre-packed our bags ready to leave in the morning, and went to bed.

I’m sorry to say that Florence hasn’t been our favourite city so far. The Statue of David was amazing, and the climb to the top of the Duomo yesterday was a fabulous experience.

The pasta making class was great too, and I’m looking forward to making pasta when we get home.

But Florence is just madness. So many people crowding around, and we are not even in peak season.

The other thing that spoiled Florence a bit for us was our accommodation. While it was comfortable and included parking for Claude (who got a couple of days rest), the apartment itself was freezing and we could only get the central heating going by asking the host to please turn it on.

Seriously, before that I was in my thermals so I wouldn’t die from hypothermia.

And the rain didn’t help either.

And the queuing for things that were just poorly organised and managed.

Some people rave about Florence, and maybe under different circumstances we might too, but there were just things that spoiled the overall experience for us.

C’est la vie.

Così è la vita.

Sorry if you are a fan of Florence. If I ever come back, there’s a few things I’ll do differently … like not carry a stupid umbrella and just get wet.

Tomorrow morning we head for Milan for a couple of nights.

And then we have a long drive over the alps to get back into France. Probably through the alps, I suspect.

Ciao

#Europe2025

This morning I re-read yesterday’s post, and it seemed a bit terse. Almost angry.

Sorry if you got the same impression, because that wasn’t the intention.

As I was finalising the post late last night, I wasn’t my best self. I was feeling a bit … terse. Frustrated.

But I’ll come to that soon.

I need to start today’s post by rewinding to yesterday afternoon.

Rain. Cold and wet.

We got changed into warm clothes and waterproof shoes and jackets.

Allegedly waterproof shoes.

Got our umbrellas and set off for the bus stop, about a 5 minute walk up the street from Laura’s apartment.

The 14 bus.

We were going out for our pasta making class at 4.00pm.

We got to the bus stop early to get into Florence early. Our host – Laura – had said that buses were not too frequent on Sundays, and we didn’t want to be late.

The bus was on time, and we got into Florence about 40 minutes later. The city was nuts! Cars driving everywhere, parked everywhere. Just nuts.

Why is everybody in town on a Sunday night?

We went for a walk to see (locate) where our class was, then just walked around in the rain for a while. It was pretty cold and miserable, so we found a coffee shop and sheltered for a while out of the weather.

Now, a disclaimer. I’m not complaining about the weather. We have been blessed with fabulous weather for the whole trip, and this is probably the first time in 6 weeks we have had constant rain.

But regardless, we are cold and wet and it’s taking some of the fun out of Florence for us.

So we sheltered in the coffee shop until almost time for our pasta class, and we headed on down.

There were quite a lot of people there waiting for the class to start, but it turned out that they run several back-to-back classes, and the people waiting were split into two groups. MBW and I got put into a group of 11 people, of which there were 7 Americans, 2 Canadians, and us.

All relatively young and hip people. And MBW and myself.

We learned how to make the dough from flour and egg, how to roll and fold it, and then how to create fettuccine ready for cooking.

That was pretty easy, even for someone like me that is as dumb as a box of rocks.

Then we made another lot of dough, split it into two, and made two more things: we formed the first batch into cappeletti with a ricotta, parmesan and nutmeg filling, and a second batch of ravioli with ricotta, parmsan and truffle oil.

We were then shown how to cook the fettuccine in a (provided) tomato sauce, and the other two pastas in butter and sage.

All very easy peasy. I can see pasta being my new Saturday night favourite, particularly in winter.

When everything was cooked, we (all 11 of us) had a meal together of everything we had made. And it was really good.

A carb overload, perfect for a cold, wet night.

The class started at 4.00pm and finished at 7.00pm, and MBW and I scurried to the bus stop to get the bus back home. It is about a 30-40 minute bus trip, so all things being equal, we expected to be home before dark.

The rain had set in and the buldings don’t have much in the way of overhang to protect you from the weather, so it was a bit cold and miserable. Our folding umbrellas were doing the best that they could, but … 😞

The appointed time for the bus to arrive came and went, and Google Maps reported that the bus had departed. How did we miss that?

Then the next one, and the one after that.

As we stood there looking at our phones and trying to work out what we had missed, a young lady (late 20s?) asked if we needed help. She was waiting for the same bus as we were, and she had been waiting for an hour.

She went on to say that the Sunday before Easter is a public holiday in Florence (maybe Italy), and that the buses were at best irregular, or at worst, unreliable.

Tonight they were worse than unreliable … they were non-esistent.

MBW checked Uber to see if we could Uber it out of the city, and we were quoted $110 (approx AUD$200) due to “inceased demand” and (we later found out) because they have to enter a ZTL.

We figured that it would be cheaper just to get a hotel room in the city for the night. As we were deciding what to do, a 14A bus came along and we got on. By the time we were another 2 or 3 stops further into the journey we have about 28 stops to travel home), the bus was well over capacity.

For reference, it was at about this point that I was finishing last night’s post. That possibly explains any terseness in yesterday’s post.

Home, coffee, hot shower, and into bed, ready for today’s adventure.

Today started overcast, with a forecast of rain. Shoes from last night were still wet, so we found alternative shoes, had breakfast and headed out before the sun had even come up. We were at the bus station waiting for another 14 bus before 7.00am.

We needed to be in the city early today because we had tickets to climb Brunelleschi’s Duomo (Dome). There are a few things that you need to know about the Duomo.

Firstly, it is one of the things that everyone says is a “must do” in Florence. There are 463 steps leading up to the top of the dome, and the steps were originally there so that workmen who built the dome could get up there. The steps weren’t installed for the benefit of tourists.

The steps up to the dome were also installed in a time when workplace health and safety rules were a little different to what they are now.

The steps are narrow, steep, and irregular. And the passageways that you walk through are often narrow with a low ceiling.

Visitors to the dome are specifically warned that the climb is not suitable for people with certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure (check), vertigo (I’m not thrilled with heights), claustrophobia (yes, I sometimes have those tendancies), or pregnancy (not sure, but I don’t think so).

The other piece of important advice from those who have clmbed the dome before us is to ensure that you have an empty bladder before climbing. It appear that Brunelleschi also neglected to install toilets up in the dome for the benefit of workers or tourist.

So we went to the Duomo’s ticket office where there are paid toilets, and we paid our €1.00 each and mitigated another potentional risk.

I’m not sure how to classify that €2.00 in my expenses log, or if I can claim it as a tax deduction … I’ll have to speak with my accountant about that.

We had bought tickets months ago for the dome climb and while they weren’t terribly expensive (€30 each), this might be the only opportunity we ever get, and I wasn’t leaving MBW to do the climb herself. And some of the ladies at the pasta course last night said that they had done it that day, and it was amazing.

Claustrophobic, but amazing.

There were also 3 ambulances positioned at the bottom of the building, so I figured that I would have medical aid in the event of a catastrophe.

We were in the city before 7.45, dropped off our backpacks and went off to do the 8.15am climb.

Sure, the steps were narrow and 463 steps is a bit of a killer, particularly for people like us that eat deep-fried things at 10 o’clock in the morning.

And some of the passageways were narrow and low, but the experience was amazing. You come out at the very top of the dome and get amazing views across Florence.

And you also come out at the very top pretty sweaty. Well, I was sweaty … MBW was glistening.

One disadvantage of the 463 steps up is that there are also 463 steps back down, and they are pretty perilous. Narrow circular staircases that seem bad going up are pretty tricky coming down, especially with no handrails. And you get dizzy.

But we had fun and the experience was amazing. We were done and dusted by 9.30 and had collected our stuff, and we went for a wander.

The next activIty planned for today was a foody walking tour with taste testings. That was scheduled for an 11.30am start, so we poked around the city for a while and bought some souvenirs, then went to a McDonald’s McCafe for a brew.

Not the best coffee I’ve ever had, but not the worst either. And it came with a free pass to the McToilet.

The walking tour was great – it lasted for 2.5 hours and we learned about lots of stuff and tried many different things. The only problem was not the walking tour, but the weather. The rain had set in and it was constant and borderline heavy by now … so you didn’t just get wet from the stuff falling from the sky, but you also needed to avoid all of the stuff that had already fallen from the sky and was now a ground-level problem.

Gutters overflowing, water running down the streets, cars and buses going by and splashing you.

The tour finished with gelato, and we do like gelato.

It was now after 2.00pm and the rain wasn’t letting up. Our shoes and socks were soaked, our jeans were wet, our jackets were wet, and we were ready to head home.

We still have one more full day here in Florence and while the weather forecast doesn’t seem promising, we are mainly doing museum-like stuff tomorrow, so hopefully we won’t get as wet.

We caught our number 14 bus back home to have a quiet afternoon. We’d had a late night last night, a poor night sleep (because we are both out of practice waking to an alarm), and an early start today. I’m out of practice waking in the dark too.

We got back to the apartment around 3.30 and got out of our wet clothes, and into some dry stuff.

Our host – Laura – has 4 cats, and the apartment guidebook speaks extensively about the cats … but is silent on important matters like how to turn on the apartment’s central heating.

It was really, really cold inside, so we messaged Laura and she activated it remotely.

We had a quick dinner of pasta, with ricotta and walnut pesto, and I’m about to make coffee for MBW.

I think it will be an early night tonight, but I’m looking forward to exploring Florence some more tomorrow.

And I’ll be praying for sunshine.

Ciao

#Europe2025

There is a little bit of content tonight that might be classified MA. Nothing to worry about, but just letting you know

The day started cool and gloomy.

We were leaving La Gruccia to head to Florence (or Firenze in the local lingo) this morning, so I checked the weather forecast, hoping for something better than gloomy.

Rain. 98% chance of it.

I’d be happy with those odds if I was buying a ticket in a $100m Powerball draw, but I’m not impressed for rain.

So we had a problem today, other than just the weather.

We had told Cinzia we planned to leave around 10.00am because the trip to Florence on the SR222 is about 50km (1.5 hours), and we can’t check in to Laura’s apartment until 1.00pm … and the maths doesn’t work.

So we were going to have to drive slowly and make plenty of stops.

Unfortunately we were bathed, fed, packed, done the daily “Connections” puzzle, and Claude loaded by 9.00am, which makes the maths even worse.

We noticed that Claude is very dirty, so the rain might help.

We said goodbye to Cinzia and handed back the keys, and listened to her babble in Italian for a while. Once again, we have no idea what she said.

MBW – the little researcher that she is – said that Greve in Chianti is a nice place to visit, so we aimed for that.

I stuck to the speed limit, much to the chagrin of the cars stuck behind me, although I did pull off the road regularly to let them pass.

Before we got to Greve in Chianti, we went through Panzano in Chianti and MBW spotted some markets.

Parking was problematic, so I drove through the township to turn around, but that wasn’t possible to achieve safely for some time.

But we turned around and headed back, and found a free parking station. Locked Claude and went off walking.

Not a great deal to see, but it killed some time. As we were walking back we passed a food truck selling all kinds of interesting stuff, so we paid €5.50 and bought some hot, deep-fried and salty potato things, onion rings, deep-fried vegetables, fried polenta, and chicken wings.

It was hardly 10.00am and it probably wasn’t the wisest choice for one of us with borderline high blood pressure, but we all have to die of something.

And I’ve survived French and Italian drivers so far, so deep-fried food at 10.00 o’clock in the morning should be a walk in the park.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but the food was great and filled a space.

A space which – BTW – I didn’t even know I had.

We got back into Claude and continued on to Greve in Chianti only to find a very busy little township with lots of people and cars moving around, and nowhere to park. We drove around for a while and decided it was too much effort, so kept going towards Florence.

By this time it was about 11.00 and we only had about 19km remaining before Florence, and the maths were getting worse.

So MBW checked on the Intergoogle again and found a coffee and pastry shop up ahead that got good reviews, so we asked Josephine to take us there.

That was in Strada in Chianti. I don’t know what the “in Chianti” in every township name means, but I’ll look it up later.

The coffee and croissants were indeed very good and quite cheap – about €7.50 total. We’ve paid more than that just for two cups of bad coffee.

And the place was hopping, which always gives me confidence.

And they had a toilet, so it was a trifecta.

We’ve noticed a strange thing about pharmacies in France, and now in Italy. They nearly always have a condom vending machine installed outside.

I don’t know if condoms are the most important item they sell, or if they are trying to discourage population growth.

If you don’t know what a condom is, I’m not explaining it here. Ask your parents.

Anyhow, from Strada in Chianti it was a straight run to Florence, and we got into our AirBNB just on 1.00pm.

We have a pasta making course tonight and we’ll be getting home late, so that will be tomorrow’s news.

Ciao

#Europe2025

It’s starting to feel “normal” driving on the wrong side of the car, and the wrong side of the road.

Until you are happily driving along and see a car coming towards you and you have a momentary panic, because you realise that you are on the wrong side of the car, and on the wrong side of the road.

MBW made her first blunder today when she walked to the driver’s door to get in, thinking she was going to the passenger side. I’ve possibly done the same thing once, although in reverse … but MBW didn’t see me do it, so it doesn’t count.

Every so often we will be driving along through the pretty countryside, and I have this crashing realisation that we are in Italy. It’s pretty amazing to be here – not something that I would ever have expected I’d have had the opportunity to do.

And I get to do it with MBW, which makes it extra special ❤️

If only MBW was fluent in Italian, then it would have been perfect.

Today was just another beautiful day in Tuscany. The day started out clear and cool, but turned overcast with very high level clouds. The afternoon warmed up nicely and we got down to short sleeves.

We went for another drive today – North and West. To Volterra and Certaldo, specifically.

Both are beautiful medieval, hilltop villages. Forgive me, but all medieval hilltop villages are starting to look the same.

We started the day with some video calls – Mitchell is back for a week break from working in the mines, and we had a nice chat with another two of our FLP (Teddy and Lili).

We had a quick chat with Joey too, while we were stopped at the side of the road heading towards Volterra.

We’ve caught up on all the gossip now too. If there is something gossip-worthy going on in your life, we may have been talking about you.

Especially if your ears were burning.

We had a late start. We didn’t leave home until about 9.30am due to washing hair, washing clothes, and video calls.

The drive to Volterra was a pretty one and took us about an hour. Volterra is the Mt Glorious of Tuscany – there were dozens of motorbikes there, with leather-clad bikers enjoying the village and sipping espressos.

Volterra was very touristy – lots and lots of people, lots of shops, paid parking and paid toilets.

We parked in the parking station just outside the village, because the only other option was an open-air parking station about 2km away, and at the bottom of the hill.

And that didn’t seem like a good option for either of us, especially when the alternative was only €2.00/hour.

Without wanting to drift into topics about toilets, the fact was that we both needed to take a tinkle, and we couldn’t even find a paid toilet that was open.

I don’t know how the Italians survive in this country without reliable public toilet facilities. Maybe that’s why the grass at the sides of the road is so green …?

So instead of paying €1.00 each to use public toilets, we bought two pieces of pizza at €3.00 each and used the Pizzeria’s toilet for free.

You can see why everyone drives a small car here. Coming out of the carpark, the ramp up (we were 4 levels underground) was such a tight turn that poor Claude was on full lock, and I was doing the maths in my head trying to figure out if I was better scraping the side of the car, or hitting someone head-on who was coming down the ramp.

Fortunately neither of those catastrophes occurred, and Claude lives to see another day.

We then headed over to Certaldo which was about 40 minutes away. Again another pretty little hilltop village, but less tourists and free toilets.

Certaldo has some history with a dude named Boccaccio who wrote the Decameron in the 14th century. That’s all I know about it, and I only know that much because that’s what MBW told me.

As I said before, all medieval hilltops are starting to look the same, so we bought gelato as penance for using their toilets for free … although if eating gelato is a form of punishment, then I’m dedicating my life to being bad.

And that’s about it. A nice, quiet day in Tuscany.

We stopped into a giant Coop on the way home and bought groceries, then filled up Claude ready for the onwards journey to Florence tomorrow.

Claude is averaging about 5.8 litres/100km which is pretty darn good. One of those Fiat Bambinos could probably do much better, but we wouldn’t be able to get our suitcases in.

The Landcruiser can carry lots of suitcases, but he can’t come close to matching that fuel economy.

We met Cinzia’s son this morning … it’s Saturday and he has no school. He is 6 years old and was being a typical 6 year old playing with sticks. Nice kid.

Cinzia is a funny old stick. Her English is as bad as our Italian, but she just keeps waving her hands around and continues to speak Italian at us, even though we have no idea what she is saying.

We just keep nodding, and she seems happy with that.

We are off to Florence tomorrow for a few nights, and we start with a pasta-making course and then get some culture.

Personally I think I get enough culture from the yoghurt on my breakfast each morning, but MBW thinks I need more.

BTW I’ve learned a new Italian word – “intero”. It means “entire” and is an important word to see on your carton of milk because it means full cream.

Why they can’t just write “full cream” is beyond me.

That’s about it. Claude has done almost 3,000km and is behaving nicely, although he is covered in dirt and dust thanks to the dirt roads we travel on to get to our AirBNB here in La Gruccia.

It’s supposed to rain the next couple of days in Flirence which is a bit of a bugger, but at least Claude will get a wash.

We are going the scenic route from La Gruccia to Florence tomorrow along the SR222, so hopefully I’ll have some nice photos to share tomorrow night.

And hopefully no speeding tickets.

Ciao

#Europe2025

Just to set your expectations, there isn’t a great deal of news today. That doesn’t mean that we had the day off – far from it.

We had a delightful day driving around Tuscany. Soaking in the sights, sounds, smells, and taste of Tuscany.

We had a really relaxing day.

From our research, there are a number of townships (or villages) around La Gruccia that we wanted to visit. So, with three full days here, we have headed off in a slightly different direction each day.

Today was south and east.

Before we left home this morning, we packed our swimmers. Yep, pretty random, I know. It’s hardly the weather for going to the beach.

Nearby La Gruccia, there are a few places where there are hot mineral baths that are (mostly) free to use. So we picked our favourite, and set off.

That will be Bagno Vignoni, about an hour and a quarter from home.

Once again, I find myself with no sense of direction. Someone has suggested to me that the problem is we are used to the sun being in front of us, in the north, but here it is behind us. So everything seems back-to-front.

So many of the roads that we tend to travel along are these narrow and winding bits of bitumen (and sometimes just gravel). You never have this sense that you are generally heading in one direction, but going around in circles.

Maybe not going around in circles, but doubling back on yourself the whole time.

And Joséphine doesn’t help … she will issue an instruction to “keep left”, when what she meant was “turn left”. So we often find ourselves on the wrong road and having to turn around.

Which – by the way – does absolutely nothing to help address the feeling like I’m going around in circles, because I am going around in circles.

Anyway, we were on our way to Bagno Vignoni – we’d only been gone from home for about 5 minutes – and we took a wrong turn based on an ambiguous intruction from Joséphine, and we found ourselves in a little cluster of houses in Poggibonsi – the area in which we live.

Driving here is so different to driving at home. When I think of the trip from home to Capalaba, we follow straight lines, turn 90 degree corners, and follow more straight lines. And it’s all relatively flat.

But here, there are sharp corners and turns, and steep hills both up and down. So you never have the opportunity to become complacent or relaxed, because you can come around a corner and be pulling out onto another road with virtually no visibility.

The cluster of houses that we found ourselves in was – like so many that we have seen – at the top of a hill and surrunded by a high stone wall.

It obviously wasn’t where Joséphine wanted me to be and she was confused. I was confused because I found myself in somebody’s front yard with nowhere to go, and the owners were confused because I was an execpected guest.

Although to be fair, I spend most of my time confused.

We did a hasty turn and got back onto the right road towards Bagno Vignoni.

It was a pleasant drive in the Italian countryside, but the closer we got to Bagno Vignoni, the more people we saw walking or cycling on the road.

Very confusing.

We found the township, avoided the ZTL, and found a parking space at the side of the road. Paid our €1.50 into the parking meter and went for a walk.

I’m sorry to say that Bagno Vignoni was a bust. They do have a big hot springs bath in the centre of town, but they (the township) have closed it off to visitors, leaving the local spa place as your only option.

There are some other hot springs baths around the place, but they were either too far away, or you needed to walk some distance into the bush to get access … and that wasn’t happening.

But we did solve the mystery of the people walking and cycling. There is a “trail” that you follow that is taken on foot (or by pushbike, I suspect) and it takes you between particular villages. It is obviously very popular as there were lot of people moving around.

From there we headed to San Quirico d’Orcia. This is a little village that was made famous due to the making of a movie called La Dolce Villa, where most of the filming occurred.

We found the little village square that was featured prominently, although we have also learned that the movie directors built a little fountain in the square, and the fountain doesn’t exist in real life.

Sigh. Another bubble burst 🙁

It was still a pretty and unique village, and we went outside the city walls to have lunch – a Tagliere, which is a share platter of meats, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, breads, olive oil and honey.

There is a classic Italian/Tuscan image that shows a line of cypress trees going down a slope with a road in the middle. We wanted to see if we could find that location. Whle we didn’t find that exact location of that famous image (it was a long way away from where we were), we did drive through some spectacularly beautiful countryside of rolling green hills.

All so very different to Australia, where we drive along roads surrounded by bush and scrub. This is like driving through Maleny, all the time.

We needed to go through Siena to get home, and it is another one of those places that the books say to visit. Joséphine successfully took us into Siena and I was following a bus, when I realised that he was going into a ZTL, and I only realised just in time.

That was all a bit close for comfort. I thought we had instructed Joséphine to warn us about ZTLs.

So we dove around looking for somewhere to park outside the city walls, but it was manic Friday afternoon traffic with nowhere to park.

We haven’t yet figured out all of the parking signs that are in Italian, so we couldn’t work out if the places with available parking were resident parking, or what was going on.

It was after 3.30 and we were getting tired of battling the traffic, so we headed for home.

I think I have developed an ability to ignore the crazy Italians … if I am puddling along at the speed limit and they want to go faster, they come zooming up behind you and sit on your back bumper.

The instinctive response is to speed up to get away from them – but that’s what they want you to do. So I have learned to just ignore them and maintain my speed, and I find that they drop back, wait for an opportunity to pass, and go flying past.

It all feels very aggressive – and maybe it is – but maybe it’s just the way they drive.

Personally I’m happy to just stick to the speed limits and enjoy the view.

Life’s too short.

We got back to the AirBNB around 4.30pm. MBW gave my hair a bit of a tidy-up so that I don’t look like a woolly mammoth any longer, and we have settled in for an early dinner.

Sunset here is technically 7.53pm, so you get this beautiful soft light late into the afternoon, with a coolness in the air, but a warmth from the sun.

And everything is basking in this soft glow of the afternoon sunshine.

I can see why people love living here. I can think of worse places to live.

Ciao

#Europe2025

It was a red letter day in Tuscany today.

Last night as we were settling in to Cinzia’s place in La Gruccia, the clouds were rollng in and it felt like we were in for a storm. I don’t know if it did rain, but I don’t think so.

We both had a so-so sleep. I miss my bed and my pillow 🙁 The matress here is OK, but the pillows are not condusive to a good sleep.

I miss soft, fluffy towels, too. I don’t know whether you can’t get soft, fluffy towels in Europe, but they don’t seem to issue them to guests. Drying myself with an old piece of sandpaper would be luxury compared to the towel I have here.

But the disappointment from the pillow and towel was far exceeded by the fun we had today.

We woke to a beautiful day. Blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and a cool breeze. Beautiful.

The only firm plan that we had today was a pizza making course, and that was at 1.00pm. Other than that, we had the day to explore around La Gruccia.

We were bathed and fed and out the door by around 9.00am. Cinzia said something about children – hers or her grandkids, I’m not entirely sure, and to speculate would lead me to a dangerous place. But when we drove out at 9.00am, Cinzia’s car was gone, so she was either taking kids to school or going to work.

We introduced Claude to his father or grandfather. Possibly great-grandfather.

Once again I feel compelled to report how narrow the roads are, and how tight the corners. And how fast the locals drive on these roads.

Just yesterday when we were driving into La Gruccia on a major road with one lane each way, but a speed limit of 90km/h. I came around a corner to see a line of vehicles coming towards me in their lane, and someone overtaking them. And he was in my lane, coming directly towards me. He clearly had nowhere to go to safely, so it was up to me to avoid him … like that’s normal. Or acceptable.

Today we have been overtaken on blind corners and over double lines. I don’t get it!

Anyhow, we headed out this morning on these narrow, winding roads towards San Gimignano, a pretty little middle ages village about 20 minutes from where we are staying. San Gimignano is a walled city, and it’s a pretty imposing wall.

We found a paid parking lot, left Claude there, and walked the 10 minutes or so from the carpark to the city wall. I don’t know exactly what it is that makes one walled city more popular than another, but San Gimignano is a popular one. It’s quite large with lots of shops and restaurants within the city limts, which makes it more expensive. Paid parking, paid toilets, lots of tourists.

But there was a market going on and we had a delightful couple of hours wandering around taking photos, buying some souvenirs, and getting an early lunch.

We also bought some strawberries. The were cheap, but they were really, really good.

By 12.00 we were done, and we needed to make the 15 minute trip from there to Ulignano to Ma.Ma Pizza where we were scheduled to do a pizza making course at 1.00pm.

I don’t know whether he was having a hissy fit, but Claude’s entertainment system screen that provides all kinds of useful information – like navigation – decided to stop working. So while we still had Joséphine providing verbal instructions, we didn’t get the visual navigation clues that make navigating in a strange country just that little bit easier.

But it was only a short drive on quiet back roads, so it all worked out.

We hadn’t had a morning coffee, so we decied to get one in Ulignano at a little cafe before we started the pizza making class.

But unfortunately Ulignano is so small (population <1000) that it not only didn’t have an open cafe … it didn’t have a cafe. Or a McDonald’s. Or anything useful.

It had a tobacconist and a pizza shop. And the pizza shop was only opening at 1.00pm because MBW and I were booked in for a pizza making class.

So we sat around in the Tuscan sun and enjoyed the atmosphere. Even the little carpark overlooking vineyards was beautiful and relaxing.

Around 12.45 we wandered up to Ma.Ma’s Pizza shop as Sara – our teacher – was arriving with her husband Andrea (like Andre, with an “a” on the end). The first words that came out of Andrea’s mouth – bless him – was “would you like coffee?”

He popped away and came back a few minutes later with three tiny espresso cups, containing three tiny espressos.

That wasn’t what we were expecting but – to be fair – it made perfect sense and we should have seen it coming, because that’s what Italians drink most of the day. They have a cappuccino in the morning, and espressos for the rest of the day.

Which probably also explains why they have so little milk in their shops. They don’t drink lattes all day like we do, so they don’t sell much milk.

So we got or caffeine hit without a belly full of ot milk. And without the opportunity to savour it. One sip and it’s gone.

Not the best coffee I’ve ever had, but not the worst either.

Sara was great and the course was informative. We learned how to make the dough, how to let it rise, and when to use it (not for a few days).

We each made a pizza. MBW made a white (no tomato sauce) flat bread pizza – can’t remember the name, sorry, but it had buffalo mozzarella, porchini mushrooms, and prosciutto, while I made a “Bombola” with tomato sauce, mozzarella, gorgonzola, pepperoni, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Our pizzas went into the oven and while they cooked, we practiced scooping up Sara’s pizza base with the long-handled pizza peel. It’s an important life skill.

One of us nailed it, while the other just couldn’t get it right. I won’t say any more.

Our pizzas came out of the oven and that was lunch #2.

Sara and Andrea were a lot of fun. They taught us how to correctly gesticulate while speaking, and how to say “I don’t care” with your hands. We learned about a typical Italian dinner menu and found out that they will eat pasta a couple of times a day … which probably explains a few things.

By the time that the course was finished it was close to 3.00pm and we wanted to go and see one more place that is worth seeing in that area – Colle di Val d’Elsa.

We found Claude down the road where we’d left him, started him up, and the entertainment system screen was working again. Maybe it just needed a rest, but we needed navigational assistance.

We got to Colle di Val d’Elsa and parked, and there was absolutely nothing worth seeing that we could find. We had almost decided to head back to La Gruccia when we thought we would have one final look around in a different area of Colle di Val d’Elsa, closer to the city walls.

Colle di Val d’Elsa is yet another pretty little middle ages walled city. It is not touristy and there was not much happening. In fact, nothing was open … although it is not uncommon for restaurants to close after lunch for the afternoon and not reopen until dinner.

While it was a pretty little village, it was nothing special and we were ready to go home again … yet we hadn’t been through into the ZTL (limited access area), so we kept looking – figuring that would be where the oldest part of the city would be. Once we found that and went in, we found a very old, very pretty village square that – once gain – was like stepping back in time.

It was such a special day seeing these pretty Tuscan villages, enjoying the local food and coffee, and learning how to make pizza Italian style.

The driving is still pretty unnerving, but Tuscany is just beautiful when you get out into the countryside. It’s even better when you can find somewhere wide enough to pull off the road and let the crazy Italians go past, so you can just suck in the view and the atmosphere.

We got back to Cinzia’s and sat outside in the sun, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful surrounds – daisies growing in the grass, a vineyard beside us and an olive grove behind us. And hardly a sound to be heard.

We don’t need dinner tonight. I’m still digesting tht pizza I made and I reckon that will see me through to breakfast.

The sun is going down and it’s starting to cool off.

Cinzia gave us a bottle of red, and all reports are that it is pretty good, so we might open it and give it a try. Who knows – we might like it and be converted. Personally, I believe that the problem we have when we buy a bottle of wine (generally for cooking) is that our first question is “what’s the cheapest bottle you have?”

Trying Cinzia’s red seems like the right thing to do. I just hope she didn’t stomp on the grapes with her own feet.

Tomorrow will be another driving adventure, in another direction from La Gruccia. South and east this time. And the forecast is for another cracker of a day.

And then we still have another day here before we head to Florence.

You see a movie like “Under the Tuscan Sun” and I can now understand how and why people fall in love with Tuscany – the people, the coffee, the food, and the sunshine.

Maybe not the Italian drivers though …

Ciao

#Europe2025

We had a lovely time in La Spezia, but it is time to move on.

Towards the centre of Italy, and into Tuscany.

We were packed by 8.30am and had a brief video chat with some of our FLP – Elias and Isabel called to say that a postcard had arrived.

One of the check-out tasks is to dump any rubbish. Each apartment doesn’t get its own wheelie bin like we do in Australia. There are 4 industrial bins down the block, and you have to take your rubbish there. There is one bin each for glass, plastic, paper, and general non-recyclable rubbish.

You have a card – like a plastic transport card – that you have to tap on each bin before the bin will open, and when you tap, it displays the owner’s name. The openings for each of the bins is very large, except for the general rubbish which has a tiny slot making it almost impossible to dump any non-recycling.

They clearly make recycling a priority.

Claude was packed by 8.55am and we let Monica know that we were ready to roll. She came up to the apartment, collected the keys, and let us out of the carpark.

The trip to La Gruccia is only a couple of hours and we were on the road by 9.00am … but we couldn’t check in with Cinzia (our host for the next few nights) until 4.00pm which was a bit of a pain. So we decided to take the very scenic route.

I thought that we had the motorways in France figured out, but Italy is just all different again. I’ve mentioned before that speed signs are confusing, or non-existent, and Italian drivers just seem to do what they want to do anyway.

The first leg of the trip was down and around Pisa – yep, the place that we visited yesterday. We skirted Pisa and turned east towards the centre of Italy.

Italian motorways aren’t as good as the French ones, and you have to pay more attention. They can be quite rough and bumpy, making it a bit more of a challenging journey.

I made a bit of a mistake by not checking my rearview mirror for a few moments at one stage, and there was a truck (like a removalist truck) right up my clacker, which gave me a bit of a fright. They are not very tolerant, these Italians.

We filled Claude up with fuel not long after leaving La Spezia, and that is the first time in Italy. That’s a bit of a feat in itself, because in Italy the fuel types are called something different, and it doesn’t necessarily make sense.

Well, not to me, anyway. It was more a case of eliminating the one that didn’t look right, and hope for the best. I’m sure that if I’ve put deisel into Claude who only drinks 95RON unleaded, we will know soon enough.

We stopped for a coffee someplace on the way, Castel Fiore I think, but I could be wrong about that. It was just a coffee stop and nothing special.

The roads were pretty boring, if I am to be completely honest. They are just roads with nothing of note to see.

Until we got properly into Tuscany, then it all became very beautiful.

There was a little bit of excitment on the trip when the two women in my life – MBW and Joséphine – had conflicting views about the next turn we had to take off the highway. Joséphine showed that we needed to exit the motorway and when an exit came up, MBW instructed me to take it, even though Joséphine hadn’t issued that same instruction.

It turns out that the exit wasn’t coming up for another 48km, so there was no rush 🙂

We had been in contact with Cinzia and asked if it was possible to drop off our luggage earlier so that we could go out exploring … and she was Ok with that.

She said that she would be home by 1.00pm, so we aimed for that.

Cinzia’s place was a bit hard to find. The address took us to a little cluster of houses in what might loosely be called a village. But smaller than a village. It was more like a cluster of houses.

Parts of the road was dirt, and we drove back and forwards a few times unable to find it.

We have been trying Waze for our navigation as it seems to have better capability when it comes to ZTLs (Zona a Traffico Limitato) – those dreaded Limited Access Zones where if you encroach one, you get photographed and you get a fine.

But Waze – a great app but with a few limitations – couldn’t find Cinzia’s place, so we asked Google Maps for an opinion, and we were taken about 500m further down the road to where we wanted to be.

Within 2 minutes of arriving, Cinzia turned up. Unfortunately her English is limited to “I can’t speak English”, so that was a challenge.

With the magic of Google Translate, we managed to get the message that the apartment was not yet ready, but we could drop our bags and come back later (which is exactly what we planned to do).

We’ve scored big this time. Cinzia’s place is a granny flat at the back of a huge house set on several acres. She has a vinevard to one side, and an Olive Tree grove at the back. We are in the middle of all of it.

It was after 1.00pm and we were hungry, so we set out to find lunch.

There is a small village called Monteriggioni about 10 minutes away through some very pretty countryside. The roads to Monteriggioni were seriously narrow – narrow to the point that when you have a car coming towards you, you have to slow down to walking pace and put your passenger-side wheels off the road so that you can pass.

There was one archway where we followed a small truck through that was so narrow, he had to fold in both side mirrors, otherwise he would have taken them off. Have a look at the photos below.

When we went through, Claude’s proximity sensors (like reversing sensors, but all around the vehicle) were screaming that we were about to hit something.

Seriously narrow.

Monteriggioni is the first place in Italy that we have been to where it is a walled city. You park outside the city wall because it is a ZTL inside, and walk in.

It’s like stepping back in time.

We stopped at a little cafe inside the city and had some lunch – lasagne and pasta – and then went in search of groceries.

It was a pretty low-achieving day.

Claude has had a couple of days off and I haven’t had to think about driving while I’ve been a bus and train ninja, but we are back on the road again and heading into some beautiful Tuscan countryside.

This particular stay – as I’ve said already – is in the middle of nowhere, so we will be using Claude every day.

So far I’ve managed to avoid getting Claude scratched or damaged, and I’ve avoided getting pulled over by the police. Let’s hope I can maintain that success rate.

Tomorrow we are doing a pizza making course near San Gimignano, about 35 minutes away from here. The course is being run in a pizzeria, and we get to eat what we make, so that should be fun.

I’ve told MBW that I’m going to ask them what they think about putting pineapple on pizza, but she has warned me of physical harm if go down that slippery slope.

Wish me luck!

Ciao

#Europe2025

We woke to a beautiful, clear Italian morning. Blue skies and not a cloud to be seen.

11 degrees, so it was cool but not cold.

I feel bad when the weather report every day is the same. Maybe I should say nothing and let you assume it is another perfect day. If it’s a lousy day, I’ll let you know.

Today is a “no fixed plans” kind of day. I’d like to think that “no fixed plans” means a lazy day, but we all know that’s never going to work out that way.

We wanted to go back to Portovenere. We drove down there on Sunday afternoon, but it was madness and we couldn’t park anywhere.

Then we saw it again yesterday from the ferry as we were doing the Cinque Terre, but we only saw it for 5 minutes, and only from the boat.

So today we are seeing Portovenere.

We had an idea that we’d like to go down to Pisa to see if the tower is still leaning, but it was becoming a logistical nightmare trying to figure out how to get there.

Driving was an option, but not a good one. We haven’t yet encountered a ZTL (limited access zone) – well not that we know of, anyway. I’m sure that there will be a fine in the mail sometime in the next year if we did … and that will be an unpleasant surprise.

There are buses, regional trains, intercity trains … argh. Too many options.

We got a message from Monica – our AirBNB host here about out checkout tomorrow, so I asked her for an opinion.

“Train, absolutely.”

OK, that’s all I need to know.

They don’t have 50 cent fares here in La Spezia. They have a seriously antiquated system where you have to find a tobacconist (tabaccheria) and buy a paper ticket, then you validate it when you get on the bus.

But you also have to know how many zones you are planning to travel, and the ticket is only valid for one trip … so if you catch a bus across 3 regions and then swap to a second bus to complete your journey, you need two tickets.

And when I say “validate” your ticket, you poke it into a little machine on the bus that stamps a time on your ticket, and you only have 60 minutes to complete your trip.

A local trip ticket is €1.50 and a longer journey is €2.50.

To get to Portovenere, we needed to find a tobacconist and there was one about 5 minutes walk away. We set off, found the shop and walked in.

There were two elderly (maybe in their 80s) men behind the counter and I whispered to MBW, “I think we’re in trouble here.”

In her very best Italian, with her very best smile, MBW asked the younger of the two, “Lei parla Inglese?” (Do you speak English?)

To which he replied in clear English, “Do you speak Italiano?”

MBW: “No”

“Ai ai ai ai ai.”

So Google translate it is.

We got our two tickets, plus instructions for where to get the bus, and off we went.

We had to get the “P” bus, and it came along with absolutely no regard for when the timetable suggested it should turn up.

There is obviously a large degree of randomness to the bus timetable, but it worked in our favour this time.

It took about 40 minutes to get to Portovenere on the bus, and I have a whole new respect for the nerves of steel that these bus drivers must have.

Narrow, winding roads with cars parked badly, and sometimes only a few inches of free space either side.

Portovenere is a very pretty little seaside township that is not part of the Cinque Terre, but the ferry to the Cinque Terre stops there anyway.

Despite being a pretty township, it also has a spectacular duomo (cathedral) built onto the side of the cliff.

Portovenere only has a population of about 3,200 people, but they have 2 duomos. These small Italian townships seem to have cathedrals like tiny Australian townships have pubs.

We had a nice walk around and admired the spectacular views from the top of the structure, then climbed the hill to look at some other medieval buildings there.

You only need to see a certain number of medieval buildings, churches and castles in your lifetime, and I think we are getting close.

We wandered around the pretty, narrow streets noting that they were also pretty narrow.

Before heading out this morning, we checked the train timetable just so we had an idea of when the intercity train to Pisa was scheduled to leave La Spezia.

We also checked the bus timetable – just for fun – to see when a “P” bus might, or might not come along and take us to the train station.

We had about 30 minutes to kill before the bus came, so we found a busy little cafe and ordered a couple of cappuccinos and something called a “brioche”.

While I acknowledge that I can be a bit of an uneducated Philistine when it comes to all things culinary, the 2 day old croissant full of apricot jam probably wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

The bus scheduling gods decided to laugh at us, because as soon as our coffee arrived, so did the “P” bus … the one not due for another 25 minutes.

But that’s OK … coffee can’t be rushed, so we finished our brew and wandered over to the bus stop wondering if or when another bus would come along.

Not the best coffee I’ve ever had, but not the worst either.

Another one did, as it happened, and not too long after we arrived at the bus stop, so I’m not entirely sure what was going on.

We headed back to La Spezia train station and purchased a couple of tickets on the Intercity train to Pisa.

There are lots and lots of citrus trees growing around the city in La Spezia, which is both unusual and very pretty.

They looked like mandarins.

We did a bit of damage to our boys’ inheritance today I think. Train tickets to Pisa were €33 one way, and that was in the 2nd class carriage.

By this time it was about 12.30pm and the train was due to leave at 1.44pm, so we found a little shop and bought a toasted panini thing to share.

As my mate Jack Reacher says, pee when you can … so we decided to ensure our tanks were empty before catching the train.

We finally found the toilets at the far end of the station, and learned that we had to pay €1.00 each to enter. The attendant was wearing bright yellow fluorescent PPE head to toe, so I don’t know if he was just safety conscious, or in a high-risk profession.

I was a bit miffed about having to pay a whole €1.00 just to take a tinkle, so I left the toilet seat up as a silent protest.

The train turned up and we got into our assigned seats – 5C and 6C – which I found confusing. It turned out that it was 2 lots of 2 seats facing each other, and we had two aisle seats. Another young couple turned up and had the window seats facing each other, but we suggested that we were happy to sit together so that they could also.

They were very happy with that outcome as they were obviously very much in love, gazing into each other’s eyes and making cooing sounds.

Oh, to be young and in love.

Not long after setting off, they decided to engage us in conversation. I assume that they heard us talking and figured that we could be the most interesting people that they will meet today.

It turned out that they are probably the most interesting people we have met today.

They were both in their late 20s or early 30s and both from Mexico, although he has lived in a small village in Italy for the last 7 years. He has a PHD in theoretical physics but works in programming and robotics, while she is a clinical neuropsychologist.

Try saying that after you’ve been to the dentist and you’ve got a mouthful of aesthetic.

She lives in Mexico and has come over for a couple of weeks to visit him.

I felt like asking whether the village he lives in needs an idiot, but I’m not sure I’d be qualified 😞.

They met last Christmas or New Years and hit it off (more cooing sounds and fluttering of eyelids), and they are going to an island somewhere between Italy and Corsica to see some friends.

It was a nice chat and unusual to be engaged in an English conversation on a train.

We arrived in Pisa and bought some more paper bus tickets, and figured out where to catch the 1+ bus to the LToP.

I’ve decided to renounce my history as a fare evader, confess my earlier sins, and say a few “Hail Marys” for the fact I’ve never been caught.

We hadn’t been on the bus for more than 5 minutes and three ticket inspectors got on board. I must have looked guilty because my ticket was checked twice.

Most people got off at the LToP stop, and the ticket inspectors corralled all disembarking passengers into a corner and I got my ticket checked again.

Some Asian ladies without tickets got the third degree, and it wasn’t pleasant.

We walked through the sea of souvenir shops and into the square and … there it was! Leaning, just like all of the tour books say it is.

And leaning far more than I would have thought possible without falling over. In fact, I wished our train companion – Dr Theoretical Physics – was there to explain to me how that was possible.

This is one of those monuments that I’ve heard about all my life, but never thought I’d see with my own two eyes.

We had an option to climb the tower but there were a few mitigating factors. You couldn’t take anything up with you, and I wasn’t leaving my passport anywhere that I couldn’t see it.

There was also a pat down before you went in, plus a long line of people waiting.

But the main reason was – with that lean – I expected that climbing it would be a high risk activity that would rank up there with bungie jumping or skydiving, and I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be covered on our travel insurance if it fell.

We wandered around taking photos from all different angles, then looked at yet another church with impossibly high ceilings.

We wandered around Pisa for about an hour and a half, and ate more gelato.

When in Rome …

Time to head back to the train station for our 5.44pm train home, which would get us back to La Spezia around 6.40pm. We bought more bus tickets and hopped on the bus, and guess what?

The same three tickets inspectors got on and we did it all again. They caught another fare evader and were threatening her with a €43 fine. We would have loved to see how that worked out, but we had a train to catch.

We decided to use more of the boys inheritance to use the toilets again, but MBW only had €1.96 in change, so only one of us could go.

I wasn’t using my credit card to go to the loo.

The train trip home was a repeat of the trip down – the guy sitting opposite engaged us in conversation. He is from Bangladesh but has been in Italy working in the shipyards as a plumber for the last 7 years.

Sadly he has a wife and 4 year old son still living in Bangladesh, but happily they are moving to live in Italy with him in a few months.

He insisted on buying us coffee when we arrived in La Spezia, and while my “possible scam” alarm was going crazy, I think he just appreciated the opportunity to speak English with someone and practice his skills.

We got home late after ensuring we had bus tickets before boarding the bus, and had a late dinner and more coffee.

So for a “no fixed plans” kind of day, we did >17,000 steps and climbed 16 flights of stairs.

More steps than yesterday. And drank too much coffee.

Tomorrow we leave La Spezia and head towards San Gimignano.

It’s late, I’m tired, and Geoff is a grumpy boy without enough sleep, so that’s a wrap for today.

Ciao

#Europe2025